Estimular

Problem

The number of schools is increasing in many african countries, however, there are still many issues related to the quality of education. Many students, who have completed primary school, still face many challenges with basic reading skills.

Solution

Digital Guided Reading platform, that is able to assess the current  literacy (reading) level of the student and then allocate books and reading activities that match is level and that challenge him to improve.

Change the Lives

It can greatly improve the literacy levels of millions of children in Mozambique, Angola, Cabo Verde, Guine Bissau and Sao Tome Principe, that share the same challenge. This will be the first solution of this kind in the african portuguese speaking community.

We believe that the problem with literacy in the communities we are targeting are related to:

1. Resources - There has been an expansion of the education system in many african countries, by building more schools. This rapid expansion has placed intense pressure on school management and the overall quantity and quality of effective classroom instruction, teaching resources, resulting in a large number of overcrowded multi-shift schools, growing student/teacher ratios, and plummeting reading and math test scores.
2. Teachers - Many teachers do not have the desired level of knowledge to educate these children.A 2014 World Bank Survey showed that only 1 per cent of primary school teachers have the minimum expected knowledge. 

This problem affects millions of children in Africa. For instance, in Mozambique, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística), the average rate of illiteracy among adults nationwide is about 53.6%; it is higher in rural areas (65.7%) than in urban districts (30.3%) and more marked among women (68%) than men (37.7%). The stats vary, from country to country, however, in portuguese speaking african countries, the challenge is similar to most of them.

Estimular Leitura is a cost effective and scalable digital guided reading platform that will help improve the reading levels in african portuguese speaking countries. Some of our objectives with the creation of this solution:

1. Create a guided Reading platform, that will cater for various needs from early ages (3 to 18), all the way through adult readers, including adult illeteracy.
2.  Provide teachers and other caregivers with appropriate Reading teaching skills.
3.  Provide reading diagnostic tools and intelligent reports to make the teaching/ learning process more data driven.
4. Promote greater parent, family and community engagement in education.
5. Partner with Teachers and parents.
6. Create a Fun and Interactive environment for reading.

Our solution, by default, will be loaded into a tablet that can be used online or offline. It can also be downloaded into any smartphone, android or IOS.

We are targeting  children, from 3 to 18. Adult Illiteracy is also a challenge in some african countries, therefore, some of the content  can also be used for that  age group.

Our product, was designed to compliment and to mitigate some of the challenges and deficiencies of the public schools in these countries. Although, these challenges stand out more in rural areas, there are public schools in urban areas that also lack in resources and the level of quality that is needed to properly educate these children.

We have been developing our solution with a great focus to the needs of the public schools in the rural areas. These schools have very poor resources, some of them have no electricity, no desks, no chairs, no libraries, no digital infrastructure(Computers, etc) no connectivity to the internet.

The conditions described above, do not attract the best teachers available. Some of the teachers are from these communities and had themselves, very limited education. They dont have adequate training to provide them with the skillset needed to become good teachers. 

Therefore, in a nutshell, the children that we are targeting are underserved in resources and in teaching personnel with the skillset needed to foster learning.

Our solution aims at providing resources to these children in order to improve their literacy levels and to train teachers, parents and other caregivers, to become better at teaching about literacy and reading.

The problem we are addressing is illiteracy and low reading ability of children in rural areas and underserved by the public school system. This problem occurs, because the  population we are serving, have lack of resources and teachers with the right skillset needed to foster learning. Our solution, solves the problem, by creating a guided reading platform, that gives resources to students and training to Teachers, parents and other caregivers to foster better readers. This is in line with the challenge, because it will increase engagement of learners, by creating tools for parental support, peer interaction, and guided independent work.

We selected Prototype, because we have already started with the development of our product. We have hired a Brazilian Professor, expert in Literacy and Reading to help us with the book selection and categorization according to age. She is also developing all the teaching material for the teachers, parents and other caregivers, on how to foster reading. We have hired an indian software company to help us with the design of the Software. We have had meetings with Ministry of Education, and visited many public schools in rural areas. We have already spent around 15 000 in building this product.

We need further investment to finish the product, and test it.

There are various initiatives to improve education in Africa.Some trying to improve the quality of the teachers, where some ONGs will go to certain areas to train them. Some offering resources, such as books, building small libraries to certain schools. However, the impact of these initiatives are felt by very few, because they are very difficult to scale. In order to scale it, they would need to build libraries in every school,  have a big number of staff to cover the whole country. It would be very difficult, both financially and operationally.

We are offering a digital Library, that can be accessed by many schools, from all over the place, simultaneously. We are offering training information that can be accessed by many teachers from all over the place, simultaneously. We are offering diagnostic tools and reporting that can be used  by teachers and school management, from any point in the world.

Our approach is innovative, because it tackles known issues to the public school system in Africa, in a cost effective and scalable manner.

Our solution is still in prototype phase, therefore, we are not yet serving anyone. In the next five years, we can reach as many as 500 000,00 people in the countries mentioned. 

1st Group -Aware of the Solution,Price is not an issue.

We believe that  private schools will be the first to adhere, as most of them, already have similar solutions in English. These schools, are attended by middle to upper class families, and most of them already use tablets and smartphones.

2nd Group  - Aware of the Solution,price  can be  an issue.

Public schools in urban areas will adhere next,  as they already have exposure to alternatives, such as physical libraries within their schools. However, most of these libraries are poor, and do not have activities,  interactivity that help readers improve as well as reporting, training that is  important for teachers.There is  awareness of such solutions in this group. However, for some, having access to tablets, smartphones can be a challenge. This is where our solution to acquire them in a PAYG will be very handy.

3rd Group - Aware of the solution, price is an issue.

This is for children in rural areas. This group will take more time,  and a combination of multiple strategies.

However, the project will already be having a great impact in the second group, that are also underserved by the lack of resources in public schools. This is why we believe that we can reach 500 000,00 children in the first 5 years.

We will measure our progress by using the reporting module available on our platform and tracking specific indicators. The indicators that we will use are:

1. Books read per children - One of the problems we identified, was access to resources. In order to become great readers, children need to have access to books aligned to their level. By tracking this indicator we will understand the level to which children are having access to a resource that is crucial for them to improve their reading skills. 
2. Activities´results - First they need to have access to books (quantitative). Then, they need to understand what they are reading (qualitative).Our reporting module, allows us to understand which activities students are doing well and which they are not.
3. Numbers of Teachers Training - One of the crucial aspect  we identified to improve literacy and reading ability was to train teachers. By tracking this indicator, we will have visibility to how many teachers are being trained(quantitative).
4. Teachers Assessment Results - After each training, teachers will have to write an exam. Tracking the results of the teachers on this exams, will allow us, to understand the level they are (qualitative).

Stélio Saranga - Business Developer, Project Manager. Masters in Bath University.

Sueli Cagneti - PHD and Researcher in Literature.

Clarion Technology - Software Company. Responsible for designing the software.

Tania  Saranga - Master in Finance in Mancherster University, Responsible for Financial part of the project.

We believe that the team is well positioned because there is a good balance between, technology,  knowledge of the country and knowledge and Literature.

Techonology

We have hired Clarion Technologies to design our platform for us, because we wanted to make sure we have a solution that is robust, reliable and with the best technologies around. Clarion is an indian company, with alot of experience and with the best developers.

Knowledge of the continent

Stelio Saranga is a business developer, that has been part of various projects that have been implemented in rural areas in Mozambique, Angola and NIger. Recently, he started a project to provide solar home systems on a PAYG(Pay as you Go) in Mozambique. He has extensive experience in implementing technological solutions in Africa.

Tania Saranga, has held various managing positions in institutions that work to improve the lives of the underserved, such as World Bank, ICC and many more.

Knowledge of Portuguese Literature

Sueli Cagneti, is a highly respected professional that is well know across all the portuguse speaking countries. She is a PHD, with extensive experience on literature and reading.

We believe that this team have complimentary backgrounds and experiences that will help create a solution that is technological advanced, that meets the needs of the population and that is aligned with the reality and cultrure.

Our mission is to improve the lives of the underserved using technology, and we recruit and build our culture with this mind. Our recruitment is based on 3 pillars:

1. Community Visibility -Most of our solutions, such as the Solar Home System or Solar Pumps, are designed to be implemented in rural areas. In order to build a brand that is trusted in this areas, that are far from our offices, is to work with PEOPLE that are RESPECTED and TRUSTED within the community. We recruit APE (Agentes Polivalentes Elementares), which translates to Elementary Multidisciplinary Agents (Community Health Workers,etc), capitalize  on the fact that they already have a great reputation for the noble work that they do. Provide them with the needed training and resources and work with them to deliver a good service. Despite the fact, that these are part-time personnel, they are an integral part of our brand expansion and service experience.
2. Gender Equality - We believe in Gender Equality and this starts with the number of female shareholders of the company, which is 50%. This also helps ensure for a fair recruitment policy, equal pay policy and a culture that is gender friendly.We also have flexible work arrangements to allow for an overall work-life balance, that caters for female family responsabilities.
3. Social Change  & Technology Enthusiasts - We recruit people that are passionate about social change and technology, regardless of race, tribe, country, gender.

We are applying to Solve to join a family that is aligned to our purpose as an organization. We expect to get:

1. Funding.
2. Access to mentorship, coaching and strategic advice from experts.
3. Receive monitoring and evaluation support to build an impact measurement practice.

Pitching to Investors - is important for the stage we are now in our development. We need to raise capital to go from our prototype stage to get our product in the market. Therefore, this is a area right now that is very relevant to our progress.

Monitoring & Evaluation - Once we have our product in the market, we will to measure the impact of our solution  in order to fine tune it. This is an area that we also see as very important in the near future.

The organization we would like to partners are, the ones listed bellow, or any in the same field.

1. Lexile Framework for reading,
2. Lexia Learning
3. Reading A Z

These are companies that have done extensive work in creating, algorithms, digital frameworks that allows them to create very intelligent teaching platforms. Unfortunately, there are such companies in portuguese speaking countries.