Kusoma Solutions

By 2015, 9% of young people had no primary education; 44% had an incomplete primary education; 14% had secondary school and only 3% had tertiary education. Uganda faces a problem of low educational attainment. The challenges include low capacity to enroll all learners; teacher shortages & absenteeism; inadequate access to learning materials; large class sizes; and high cost of education and education resources.

The solution is to decentralize learning. Kusoma Solutions will leverage an existing Learning Management System to support educators to develop high-quality education resources. Kusoma Solutions will then market and distribute them.

For the first time, learners shall be able to learn according to their pace. Stimulating resources will increase interest in learning. And low cost will increase access to learning. Since education is a proven intervention for lifting people out of poverty, we believe affordable and yet stimulating education can positively change the lives of many people.    

In Uganda, by 2015, parents of 8 million learners were interested in education (93.9%) comprising of learners who completed school, those in school, and those who dropped off along the way. But parents of 4.3 million learners had already given up along the way. The gap is that more than half of young people (51%) leave school early. The outstanding reason for the high early school leaving is that education is too expensive.  More than half of young people (59%) of the early school leavers reported that they left school because it was too expensive (UBOS 2015). 5.8% because of poor academic progress, 2.4% had no further schooling options available in their areas like a secondary school or university, while 8.2% girls left because of early pregnancy which marked the end of their school journey. 

The problem we are trying to solve is preventing young people from sliding into poverty aided by low education attainment. The monthly wage increased with the level of education with employees who completed tertiary education earning three times more than employees with no education (UBOS 2015).

How do we make learning cheaper without risking its quality? How do we make sure learning isn’t easily interrupted by early pregnancy, covid19 lockdowns, high cost or by a lack of access to schools in the next level of education? How can we create a learning experience for learners that considers their ability, respects their pace, is stimulating enough and yet is available all the time? The solution is to digitize learning.

The cost of setting up and maintaining a physical learning infrastructure is high making the cost of learning high. For example, besides school fees, learners endure long lists of school requirements as well. For fear of getting embarrassed, a girl who gets pregnant early drops out of school. And in case of highly infectious diseases, a physical learning environment isn’t ideal for learning. Not to mention the challenge of large class sizes and a low capacity to enroll all learners.

Kusoma Solutions will leverage an existing Learning Management System to support educators create quality digital learning resources and experience. Kusoma Solutions will identify and train teachers to digitize their content and teach online. Then Kusoma Solutions shall market and distribute the learning opportunity to schools, parents and learners.

Our solution is primarily designed to benefit learners. Other groups such as educators, parents, schools and education NGOs are secondary beneficiaries. 

Learners are looking for a chance at better livelihoods. Most young people (37%) consider having lots of money as their primary life goal while 21% want to be successful in work (UBOS 2015). Education is a proven intervention for lifting young people, regardless of socio-economic background, out of poverty. In order to enable young people reach education levels that can earn them better income, we must deal with the challenges that interfere with their education.

The education sector in Uganda faces capacity constraints in providing for the increasingly young population that will hit 20.6 million by 2025. In 2015, 27% of teachers were absent. Already schools were facing a challenge of crowded classrooms with meager, or no quality education resources available. This means that the education sector will not be able to enroll all learners interested in learning and thus provide uniform quality of learning. Should anyone miss out on attending school because the education sector has no more room? No!

In the face of all realities affecting learners attaining education, a solution that has no limits on number of learners who can attend a class, with lessons that can be paused, rewound, re-watched endlessly; one that respects the learning ability of the learner; one that enables them to attend class regardless of whether they can afford scholastic materials or not. Our solution ensures that quality learning resources are accessible to anybody.  For the last 12 months, our organization has invested heavily into research to help us choose the best way to fulfil our vision. Out of our research, we chose a learning management platform, learn a lot about what doesn’t work from the feedback of the users. We engaged teachers to provide education content for the pilot phase and we piloted upper secondary text content with nine subjects. 20 learners accessed the learning materials.

Problem: Low attainment of education outcomes

Challenges: Low capacity to enroll all learners, Large class sizes, teacher absenteeism, lack of access to high quality education resources, high cost of education

Target Population: Learners enrolled in school

Solution: Leveraging an existing Learning Management System to support educators to develop and deliver digital learning resources and experiences How does the problem align with the solution: The ability access quality and stimulating learning resources anywhere all the time eliminates the bottlenecks leading to early school dropout like high cost of education, large class sizes and teacher absenteeism.

We have identified a Learning Management Platform and from our previous learnings, we are developing O-level Mathematics fully for our users. Our business model is that educators will be trained to digitize their content and to deliver digital learning experiences. We have already tested the avenues where to market the courses e.g. social media done only once attracted 20 learners.

The education sector has tried to respond to the challenges leading to low education attainment. In terms of the high cost of education, the government of Uganda introduced free Universal Primary and Secondary Education. However, in the process, the quality of education was compromised greatly. Classes became large and teachers became worn-out and demotivated by their meager compensation. Teacher absenteeism rose. Yet the cost of education in private schools remains high.

Covid19 has worsened the already hopeless situation. According to the Porticus Report 2020, education sponsorships and scholarships stopped, there is an increase in unwanted pregnancies, and it has become harder to find employment since the economy has been hit – all of which are fertile grounds for early school leaving. From the same report, 50% of young people said they pay towards their education – both tuition and scholastic materials. 63% of students also said they felt unsafe on their way to or from school citing encountering thieves, men who offer rides in exchange for a kiss and wild dogs barking. Kusoma Solutions’ is revolutionizing the teaching model. The school as we know it has been a physical place where learners meet the teacher. We believe a learner can meet a teacher somewhere else without limitations of distance, the dangers of getting to and from school, cost, or space. That place is online. Teachers can then create a differentiated learning experience for learners because their earnings depend on it.

Actively, Kusoma Solutions isn’t serving any learners. In one year, we target to serve 1,000 learners

In 5 years, Kusoma Solutions shall have an established Learning Management System that enables hundreds of educators to develop digital learning experiences that enable over 10,000 learners to access quality and stimulating learning resources

1. Log in frequency and duration logs per month
2. Pre-participation survey and termly periodic progress surveys
3. Enrollment rates monthly
4. Log in frequency rates per user monthly
5. Duration spent on platform monthly
6. Module / Course completion rates per month
7. Average enrollment rates per course
8. User satisfaction surveys per end of module/course
9. Active courses on the platform with enrolled users
10. A number of reported technical problems platform per year.
11. Training reports

One full-time staff

4 part-time staff

3 technical partners

4 Market Access Partners 2 Thought Partners

Team Leader: James Katumba Ssekikubo – BA Education (Economics & Geography). James has spent most of his life in education – as a teacher, Deputy Headteacher, Teacher Mentor.

Education Officer: Ssenyonjo Andrew – BSc Education (Mathematics & Chemistry). Andrew has been a teacher with over 8 years of experience in developing training programs

Technology Officer: Lwanga Ssali – BSc Computer Science. Ssali is an IT professional with a unique interest in building an online learning platform for her daughter’s future and other children.

Marketing Associate & Finance and Administration Associates are to be filled. A team of teachers with experience in pedagogy understand what teachers are interested in and how learners want to learn. This is the experience James and Andrew are bringing to building this solution.