Technology & Innovation in Learning

In sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of primary school-aged children do not attend school. Digital education can bridge the learning gap in crisis areas. EiC integrates technology to expand access to quality learning.

World Bank notes that Education systems, especially in low- and- middle-income countries, face many daunting challenges. 53% of 10-year old children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a short paragraph, a figure that rises to over 80% in the poorest countries. 258 million students are out of school, including 59 million children of primary-school age. The situation is even worse in communities afflicted by conflict and violence. Girls and children with special educational needs are particularly being left behind. This learning crisis has been exacerbated by the health and economic crisis of COVID-19 (in the most pessimistic scenario, COVID-19- related school closures could increase the rate of 10-year old children who cannot read and understand a short paragraph in the low- and middle-income countries by 10 percentage points, from 53% to 63%).

EiC will  support  African governments  in  developing  sector-wide  and/or  sub-sectoral  policies  and  strategies  to  harness  technology  for  education  leveraging  for  example  open  educational resources and AI for the achievement of SDG 4. It will also establish regional platforms to facilitate the circulation of tools, ideas and data that foster technological innovation in service  of  education  with  a  special  focus  on  building  inclusive  and  resilient  learning  systems for all.

EiC beleieves that E-Learning & Digital Literacy Programs for refugee and displaced learners and Mobile Education Units & Community Radio Learning for remote areas are a lifeline responses to education in emergencies.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 61 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 don’t go to school. The reasons are numerous: poverty, armed conflict, forced displacement… According to data from UNESCO, more than one-fifth of children aged 6 to 11 do not attend school. Often, those who are able to attend do so in very precarious conditions (lack of educational materials, electricity, access to technology…) which has a huge effect on their future opportunities.

Ways How you can join EiC in Responding through solar power and connectivity

Working in partnerships in providing devices and refurbished computers to schools and communities will help them to build and maintain the infrastructure required to keep them connected.

A solar-powered learning lab which provides power to the computers that we supply, combatting the problem of non-existent or unreliable local connections can be a lifeline education intervention.

With support, we can install a connected device which creates a network to serve the local area, uniting all the computers onto a single system for cohesive access to all the learning resources and tools required to upskill both young and older learners.

Additionally, through the provision of a learning lab for Schools or community center, communities can develop ICT skills across and use a combination of classic learning and immersions techniques to engage pupils of all ages in the tools and skills that they can use to benefit from a well-rounded education.

Over one quarter billion children each year fail to attain basic numeracy and literacy skills before reaching secondary school age, and the annual cost of this learning failure is estimated to be US$129 billion (UNESCO, 2014).