Happy International Day of Education! Here at Camara Education, we believe that poverty is unacceptable in the 21st century and that one of the most efficient ways to reduce poverty is by providing education to young people in underprivileged communities. The power of education leads to opportunity – the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed.
On December 3, 2018, the United Nations pronounced that January 24 be celebrated as the International Day of Education. This amendment comes as a part of the United Nations plan to improve sustainable development by 2030. The central idea of the plan is to acknowledge that extreme poverty is a global issue that cannot go unrecognised. By declaring January 24 the International Day of Education, the United Nations is supporting the fact that improving education is key to alleviating poverty.
We are beyond excited to celebrate a cause that is at the core of our mission: to transform education using technology to empower disadvantaged students.
In the past 15+ years, Camara has given educational opportunities to over 3.5 million young people in disadvantaged communities across Europe and Africa by providing them with access to technology and the Camara Learning Studio (CLS). We have trained over 55,000 teachers to educate these students on technology usage through the Camara Learning Academy. We have installed 150,000 computers in over 10,500 different schools.
We hope to see a day when there are equal education opportunities for all people.
We are delighted to report that in April we signed a new partnership agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE).
Some details of the new agreement are as follows:
Camara Education will continue its collaboration with the Ethiopian MoE for a further three years. This new project incorporates the lessons learned from the previous two federal level projects and the pilot project in the Silte Zone with greater focus on learner outcomes.
Through this new project, Camara Education aims to:
Train 5,040 educators;
Install 21,000 computers in 840 schools and;
Impact 690,000 learners.
Pictured are our Ethiopian Country Manager Biniam Yayehyirad along with 2 officials from the MoE.
Science Week is a nationwide initiative to ignite interest, engagement and uptake in STEM subjects in Irish schools, universities and educational centres. It ran this year from November 12-19th.
As part of Science Week, Camara Ireland took part in the Midlands Science Festival. This has taken place across Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath over the past six years. Four members of the Camara Ireland team – Aidan Fitzmaurice, Paul Amond, Eoghan Keegan and James Lockwood – were part of a Google-funded initiative to promote Computer Science in schools across those counties. Using the CS First platform and Scratch, over 400 students and 70 educators across 8 schools were introduced to Computer Science and coding!
Our tutors visited a primary school and a secondary school in each of the four counties for the day to deliver fun, interactive sessions to students, aged 7-12, using the CS First platform. CS First allows students to get coding straight away and allows students to move at their own pace with videos guiding students through a series of activities and themes. From designing their own Google Doodle to creating interactive stories, students had a great time learning about Scratch and how to make their own programs.
On top of these sessions, teachers, parents, youth workers and other staff were given an introduction to Computer Science and CS First, so they may continue to support students in their schools. Computer Science is a subject that’s growing in popularity across Ireland and with the new Leaving Certificate pilot course, it won’t be long until more schools and students want to get on board. CS First is incredibly easy to get started on as a teacher and you can set up a club within 10 minutes. The fact that students are guided by videos means you don’t have to be an expert – all you need is an enthusiasm for the ideas and give the activities a go for yourself! Free resources are available and training can be found both online or can be done in person if you can get a group of interested educators.
We as tutors had a great time delivering the sessions and the students loved doing something a bit different for the day. It was definitely a case of them not wanting to leave when the session was done!
For those teachers who supported delivery of the sessions, they could see how engaging the platform is and there was a real enthusiasm to see how Computer Science, coding and CS First could be carried on after the session. Hopefully, this can be the start of some new things in the schools and those students who have a passion for it will get more opportunities to code and experiment with Computer Science!
David Martyn, our Global Impact & Learning Manager, presented at the NetHope Global Summit held in Dublin recently. Read his account of that here:
The Nethope Global Summit came to Dublin in early November for a five day meeting of organisations and people involved in technology for development. Nethope is an umbrella organisation that promotes improvements in ICT for development and education. This provided Camara Education with an opportunity to present details on the work we are doing on data for education. On Tuesday I presented entitled ‘Harnessing Education Data for ICT4E Success’. The presentation focused on Camara’s plan for improving our data analytics capacity and using our research for project and programme improvements.
Our exciting product development strategy provides an opportunity to utilise more in-depth and varied education data. For example, the Camara Learning Studio will generate data related to individual student progression and performance which can be used by teachers and school leaders to improve pedagogical and learning outcomes. Camara will build an analytics platform with relevant statistical models to provide the metrics and information necessary.
At the same time, Camara is engaging in a research process that will work participatively with teachers, leaders and education officials to develop their capacity to utilise education information generated by Camara platforms. In September of this year, I began a PhD at University College Dublin with a research focus on contextualising narratives and metrics of education quality with a view to integrating into Camara’s projects. I will use our ZAMStem project in Zambia as a research site.
The presentation at the summit was well received and provoked some interesting questions and discussion. In particular, there was general agreement that an open repository of curriculum aligned educational content be developed and made available to organisation developing projects in this sphere. I look forward to further engagement on this issue.
In 2017, Camara Education worked with 1,595 Educational Institutions, trained 7,199 educators and installed over 14,287 computers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, Zambia and Ireland. In the process, 434,234 learners had access to computers and useful educational materials for their studies. In order to have a closer look at the impact of our activities, Camara Education conducts an annual Monitoring & Evaluation exercise. This exercise has proven to be vital in informing our program design, highlighting our strengths and weaknesses, evaluating the effectiveness of our approach and promoting accountability of resources used and outcomes achieved.
This year, our monitoring and evaluation exercise was conducted in schools that received computers and training from Camara Education in 2017. A sample of 80 schools from Ethiopia, Lesotho, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia were randomly selected for the survey. Highlights of the main findings including length of computer access by learners, perception of educators and learners on the training, hardware and educational content provided by Camara Education are presented in the following sections.
Computer access by learners
In 2017, the average timetabled computer access by learners was 118 minutes per learner per week. This shows a 21% increase from 2016 and 29% increase from 2015. The longest access is reported from Tanzania with an average access time of 114 minutes per week per learner. This high level of usage from Tanzania can be related to the fact that 47% of the interviewed learners are in secondary level with higher level of computer usage than primary level learners. Reported access figures from Ethiopia have been shorter compared to other hubs for the past four years. This is mainly due to learners in Ethiopia accessing the computer labs outside teaching time rather than using the computers during their lessons.
Capacity building for Educators
Camara Education trained 7,199 educators in 2017 alone on topics ranging from ICT Skillbuilder for Educators to 21st Century Leadership Programme. All training programmes share a common objective of integrating ICT in teaching and learning to improve quality of education. According to the results of the survey, 62% of Camara Education trained educators reported using computers to deliver presentations for learners, 57% higher than the non Camara Education educators. More Camara Education trained educators also reported using the computers to teach basic computers skills and help demonstrate lessons in their classrooms. The data, in general, indicate that the training provided by Camara Education has a positive impact in helping educators use the available technology for teaching and learning.
Hardware
In terms of quality and reliability of computers provided to the schools, 84% of educators reported the computers have been reliable to use. This is 6% increase from the figure reported in 2016 reflecting an improvement in the reliability of the computers to schools.
Educational content
There are different educational software Camara Education instals on computers provided to schools depending on the local context and need. The software cover subjects including Maths, Science, literacy, ICT skills, Geography and History subjects. The results of our survey show that 89% of the surveyed educators believe these software are relevant to the learning needs of their learners, a 9% increase from what was reported in 2016. One of the reasons for increase in satisfaction rate is addition, in 2017, of software with localised educational contents in Ethiopia.
Camara Education's Performace
The perception of school principals on the performance of Camara Education hubs is measured using a performance scorecard. Ten key performance areas identified by school principals are scored and aggregated to generate an overall performance score for each Education hub. The ten key performance areas are:
Attitude of Camara Education staff
Ease of communicating with Camara Education
Meeting agreed deadlines, Provision of quality support (e.g. maintenance)
Provision of relevant software
Provision of relevant training
Provision of reliable hardware
Timely resolution of problems you have had
Understanding your needs and value for money
According to the results, Camara Education scored 84% for its performance in 2017, an improvement of 2% from 2016 and 4% from 2015.
Conclusion
The survey highlighted that the satisfaction levels on Camara Education provided ICT resources and training are generally very good and have improved from the previous year. Despite the encouraging improvements observed across the different services that Camara Education provided, there are still areas that need to be improved in some of the hubs. Camara Education trained Educators capacity to use ICT resources for teaching basic computer skills needs to be strengthened. In addition, further studies need to be conducted in order to understand the relatively low satisfaction rates on reliability of computers and relevance of educational software in some hubs. Understanding these issues will help Camara Education improve the services and products it delivers to schools.
November 1st saw the ESB Creative Tech Fest return to The Foundry at Google in Dublin. This is the national showcase of TechSpace creative education network managed by Camara Education Ireland. Over 300 young people aged between 10 and 18 from over 70 local youth clubs and groups were recognised for their project work in STEAM and Digital Media, and had the opportunity to engage in in workshops, talks and interactive exhibitions.
18 year-old scientist and entrepreneur Ciara Judge, named by Time Magazine named in 2014 as one of the 25 most influential teens worldwide, was the key speaker at the event. Ciara inspired the young audience with her story, charting her short journey from winning the BT Young Scientist, the European Union Contest for Young Scientists and the Google Global Science Fair to becoming co-director of her first company, Germinaid Innovations, and her recent second startup PurchaseMate, while studying at MIT, Boston.
Speaking at the event Ciara said “I’m very excited to be speaking at this year’s ESB Creative Tech Fest because I believe that technology really is a game changer in creating a better world, and nobody understands that more than the youth of today”.
CREATE, INVENT, INSPIRE: Tógra from Dingle Alli O’Mahoney, Máirtín Ó’Cathasaigh, Annie Lovisetto, Ciárán Mac Gearailt and Tríona ní Shúilleabhín pictured at ESB Creative Tech Fest – Picture Andres Poveda
Pat O’Doherty, Chief Executive of the ESB, said “We are proud to support the work of TechSpace through our Generation Tomorrow programme, which supports organisations working to empower young people through STEAM learning initiatives. ESB Creative Tech Fest is an incredible showcase of creativity and innovation from young people across the country, and highlights their potential to find creative solutions to the challenges they face today and will face in the future.”
Google Computer Science – Foróige TechSpaces celebrated their new Computer Science (CS) skills as part of a brand new project proudly sponsored by Google.org. Young people created stories in Google CS First coding workshops, and had the opportunity to invent with the BBC MicroBit and learn about Computer Science Careers for Girls, and enjoy a robot fashion show featuring the creations of young people attending the event.
Claire Conneely, Computer Science Education Program Manager was hugely impressed by the projects on display “For the third year running, Google is proud to be hosting more than 300 young people and educators from 70 youth clubs and schools across Ireland for Creative Tech Fest. I’m completely blown away by the level of creativity and technical skills shown by the young people today in their projects and exhibitions — with these critical skills for working and living in 21st century Ireland, they are sure to go places!”
The Irish language was at the heart of ESB Creative Tech Fest with bilingual workshops, awards, exhibits and live performances. Government Chief Whip and Minister of State for the Irish language, the Gaeltacht and the Island, Seán Kyne T.D., emphasized the importance of offering young people the chance to express themselves creatively through their native language:
“ESB Creative Tech Fest is a wonderful annual event that gives young people the opportunity to express their creative ideas. It encourages them and gives them confidence when using cutting-edge technology. The TechSpace project has clearly drawn much interest and attention, as this is the sixth year in a row that the annual event has been held. I am delighted that Clár TechSpace is part of this magical event again this year and that my Department was able to fund the event. I would like to thank all those involved in TechSpace, as well as the schools and sponsors who have done great work to make this event happen today. “
CREATE, INVENT, INSPIRE: Annie Lovisetto with fellow Tógra band members from Dingle pictured at ESB Creative Tech Fest – Picture Andres Poveda
Impacting Learners’ performance in STEM subjects in SNNPR, Ethiopia
On Friday October 26th, the Camara Education fully funded project called: “Impacting Learners’ performance in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STEM) subjects” had its official kick-off during a well-attended field visit in Silte Zone at the Worabe secondary school, in SNNPR, Ethiopia. Planning and Resource Mobilisation Directorate Director, School Improvement General Directorate Director, Directorate Director of Center for Education ICT (CEICT), and Sr. Expert of M&E and Resource Mobilization were among the participants from the FDRE Ministry of Education. In addition, an Education Councillor from the Finnish Embassy, ICT Directorate Director form SNNPR Education Bureau, Silte Zone Education Office representatives, school directors, parents, teachers and learners participated in the programme.
Together with the SNNPR Education Bureau and Silte Zone education office, Camara Education is implementing a pilot project in 5 secondary schools in Silte Zone: Impacting learners’ performance in STEM (2018-2020).
With the implementation of the Impact Project, we aim to improve learners’ results in Science and Maths subjects, equip them in transitioning from Grade 10 to Grade 11 and assist learners in transitioning to science streams. However, the goals of this project do not stop with learners, but focuses on their respective leaders, teachers, and the education system itself.
In continued partnership, Camara Education and the Ministry of Education have found inspiring new ways of working together to develop the Ethiopian education sector.
Camara Education is proud to be an ICT in Education leading organisation in Ethiopia and to count on the Ministry of Education’s support to deliver a successful and impactful project in the Ethiopian Secondary School System.
Pictured: Students and representatives from The Ethiopian Ministry of Education at Worabe Secondary School
This award was developed by The Carmichael Centre and it recognises, supports and encourages adherence to good governance practice by community, voluntary and charitable organisations in Ireland.
The Awards Ceremony takes place on Thursday November 15th.
It is almost 10 years since Camara Education first came onto my radar. At that time Cormac Lynch Camara’s founder approached me where I worked in Dell to see how Dell could partner with Camara Education. The idea of taking ‘end of first life’ electronics and using them to support the delivery of education in Africa was so compelling it started a long relationship between both organisations. In those early days, the operation was a simple Social Enterprise model, providing teacher training, technology and educational resources to schools. The team worked to understand the curricula in the countries, knew that there could be no dependency on internet connectivity and so needed technology as the vehicle to get the learning tools into the classroom. When I first looked at the model I saw it as solely supporting the educational needs of children; however, I was lucky enough at the time to be traveling frequently to Africa for my work and was able to visit Camara sites. I remember clearly one day, sitting in the Camara Kenya hub in Mombasa, listening to a phone conversation where Safaricom had called to see if any Camara technical volunteers were ready to take up technician jobs with them. That was the moment when I saw the power of Camara’s impact on the community – it went well beyond the classroom. In this model the educators are trained before using the technology and supported on an ongoing basis; they are impacted in terms of competency. Because of that and the availability of technology the students were also positively impacted. Outside of that, because volunteers were trained to support the maintenance of technology, they were gaining invaluable work experience improving their employability.
As time went by and Camara Education grew it began to win projects and has over the past number of years been delivering projects for organisations such as Irish Aid, the Aga Khan Foundation, Department of International Development, the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, Google and Dell. These projects have ranged from simply giving access to educational content through technology, to specific projects focused on maths and literacy to projects focused on STEM subjects. Throughout this period of growth, the organisation has stayed true to its mission to be hands on in the delivery of education staying involved with the schools which have installed their ICT classrooms and being responsible for the technology when it becomes waste. From the outside looking in this is what I understood Camara to be and I loved what was being accomplished.
So 6 months ago I took the plunge to join Camara Education on a permanent basis and having stepped from the outside to the inside of the organisation I was immediately blown away by how naive I had been with my understanding of what we do and how we do it. Yes, everything described above is correct, but I discovered there was so much more to the Camara Education story. In Ireland, the development of the Techspace programme has brought Camara Ireland into the youth center environment in addition to working in schools. This also allowed for more creativity of the resources developed and support for STEM and Computer Sciences enabling us to support both formal and informal learning. In addition, the education team is developing ‘Camara Education’ programmes enabling teachers and students to further their learning, supporting education as an ongoing journey, and our focus across all our countries is to collect data from our programmes allowing us to measure the impact of what we deliver. However, it doesn’t stop there – in the past 6 months I have been regularly ‘blown away’ by the team in Camara Education. It is it’s own thriving community, living by 4 core values – Creative, Caring, Committed and Collaborative – and I see these values in practice all the time. I have also been blown away by our volunteers and interns who give so much to our organisation, fulfilling roles, tasks and projects that we could not otherwise resource, not to mention the companies that support us with both resources and funding, or partner with us to deliver great programmes. I am inspired by the Camara Education team and our communities and proud to be part of what we are doing. I had the great pleasure of attending our hub conference last week in Ethiopia which was the first time in two years that the leadership team was together. During this week we worked together to reconfirm our goals, our strategy and our mission. We looked at how we can be more successful in sharing our mission and our successes to gain further support that will enable us to widen our reach. More importantly, we reconfirmed that we are all aligned and we came away from the week with renewed energy for success.
As CEO I hope to support and enable this organisation to get to its next level of success. I also hope to ensure everyone knows clearly what their contribution is and feels empowered to deliver.
As we progress to the mid-point of our 2017-2020 strategy I am confident we can fulfill our mission of impacting 5 million children by the end of this strategy cycle. While we celebrate the success of our achievement we, however, need to appreciate that there is so much more to do. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) data for 2016, shows that children of sub-Saharan Africa are the most excluded from education across all the regions globally, with over a fifth of children between the ages of 6-11 out of school, followed by a third of youth between the ages of 12-14, and according to UIS data, almost 60% of youth between the ages of 15-17 are not in school. This propels me forward and motivates me even more to lead this great organisation to ensure all children have access to a good quality education. In the words of Kofi Anan, “Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family”.
Pictured below is Jean with students from a school in the Arba Minch region of Ethiopia on a visit there in April. They were busy demonstrating their computer knowledge!
Training & Support to be offered to Youth Workers and Foróige senior managers
Camara Education Ireland which runs the national TechSpace network, has received a €530,000 grant from Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, to deliver computer science training, equipment, and ongoing support to over 300 youth workers and 48 senior managers in 60 Foróige youth groups around the country.
Camara Education’s TechSpace program inspires young people to get creative with technology, and to gain new skills through ‘learning by doing’. With around 400,000 young people engaged with the youth sector every year, the partnership between Camara and Foróige is designed to have a major impact on how technology is used in youth groups across the country. 60 new TechSpace sites – double the existing number – will be established in Foróige youth groups, including in Ringsend and Pearse Street, adjacent to Google’s EMEA headquarters. The youth groups will also receive a total of 360 computers to support the project’s implementation.
The funding from Google.org will enable Camara to develop and deliver training and support in 2019 to 300 youth workers and 48 senior managers to facilitate Computer Science activities through the TechSpace programme. Youth workers will also be offered a bursary to complete a Level 8 National University of Ireland Certificate in ‘Digital Creativity in Youth Settings’ which will include a module in Computer Science education. This is a special purpose program run in partnership with Maynooth University, designed to significantly impact the adoption of technology in the youth sector. Additionally the project will create a Computer Science in Youth Work Toolkit to be made available to youth workers nationwide, containing best practices, activity guidelines and resources.
Speaking at the launch of the programme today in Foróige The Big Picture Youth Club, Tallaght, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone said, “Opportunities for creativity are hugely beneficial to young people. It allows them to express themselves in fun and innovative ways. Creativity in technology has the additional benefit of allowing young people to develop skills in problem solving and critical analysis. I welcome this wonderful initiative and look forward to seeing the TechSpace programme grow across the country.”
Shane Nolan, Director of New Business Sales for EMEA and Community Outreach Lead for Google Ireland said, “We are delighted to be supporting this innovative partnership between Camara and Foróige. There’s a great buzz of excitement around Computer Science these days, with its introduction for the first time as a Leaving Certificate subject earlier this month, and potentially soon to be available at other stages in the school curriculum. More than ever, it is critical that all students have access to Computer Science education – both in and out of school. Computer science education is a pathway to innovation, to creativity and to exciting career opportunities in the 21st century, and Google believes that all students deserve these opportunities. ”
Marianne Checkley, CEO of Camara Ireland, commented, “We are really proud to be part of this innovative project that expands the use of technology as a catalyst for youth development. Digital media and new technologies can be wonderful tools to ignite young people’s curiosity, creativity and confidence. Used effectively they can enhance social awareness and contribute to an ability to engage as active citizens. They can also help to build young people’s sense of agency and enable them to develop new knowledge and skills, and provide platforms for their voices to be heard. ”
Seán Campbell, CEO of Foróige, said “This exciting initiative will make it possible for over 3,000 young people across Ireland to develop a suite of computer science skills that will set them on the pathway for success in the 21st Century. It will challenge young people to harness their innate interest in technology for the betterment of their own lives, their communities and society. In many ways, computer science has become as important as reading, writing and maths, making this partnership between Camara Ireland, Foróige and Google hugely important.”
