The Unclosable School

School closures that are due to the combined effects of COVID-19 and terrorist attacks are preventing girls and young women in the Sahel region from having regular and safe access to learning opportunities. When girls are denied access to education, they become more vulnerable to horrific forms of exploitation including sexual abuse and early forced marriage. 

If the physical world does not provide safe access to school for girls, we can create a virtual school based in the cloud which will allow girls to remotely meet with instructors in immersive classrooms -- an unclosable school that will keep learning going no matter what. 

If scaled globally, this unclosable school could provide safe and continuous access to education for girls, regardless of whether physical schools are closed or not, due to a potential COVID-19 2nd or 3rd wave. If they can’t learn on the ground, girls will learn in the cloud. 

We are tackling the problem of school closures from which girls are particularly suffering. 

Save the Children’s report “The War on Children” reveals that more than one quarter of the 742 verified attacks on schools globally in 2018 took place in five countries across West and Central Africa. According to the report, the number of schools forced to close due to rising insecurity in conflict-affected areas of West and Central Africa tripled between the end of 2017 and June 2019.  

COVID-19 further worsened the situation by forcing the generalization of school closures around the world: according to UNESCO, in May 2020, there are 1,186,127,211 affected learners globally by school closures, which represents 67.7% of total enrolled learners, in 144 country-wide closures. 

For the Sahel Region, this is a double blow and girls in the region most suffer from this because it exposes them to a greater risk of forced marriage, sexual abuse and early pregnancy which can lead to fistulas, eclampsia and chronic infections.

The Unclosable School is a web-based virtual school which allows instructors and girls (as well as other learners) to connect remotely via computer-generated avatars to shared immersive thematic classrooms. 

Think Zoom but in 3D. Girls go to science class on Mars; when they go to History class, they go to Ancient Egypt. Math class makes so much more sense in 3D: they can actually climb fractal pyramids. When they go to Spanish class, they actually go to Spain and learn new vocabulary on the spot, in context. It doesn’t matter if they cannot access physical schools because they are closed; the universe is now their classroom. 

Instructors can share their screens, spawn 3D objects that pertain to the subject-matter that is being taught. When girls connect to their thematic 3D classrooms, they can actually choose from a variety of avatars: when they go on Mars, they put on their astronaut gear, etc. Every class is an empowering field trip in time and space as well as an embodied transformational experience for girls to become whomever they wish. 

This web-based Unclosable School is easy to access through PC, tablet, smartphone or via a cardboard VR headset. 

Our target population is girls between 10 and 16 years old living in the Sahel Region in urban and suburban areas with moderate wifi connexion and smartphone use. They have been deprived of safe and regular access to education, first by terrorist attacks in ideological opposition to girl education, and then most widely by the COVID-19 related school closures, partial openings and de-densification procedures. 

We have partnered with the West Africa regional office of Save the Children to better understand the needs of our target population, rely on their extensive experience, regional network of stakeholders, as well as their direct connection to the field and locally-anchored knowledge of practices, customs and cultural norms. 

Together with Save the Children’s Senegal-based regional office and with the Burkina Faso team, we have collected stories and data from our target population to better apprehend their stories, perspectives, and needs. This preliminary research work has allowed us to be more acquainted with our target user so we can make sure that the finished product truly addresses their needs. Our next step is to organize a pilot-test of the unclosable school in a series of locations in the Sahel Region with Save the Children. 

Our proposal is aligned with the challenge in all of its aspects:

• Specific problem angle: we are tackling the primary roadblock which is preventing girls from pursuing an education -- physical access to schools which are now closed or only partially re-opened, 

• Solution: we are providing a scalable and affordable webVR-based solution by building a cloud-based 3D school which will give girls continuous and safe access to education

• Target population: we are an at-risk population who was already affected by school closures linked to terrorist attacks, and who now suffers from the blow of COVID-19 too.