Talhiya Shaban,Hassani Msasani Secondary School, Tanzania
Talhiya Shaban Hassani is a 16-year-old secondary school student at Msasani Secondary School in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. She lives with her mother and is the youngest among her three brothers and one sister. Her mother is a business woman. She lives in Kaloleni, Moshi, Kilimanjaro and walks to school every day. She has been in the school for 4 years and this is what she has to say about the school’s new eLearning centre. ‘‘There are several changes after the introduction of the eLearning Centre. It has facilitated things such as easier learning, and motivates students through getting different materials from the computers. It also makes it easier for students to do research by using different programs like Wikipedia and other programmes. I have learnt about global warming, environmental conservation and also how to use a computer. It is my dream that one day I will be a geography teacher’.”
eLearning centres and teacher training are at the heart of what Camara Education does. Sponsoring either of these will have a significant impact for children and teachers at the schools we work with. For more information on how you can contribute to providing an e-learning centre go to Sponsor an e-Learning Centre.
Martha Yohannes was born in Addis Ababa. She received her Diploma from Kotebe TTC, taught at M.G Hayelom Araya primary school since 2008 and for the past year has been working as Principal of St. George Kindergarten and Primary school. ‘‘Here at the school, the first problem was to make our students learn and teachers teach using technology in day to day learning activity but with the help of Camara Education Ethiopia we make our students use technology in their learning activity. And I would like to thank Camara for giving us this opportunity. There was a big impact on the students after they start using Camara’s computers. Students get motivated when they learn and use computers. They began learning things quickly. It also helped students to be creative and remember things easily. Bringing these computers to our school makes parents, teachers and students very enthusiastic’’.
Here we take a look at recent features in the news for Camara Education and look at what is to come.
RTE One radio show, Morning Ireland, featured a report by their Science & Technology correspondent, Will Goodbody. The report discusses the benefits of the use of the technology in education in The Digischool Programme in Kenya and features our CEO, John Fitzsimons talking about how maths and numeracy skills are essential to improve life opportunities. Listen here. A photo slideshow supporting this report can also be found here.
Camara Education featured on the RTE News at One and the Six One News on RTE with a report by Will Goodbody who travelled to see how the Digischool Programme in Kenya is working. The report also features our CEO John Fitzsimons talking about the progress of students in iMlango schools. Watch the full report here
Students in Kenya with iMlango attendance cards
An opinion piece in The Irish Independent’s education pages, featured Camara Ireland Manager, Steven Daly discussing how he believes that Ireland should have an education system that is centered on the learner and that has the needs of young people at its heart. Read the full story here
A feature in the Education pages of The Irish Independent, by Meadhbh McGrath & features John Fitzsimons, CEO of Camara and Keith Magee, Head of Education at Camara, discusses how we are successfully tackling the digital divide that exists at home in Ireland and abroad in Africa by working with underprivileged communities in Ireland and Africa to improve IT skills. Read the full article here
Students at Linda Community School, Lusaka. Photo by Justin Keane
The Voice, a UK-based newspaper, contains an article by Nadine White and reports on the recent success of Camara Education being one of three winners of the 2016 Pan African Awards for our participation in the ‘iKnowledge project’ – an initiative created to help provide learning opportunities to thousands of communities in Tanzania through equipping teachers in rural areas with a learning-focused Information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure. Read the full story here.
Nationwide on RTE 1 on Wednesday, November 23rd, a bulletin on Camara Education in Kenya as part of Will Goodbody, RTE Science & Technology Correspondent’s report on the Digischool Programme in Kenya. See link here
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Serigne Dioum, Africa Code Week Master Instructor, Mikiyas, Camara worker in Ethiopia & Claire Gillissen, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP & Africa Code Week Co-founder & Global Lead.
African Code Week an annual continent-wide event which is intended to spark the interest of African children, teenagers and young adults in software coding. It was spearheaded by SAP in 2015 as part of its social investments to drive sustainable growth in Africa. It took place in 4 regions across Ethiopia from October 15th-23rd
Camara Education Ethiopia partnered with SAP to coordinate the implementation of Africa Code Week in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya Tanzania and Zambia). Its target was to introduce coding to 15,000+ children and youth, empowering them with the language of software programming.
Busy classroom…eager to start coding! — at National Archives and Library of Ethiopia.
Africa Code Week utilises the program called ‘Scratch’, which was already available on the Camara learning packages implemented in schools across Ethiopia. This unique opportunity provided Camara Education with the ability to increase teacher capacity in their partnered schools by providing training to teachers on how to host coding workshops for the youth.
In preparation for the actual coding event, a Train-the-Trainer workshop was conducted for teachers during September 15 to 30, 2016.
To date, 317 teachers and University graduate students from designated primary and Secondary schools, Universities and different institutions as well from regions: Amhara, Oromia, Afar, SNNPR, Tigray and Addis Ababa, were trained by SAP professionals and Camara trainers on how to host youth coding workshops using ‘Scratch’ and web programming with the children and youth at their respective schools.
Yared Ayele, our Country Director for Camara Education Ethiopia, spoke of witnessing children for the first time writing their first line of code using Scratch software: “Seeing a smile on children’s’ faces as they discover something new and exciting is simply priceless, and the satisfaction brought by the sparkle in their eyes is enormous and truly rewarding”.
A monitoring & evaluation visit was recently carried out at Linda Community School in Lusaka, Zambia. This school started working with Camara Education about 4 years ago. A number of students and teachers were interviewed during this visit and here is what some of them had to say:
“The computers have been very helpful to the learners and made it easy for them to understand the lessons as they are able to see and use the things we are teaching them”. Class teacher Mr Mwamulowe speaks about how the Camara eLearning centre has made a difference to their school.
“We are so grateful for the donation we have received from donors in Ireland. We hope they will continue to assist this vulnerable community, more especially in information and communication technology, and infrastructure”.Mrs Doreen Nzali, Headteacher, Linda Community School
“We learn both theory and practicals in Computer Studies. Before the computers were brought, we only used to learn theory, We learn a lot of things from the eLearning centre which will help me further my education”, Caphas Cheelo, age 16
“It is easier to practice and improve our ICT skills which will help me and my friends perform better in the exams and it will be easy for me to fit in well in the work industry as almost every job out there requires one to have some computer skills” Gift Khawala, age 15
Illustrated here are some of the very positive findings from the visit:
“The educational performance of the students has improved in Computer Studies and others subjects as they are able to research on the computers and learn a lot of things on their own” Knox Handindo, Computer Studies Teacher, Linda Community School
Camara Education is delighted to be officially announced as one of the three winners of the Pan African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education 2016 run by Teach a Man to Fish. There were over 400 applicant organisations.
The Pan African Awards reward the very best projects which are using enterprise and entrepreneurship to innovate in the field of education. Teach A Man To Fish manage the awards using their expertise in enterprise education and highlight inspirational models and projects through their large network of educational organisations and schools and their work aims to eradicate poverty by providing good quality, low-cost, relevant education to young people in developing countries.
The award acknowledges relates to our iKnowledge project in Tanzania –
“iKnowledge is a unique programme that Camara Education delivers to achieve the goal of improving the educational outcomes and life opportunities for young people. It provides beneficiaries with the platforms, skills and support to be entrepreneurs in their community. It enables beneficiaries to generate revenue that funds on-going costs of ICT-based solutions provided by the project.”
According to the United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs, whilst populations across the world are stabilising in size, both Africa and Asia are in the midst of substantial changes in the size of their youth populations. By 2030 it is predicted that the number of youth in Africa will have increased by 42%. According to the same report, many of these countries experiencing rapid growth amongst their youth are at risk of ever increasing youth unemployment. It is against this backdrop and with empowering young people to be agents of progress and entrepreneurship in mind that the Pan African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education exists. The aim of the Awards also includes changing the attitudes of young people so that they begin to leave the education system as the job creators of the future rather than job seekers.
“We are delighted to announce these incredible organisations operating in Africa who are fostering a culture of entrepreneurship among young people. It is important that young people learn early on that they have the power to be leaders in business and job creators of the 21st Century.” – Nik Kafka, CEO of Teach A Man To Fish
Winners of the the Pan African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education 2016
Camara Education is taking part in the national campaign ‘Reuse Month’, which will run throughout October in Ireland. The campaign was launched last week by the Minister for Communication, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, TD in Dublin, Ireland.
Camara Education Business Development Manager, Mark Fox, with the Minister for Communication, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, TD during the launch of National Reuse Month
National Reuse Month is a new waste prevention initiative to raise awareness about the economic and environmental benefits of reusing everyday items such as replaced computer equipment that would otherwise be scrapped.
Camara Education is reducing the carbon footprints of organisations and individuals every day. We receive used computers that would have been put beyond reuse and recycled and instead extend the life of these computers through a refurbishment process. Why do this?
70% of the energy that a typical desktop will use during its lifetime is consumed when it is manufactured – equivalent to 300 kgs of CO2 for a laptop and 300 kgs for a flat screen monitor. So it makes more environmental sense to extend the life of desktops, laptops and flat screen monitors by donating them to Camara.
Camara Education process donated computers from organisations and individuals for refurbishment and reuse in schools around the world. The computers are brought to Camara to be tested and refurbished. All hard drives are erased using a US Department of Defence (DoD 5220.22-M) and NIST 800-88 compliant program that operates on a firmware level, making it impossible to retrieve any data. If the hard drive fails during the wipe it is physically removed, degaussed and crushed. Every donor receives a certificate listing the make, model and serial of all hard drives that were erased and all items received.
Camara Education Business Development Manager, Mark Fox, at the launch of National Reuse Month in Ireland
After refurbishment, these computers are shipped to one of our Education Hubs in Africa or Ireland, and they are used to improve educational outcomes of students from disadvantaged communities in Kenya, Zambia, Ireland, Tanzania, Lesotho and Ethiopia. Camara believes that quality education and youth empowerment are the greatest tools to alleviate poverty.
Since 2005, Camara Education has shipped 80,000 computers to its Educational Hubs. That is equivalent to the deferral of the release of over 30,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
You can drop off your computer equipment free of charge. We are located in Chapelizod Industrial Estate, Dublin 20 (map), Ireland. Our opening hours are 09.00-17.00 from Monday to Friday. We also offer nationwide collection service for companies. A collection fee applies.
Most African schools are lying in a state of poverty with the majority of pupils and parents living on half a dollar each day. This means that things like education are beyond their means. For the schools to acquire a technology-aided education is like building a castle in the air. Therefore, when the iMlango Project came in to help schools across the four counties in Kenya, it was a big boost not only for the schools but also for the government, as computers for schools project was within its manifesto.
Maths-Whizz, the main educational software used by the iMlango project, has been giving out powerful results as observed by trainers doing field work and performing refresher training. The thinking ability of pupils is rising, hence enabling them to perform more positively in their examinations. After the refresher training, many teachers expressed their gratitude for the software as it became their main saviour in terms of organising their daily duties, not just in maths but also other subjects like literacy, science, social studies and so forth.
Students at Ganjoni Primary School, Kenya. Photo Credit: Denise Calnan
Targeting the whole school from class one to class eight, iMlango has generated an overwhelmingly positive result by transforming the lives of thousands of pupils in all the Kenyan counties involved in the iMlango project i.e. Kajiado, Kilifi, Makueni and Uasingishu. Another factor that helps to boost these schools is the introduction of projectors and internet. Projectors are the main proprietors which enable teachers to deliver whole class learning, making their job easier.
Most pupils don’t want to move out of the computer lab as they find it more interesting playing with the computers than to go outside to play football or other physical games. This is showing how effective the project is on the ground. Not only are the children excited by the project but the teachers in all the counties are positively affected also. Most teachers are getting the experience of working with computers for the first time. The introduction of the internet and the special training for them had a major impact.
Koiluget Primary School is in Uasin Gishu county. Here the teachers were able to help all the students complete their assessments as they saw the importance of Maths-Whizz in their school, teachers like Madam Beth Waweru who is in charge of the computer lab. Madam Wareru speaks of the enthusiasm of the pupils as they see the animation, and when using computers for the first time.
Students at Ganjoni Primary School, Kenya. Photo Credit: Denise Calnan
Madam Beth saw an improvement of Maths grades in their school and how easy it was for the pupils to do Maths. It also makes teaching easier as teachers use the ‘wholeclass’ teacher resources. There has been a number of newcomers in the school, absenteeism is no longer an issue and Maths is fun both to the teachers and students.
Now teachers are organised digitally and the programme has made learning realistic and customised to the level of learners. Students are being exposed to ICT and interest has been created to continue working with the devices especially with the Maths-Whizz programme.
Today marks World Humanitarian Day, an annual reminder of the need to act to alleviate the suffering of poverty-stricken people around the world, to promote empowering stories and honour those around the globe who have helped to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged people.
World Bank data estimates the number of people living on under $1.25 a day at well over 1 billion worldwide. About half of Sub-Saharan Africans live on under $1.25 a day. A substantial proportion live just above this line. Over 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day, with nearly three-quarters of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa falling into this category.
At these levels of poverty, most income is spent on food. There is little ownership of productive assets and access to TV and radio is often very limited, as is access to electricity, water and sanitation. Accompanying this situation is poor health, poor education, unpredictability and risk.
In the developing world, poverty and the issues that surround it are the immediate focus for individuals. With such focus, human capital development and values enhancement are not able to flourish, and so living standards do not improve significantly. Camara Education believes the world would be a better place if all young people were empowered through innovative education to create the life they want to lead.
Assay School, Addis, Ethiopia
Education is one of the most significant drivers to help overcome this situation. There are many studies and observations demonstrating the link between education and an escape from poverty, and there are many ways to address access to and improvement in education. But the most significant challenge is delivering scale improvement in education in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Education is a basic human right, but resources for schools are sometimes extremely limited. In an age that is more digital than ever before, we have an opportunity to act together as global citizens. Everyday extraordinary things can happen when ordinary people decide to take action. Camara Education provides schools with computers and the relevant training to help create a fun and interactive classroom experience like never seen before by the students.
Challenges still remain e.g. there are rural schools that lack electricity or basic internet access, but we are working to overcome these barriers and provide better education platforms for those in disadvantaged communities. Limited access to educational excellence and innovation narrows the life chances of young people in many countries, most notably in Africa. Camara helps to unlock the potential of young people by working with governments, ministries of education, and other educational experts to help deliver to both schools and teachers in communities around the world. It delivers support, information, and technology to promote change and improvement in education to enable young people to attain better grades.
Camara Education is a non-profit international organisation dedicated to using technology to improve education and livelihood skills in disadvantaged communities around the world. It currently operates six Education Hubs in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Lesotho, Tanzania) and one in Ireland. With better education we expect these communities to break the cycle of poverty they find themselves in.
Since 2005, Camara has raised and generated €20m, trained 24,000 teachers across 4,000 eLearning Centres, and installed 80,000 computers, enabling 1,800,000 children to improve their educational outcomes, including the attainment of better grades.
As part of the current strategic plan, Camara Education conducts an annual M&E exercise in order to assess the relevance, effectiveness, and impact of activities it carries out.
The main purpose of the M&E exercise is to provide accurate information on the educational impact of Camara’s activities. Through Monitoring and Evaluation, Camara is able to measure the progress made in the performance of the Camara Hubs and the changes in satisfaction level of school leaders, teachers and students in relation to Camara provided ICT equipment, training and support.
Percentage of total schools surveyed per country
This year, the M&E exercise was conducted in schools that received Camara ICT equipment and training in 2014. In the process, 86 school management representatives, 260 teachers and 1,513 students were interviewed from partner schools in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. The schools were selected based on criteria including location (urban, peri-urban, and rural), the level of school (primary, secondary), ownership type (Government, private, etc.), and gender of students taught (female, male or mixed).
The data gathered include perceptions on the performance of Camara hubs, the overall satisfaction levels of school leaders, the utilisation of the ICT resources for teaching, and the effects students feel the computers have on their learning, amongst other indicators.
Partner Satisfaction
This section focus on the reported levels of satisfaction amongst Camara’s education partners, and the changes from last year to this year. When it comes to Camara Hub’s performance, as reported by school leaders, the average score is 80% against 77% in the previous year. This is a total score based on a range of indicators of satisfaction levels, such as reliability of hardware and relevance of training. As such, it provides an accurate overview of satisfaction levels.
The ‘attitude of Camara staff’ and ‘ease of communicating with Camara hubs’ are the highest scoring performance areas. These two high scores indicate that school management is generally happy with the way Camara staff conduct themselves and communicate with schools.
In addition to teachers and school representatives, students were also asked about their perception of the Camara provided ICT equipment. The chart below shows the results of the questions asked. The aggregated score is a combination of students responding either ‘Agree’ or ‘Strongly Agree’ to the statements. As can be seen, students reported high levels of satisfaction with using the Camara provided computers for their learning.
Overall, 92% of school leaders reported having a positive experience with Camara and there is a positive trend across the surveyed countries in terms of school leader reported performance of Camara hubs and satisfaction level of school representatives, teachers and students.
ICT Integration
An important area for achieving positive change in education through ICT is effective integration into teaching and learning. Therefore, teachers and school leaders were asked about the integration of ICT into teaching and learning following engagement with Camara and whether these outcomes have been positive for them. The chart below shows the results of some the most important outcomes in relation to ICT integration into teaching and learning.
To sum up, the results of the M&E exercise indicate that the Camara provided ICT equipment and training continue to positively impact the teaching and learning process in partner schools.
Camara’s Ten Year Impact
Since 2005, Camara has raised and generated €20m, trained 24,000 teachers across 4,000 eLearning Centres, and installed 80,000 computers, enabling 1,800,000 children to improve their educational outcomes, including the attainment of better grades.
Camara Education 2015 in numbers
Compared to 2014, the number of computers distributed increased by 6%, the number of teachers trained increased by 46% and the number of impacted students increased by 6%.
