Partnerships Archives - Page 2 of 3

Camara Education Ethiopia signed a new project agreement with the Federal Ministry of Education

July 17, 2023

by Sean Miskelly Ethiopia Partnerships

Camara Education Ethiopia recently signed a new agreement with the Federal Ministry of Education (MoE). The project, titled “Unleashing the Power of ICT in Ethiopian Schools: Improving student learning outcomes and building the capacity of educators through ICT integration from 2023 to 2028”, aims to continue and expand our collaboration with the MoE for a further five years.

Through this new project, Camara aims to:

Equip 875 rural schools with 35,000 computers – 35-40 computers per school – loaded with local curriculum-aligned content and innovative learning platforms.
Train 9,450 educators
Impact 790,000 learners

In addition to offering the support provided in previous agreements for project schools, there have been some additions in this agreement based on our learning over the past few years:

Additional refresher Training to be provided after one year
Scheduled Maintenance after one year
Improved computer specifications to meet current needs
Updated content from MoE and others
35-40 PCs per school, as number of PCs was found not to be enough in schools vs number of students
On request from Camara, the agreement contains further details on the removal of Ewaste from schools previously supported.

Our local team in Addis Ababa unpacks and thoroughly tests the refurbished computers we ship out. They install an open-source operating system (Ubuntu) and load educational software and content aligned to the national curriculum and in local languages on each computer. All the computers are also loaded with an offline version of Wikipedia, creating an extraordinary learning resource for schools which often have no library books and limited internet connections. And most important of all, the computers are installed with PDFs of Ministry of Education textbooks covering the entire school curriculum. Textbooks are in very short supply in many of Ethiopia’s 40,000 schools, so this alone is a crucial resource, enabling students to access information even in areas where the lack of good internet connectivity can mean they have no or sporadic access to online content.

Our technicians travel to each school and kit out a fully functional eLearning centre, installing cabling and anti-surge protection along with 35-40 refurbished computers.

A critical element of our programme is to actively train both school management and teachers to ensure they have the necessary digital skills to maximise the use of the eLearning centre in their school. Follow-up training courses are provided to ensure progress continues and targets are achieved.

Kidist Mulat during training at Semera Girls’ Boarding School

Camara Education and British Council Ethiopia

July 10, 2023

by Sean Miskelly Ethiopia Partnerships

Educating the Whole Family

Camara Education Ethiopia, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education and British Council Ethiopia has installed e-learning labs in seven schools in Afar province and 14 in Amhara. Each computer is stocked with resources and programmes that work off-line.

The labs aim to build skills and confidence for female students. Gender and girls’ club members will be prioritised for using the labs and teaching their peers, raising both their status in the community and achievement levels.

“If the girl is educated, the whole family is educated”

Kidist Mulat

Kidist Mulat leads the gender club in Semera Girls’ Boarding School. This large, clean, well-organised school sits on the outskirts of Semera, the capital city of Afar. Students in Kidist’s school come from the whole Woreda. Though the school is only for girls, they still face many cultural challenges due to their gender.

There are a lot of cultural challenges around our school due to gender. The culture is that the parents will give their female children for marriage early and then they may also have a child too early. The families will arrange this without the daughter knowing. Then they will stop school.

Kidist explained how female students are eager to join gender club seeking their support if they face early marriage. Semera Girls’ Boarding School accepts students from grade five to ten. Students in their gender clubs are high achievers, “Because, they have the capacity to share ideas with their communities and change the feeling of their local culture”.

A Nurturing Community

The students in Kidist’s school form a close-knit supportive community. They may arrive with different mother tongues but learn English and Amharic, “They sleep here and talk together in the dorms and other communal areas.” Visitors are not usually allowed inside the compound, and if they come are met only at the gate.

If a student is unwell ‘student police’ support them, checking on them and finding out the issue. There is an open approach to consequences of periods, with sanitary towels provided. For discipline issues students may be asked to take on garden watering tasks.

The school wants to build the confidence and strength of female students. Along with this close supportive environment female role models are invited in to share experiences. The gender club leads these activities and is vital to helping students through issues they face from families and the community.

If the students have family nearby who want to make their girls have an early marriage the gender club will invite them into the school, encourage them to change their mind and explain why this should not happen. They even took one family to court to stop an early marriage.

Educating the next Generation

Kidist thinks the main priority for education should be raising access to technology, “It’s a big chance for us to show the wider process of technology to our students”. But her concerns about female students accessing education remain. The answer, she believes, lies with the influence of religious leaders.

We need to raise the awareness of religious leaders about the use of education and learning for girls. It’s the female student who will become the child bearer and have a family. If she’s educated her whole family and the next generation will also be educated. The society in Afar accepts the opinions and words of religious leaders more then the government.

Learning through Technology

Students who arrive from rural communities might not have had any exposure to technology. The school had very few computers before the new e-learning lab, not enough for the students to use themselves.

We learn through paper and blackboards now. But using computers motivates students; they have much more interest in using digital media. They learn more in a short time when using computers and phones. They can work for hours, much longer than when they use traditional materials.

Kidist sees digital literacy as adding value throughout her students’ lives. “Alongside their education they can work – they can do administrative tasks, becoming experts and working alongside their education.”

Technology also helps their family see their skills and think of them as valuable. It makes their academic performance greater and society sees their skills and values them.

Supporting Dreams

Kidist’s view reaches much further than the school walls. “I want to make society aware of the value of education, especially the community outside of the town.”

If the girl is educated, the whole family is educated; she will look after her children well and send her daughters to school. If she is aware of education she can stop her daughters from being victims of FGM. One educated female means four to five educated people in the family.

Kidist’s dream for others is reflected in her personal aims “I want to keep being educated, I want to achieve a doctorate. I want to help others through this especially in the rural areas”. She believes education is a right for everyone, and students should be fully supported to follow their dreams too. Empowering female students through digital literacy is one large step towards this.

My dream is seeing my students reach the top level of achievement in their whole lives. That would make me very happy. To reach their full potential in life, work, family and health.

Turning Roses into Computers

June 30, 2023

by johnfisher Ethiopia Girls' education Partnerships

Sher High School in Ziway, Ethiopia, has received not one but two brand-new e-learning centres, thanks to generous funding from the Dutch Flower Foundation and Afriflora.

Afriflora/Sher Ethiopia grows, harvests, grades and packs roses at three farms, the largest of them on the shores of Lake Dembel just outside Ziway. Between 2.5 and 4 million roses are processed every day and transported to Europe for further distribution. This makes Afriflora/Sher Ethiopia the largest rose grower in the world and the biggest supplier of roses in Europe, as well as a major foreign currency earner for Ethiopia. Around half of the students at the Ziway Sher High School are children of Sher employees.

Camara installed 50 computers and two servers in the two centres, and our trainers spent a week training 26 teachers on how best to use the computers to deliver the curriculum and giving advice on basic maintenance. We’ll also provide ongoing support. Camara’s computers run on the Ubuntu open-source operating system. They are pre-loaded with a range of educational software, from simple games to specialized Camara Learning Studio resources for maths and science. All computers are also loaded with an offline version of Wikipedia, creating an extraordinary learning resource for schools with limited internet connections. And most important of all, the computers are installed with PDFs of Ministry of Education textbooks covering the entire school curriculum. Textbooks are in very short supply in many of Ethiopia’s 40,000 schools, so this alone is a crucial resource.

The Dutch Flower Foundation (DFF) aims to improve the living conditions and well-being of people in need and in particular children. They focus on countries where Dutch Flower Group (DFG) companies are active with an emphasis on connected community projects. Through the activities of DFF, DFG gives substance to its responsibility for the world in which we live.

Hundreds of students will benefit from the new computers according to Sher School director Mr Negusse Aga: ‘Computer-skills are extremely important for our students. Sher schools have an excellent reputation in Ethiopia. Almost all the students qualify to attend universities. New computers enable us to uphold our reputation and open the digital world to our students. On behalf of the students and teachers we would like to sincerely thank DFF and Camara for their highly appreciated contribution in this project.’

Dell Technologies Partnership update

June 2, 2023

by John Fisher Ethiopia Partnerships

The second phase of our latest project in partnership with Dell Technologies in Ethiopia was completed in April, as the tenth school was connected to the server at Camara Ethiopia’s offices. This project allows us to remotely monitor the eLearning centres at these ten schools, in addition to the five that were beneficiaries of the first stage of the project.

Each school has been furnished with a networked eLearning centre equipped with 25 desktop computers. In addition, Camara provides teacher and leadership training to promote stakeholder engagement, as well as access to Camara Learning Studio via the server, supplying curriculum-aligned content for maths and science classes for students in grades 9 through 12. Our technicians provide support and use the server to track and evaluate learning outcomes by analysing usage data on the Dell server.

The principal aims of the project are two-fold: to improve teaching quality through training; and to enhance students’ experience, academic results and life chances with digital education.

Each school has been furnished with a networked eLearning centre equipped with 25 desktop computers. In addition, Camara provides teacher and leadership training to promote stakeholder engagement, and access to Camara Learning Studio via the server, supplying curriculum-aligned content for maths and science classes for students in grades 9 through 12. Our technicians provide support and use the server to track and evaluate learning outcomes by analysing usage data on the Dell server.

The principal aims of the project are two-fold: to improve teaching quality through training; and to enhance students’ experience, academic results and life chances with digital education.

Teachers’ Professional Development will lead to:

Improved teachers’ capacity (both contents and pedagogy) in teaching Science, Mathematics and English subjects with IT
Improved teacher motivation and interest in the teaching profession

Provision of the networked lab and usage monitoring will lead to:

Increased classroom interaction in the teaching and learning process
Decrease in student dropout rate
More efficient management of the ICT infrastructure and resources resulting in more effective eLearning centre utilization

The schools involved in the second phase are:

MISRAK GOH SECONDARY SCHOOL
DON BOSCO DILLA SECONDARY SCHOOL
HARAMAYA SECONDARY SCHOOL
LIDETA CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL SCHOOL
DR. HADDIS ALEMAYEHU SECONDARY SCHOOL
ADDIS ABABA BETHEL MEKANE YESUS SECONDARY SCHOOL
KOMONA SECONDARY SCHOOL
HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY MODEL SCHOOL
DIMTU SECONDARY SCHOOL
BULBUL SECONDARY SCHOOL

While we continue to offer support to the five schools from the first phase:

SHIMELIS HABTE SECONDARY SCHOOL
ASSAI PUBLIC SCHOOL
NATIVITY GIRLS SCHOOL
BASSO SECONDARY SCHOOL
ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE CATHOLIC SCHOOL

Teacher Andualem Tsegaye praised the scheme:

Andulem Tsegaye, ICT teacher at Don Bosco School

“I have been an ICT teacher at Dilla Don Bosco Secondary School since 2005. Now that we are using the new eLearning center based on a timetable, we are noticing a gradual improvement in academic results and students are happier to learn thanks to the Camara computers. They are also more motivated in enhancing their education.”

Empowering Female Students through Digital Literacy

May 17, 2023

by johnfisher Ethiopia Girls' education Partnerships

Camara Education Ethiopia in partnership with British Council Ethiopia

Camara Education Ethiopia has been collaborating with the British Council in Ethiopia on a project involving six secondary schools in the Afar region and fourteen in Amhara. Both areas are in northern Ethiopia and were impacted by the recent conflict there.

In each school the project set up a fully functioning e-Learning centre designed specifically for the school’s individual climate and context. Computers were funded by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, while Camara Education supplied the hardware, networking and technical support, ensuring that equipment was protected from power surges, heat and dust. The schools provided the rooms, furniture and their own dedication, committing to maintain the labs in the long term.

To support the use of the centres, the British Council and Camara Education provided initial and follow-up hardware support and software training. Each computer is loaded with educational resources and programmes working both on- and off-line. As well as British Council materials, these include resources from the Ministry of Education and Camara Education Ethiopia.

Empowering Girls

The centres aim to build skills and confidence specifically for female students. Gender and girls club members will be prioritised for using the labs and take on the responsibility to teach their peers. Two students per club will lead the training, which will cascade across all the students and staff at the school. This prioritisation aims to improve achievement levels for girls and gender club members, giving them status in the school and society and raising their ability, capacity and motivation to learn.

In Afar, training for teachers, club leaders, directors and education officers took place in the new e-Learning centre at Semera Girls’ Boarding School. The school is situated on the edge of Semera city, almost 600km northeast of Addis Ababa. The e-Learning centre is a clean, well-organized room at the heart of the school, now lined with desktop computers, with fans to cool them in Afar’s hot climate.

Putting Training into Action

Alem Tsehai, who works in another school in the project, explained the need for these e-Learning centres, “There are lots of challenges in my school”, she said, “there are only a few books and resources. This is a big opportunity to use this training and resources to improve my students’ learning outcomes. We used to have no computers in my school. Now Camara and the Ministry of Education have supplied more than 40”.

Another participant at the training talked about how labs can motivate teachers’ support for female students, “After this training I will have more resources for girls’ education and I will focus on girls’ education”.

Implementing Change

The training considered how to ensure this initiative is accepted and promoted across communities. Engaging the community will increase the impact on girls’ education.

As one of the teachers put it: “We need to work with religious leaders. We need to encourage them to send their girls to school. Once in school we need to support girls to engage more with school and with technology.”

Once back at their schools the teachers’ work must be two-fold, as one participant explained, “I will cascade this training for other teachers when I return to my school and focus on girls’ education”. Another recognised the project aims as sitting firmly within their own hopes for education: “If I was made the Minister of Education I would raise teachers’ professional competency. I would implement policies and improve learning outcomes.”

Leadership Training supported by Dell Technologies

March 22, 2023

by johnfisher Partnerships

As part of our ongoing partnership with Dell Technologies, we’ve been providing school leadership training in both Ethiopia and Kenya. Head teachers and senior administrators play a key role when it comes to integrating digital technology into schools. The objective of this training is to empower school and education leaders so that they can understand the potential and practicalities of digital learning and support teachers’ use of ICT to improve student achievement.

In Ethiopia, support from Dell Technologies in 2022 enabled Camara Education Ethiopia to provide five schools with upgraded eLearning centres, each with 25 computers. Camara and the schools can track usage of the computers through a remote server using Camara Learning Studio (CLS), a platform that provides curriculum-aligned content for maths and science classes for students in grades 9 through 12.

Refresher leadership training was provided for the leaders of the five schools, including a presentation of each school’s usage data as tracked through the remote server and discussion of strategies to increase usage. The schools involved are:

SHIMELIS HABTE SECONDARY SCHOOL
ASSAI PUBLIC SCHOOL
NATIVITY GIRLS SCHOOL
BASSO SECONDARY SCHOOL
ST JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE CATHOLIC SCHOOL

In Kenya we have also been running training for secondary school leaders as part of our STEM STEPS Towards Positive Futures project in association with Dell Technologies. A session at Khadija Secondary School, Mombasa County, was attended by leaders from Khadija Secondary, Kongowea Secondary, Al-Farsy Girls Secondary, Msumarini Secondary and Mnarani Secondary. In Kilifi County, north of Mombasa, a training session at Shangia Secondary School included leaders from Shangia Secondary, Migundini Secondary and Mwijo Secondary.

Images from the training sessions at Khadija and Shangia schools

Also this month. in Makueni County, leadership training at the Makueni PWD Vocational Training Centre, attracted heads and administrators from five secondary schools and three vocational training institutions: Moi Girls Kibwezi, St Jude Girls, Kavingoni Secondary, Kambi Mawe Girls, Mwaani Girls, Kathonzweni County Technical Training Institute, PWD Vocational Training Centre and Makueni County Technical Training Institute.

We would like to thank Dell Technologies for being such an amazing partner throughout this journey of the STEM STEPS towards positive futures project.

A Container of Computers

February 9, 2023

by John Fisher Partnerships

The latest consignment of computers has arrived at our offices in Mombasa, Kenya, part of our ongoing partnership with Dell Technologies to bring educational technology and digital access to marginalised areas. 23 Kenyan schools will benefit from new eLearning centres, and we’ll also be setting up three ICT innovation hubs.

As soon as the container arrives it is unloaded, prior to thorough final checks on the equipment before it can be dispatched to a waiting school. Thanks @DellTechnologies!

Kurasini School sponsorship

February 8, 2023

by johnfisher Partnerships Tanzania

We’ve recently completed an eLearning centre installation at Kurasini Secondary School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The work was carried out thanks to Helios Towers Tanzania, who provided computers along with funding to cover the renovation of the room, networking, teacher training and other project activities. Kurasini is one of the schools where Helios has installed a telecom tower, serving several of its clients in Tanzania.

The centre was officially opened on November 25th 2022 by Helios Tower Tanzania’s managing director, Gwakisa Stadi, along with Anna Marika, representative of the district executive director. Camara trained 38 teachers for five days and provided ICT awareness training for 120 students.

From the beginning of this term, students at the school have had Computer and Information Studies available to them as part of their curriculum.

Helios Towers is a leading independent telecommunications infrastructure company, focused on driving the growth of mobile communications across Africa and the Middle East. Their principal business is building, acquiring and operating telecommunications towers that can accommodate and power the needs of the regions’ major mobile network operators. As the leading independent towerco in Tanzania, Helios Towers supports mobile operators as they expand their coverage across the country.

These are some of the steps involed in putting the centre together:

TECH FOR ALL: our partnership with Lenovo

December 16, 2022

by John Fisher Partnerships

Olympia Park Secondary School is based in Lusaka, Zambia. It currently caters for 3309 students who are completing their secondary education from Grade 8 up to Grade 12. The school has 62 teachers with an average class size of approximately 72 students. Due to the number of students attending the school, there is a split timetable with students attending for either morning or afternoon sessions.

Before Camara’s intervention, as part of the ‘Tech for All’ project funded by Lenovo, the school had only 14 computers.

Fumboni Gondwe, pictured here with her teacher Suzyo Nachali, is a 14 year old student currently studying in Grade 9 at Olympia Park Secondary School in Lusaka, Zambia.

Fumboni said: ‘I love using the computers to learn, they are fun and I now know how to do a lot of things on them. I have a great teacher and she has helped me to learn so many new things on the computer which has helped my studies. I want to work hard and finish school as I always wanted to be a doctor but now I would also like to be a computer specialist’.

From another of the schools that our partnership with Lenovo has enabled us to help, we received the following message:

‘I write on behalf of Butondo secondary school to express our heartfelt gratitude for the job well done, from the very beginning when the news broke of the computer donation to our school, the Camara team has been outstanding in ensuring that the whole process is actualised.

As a school we will remain indebted to Camara as an organisation for the job well done. From the installation of the computers by Francis to the training by Emmanuel everything went on well.

May God richly bless Camara as an organisation.’

FINASTRA AND CAMARA KENYA PARTNERSHIP

October 18, 2022

by johnfisher Kenya Partnerships

Finastra is the largest pure-play software vendor that serves the entire financial services industry. We’ve teamed up with them to process their retired laptops and other IT equipment, generating funds to bring ICT resources and skills to those who need it most in the developing world. Camara Kenya is working with seven schools as part of the Finastra project in Mathare slums. Thanks to funding from Finastra we have distributed thirty laptops to the following institutions: Mumo Education and Orphanage Center, two laptops; Destiny Community Education Center, eight laptops; Ngotas Upendo School, fourteen laptops; Mama Africa Pendo, three laptops; and one laptop each to Ngei PAG Education Center, Star Educational Center and Upendo Children’s Center.