Framanetics

The quality of education in developing countries is lower than what obtains in developed countries. This becomes much worse in rural communities of developing countries where internet penetration is considerably lower than their urban counterparts. These communities have very low academic standards due to bad road networks, internecine wars, low internet penetration and a dearth of quality teachers and teaching aids. Students  in these communities perform poorly in National Examinations leaving them with a bleak and uncertain future.

Framanetics provides an empirical online and offline educational resource for students in higher secondary schools covering subjects in the arts, social and pure sciences.

If more students in rural areas over the world can have access to quality education, they will go on to live better lives than would have been obtained if  they were to remain uneducated and unfit for the modern world.

Remote high schools in Nigeria are characterized by poor performance in National examinations. This is due to the fact that teachers in such locations most often than not do not take teaching seriously. The academic facilities in these locations are also sub-par hence students are not exposed to the required levels of academic tutelage that can guarantee success. Another disadvantage of these schools is that they do not get the best teachers due to their remote locations.

This problem cuts across all the 5 communities we have worked in. invariably this is replicated in every remote location in Nigeria. Of the 5.2 million secondary school students in Nigeria, about 25% are in rural areas and have poor access to quality education.

with the current pandemic and the need to shut down schools to prevent further spread of the corona virus, learning has shifted from classrooms to online spaces with rural schools completely cut off as they do not have any facilities for online learning.

the factor contributing to the problem that relates to our solution is the poor academic standard recorded in secondary schools in rural Nigeria. 

Framanetics is an online and offline resource from which they can download and watch or watch offline videos on their various subjects. These classes will covers in Mathematics, English Language, the sciences, social sciences and arts. The resource will have a feedback menu where students can post any questions they may have on grey areas and answers will be provided by the online tutor backend.

In areas with low connectivity, digital versions of these classes will be provided on DVDs alongside computer systems and projectors for viewing.

From the design, both students, teachers and parents can have access to our learning instructional programs which we hope will help them impart more in the student and children. 

To this effect, classes will be delivered on laptops, tablets and PCs . Concentration will be on topics covered by the syllabus as released by the various examining bodies that assess these students. This is to ensure that their learning is relevant to their academic purpose. Our solution will be available to thousands of students simultaneously, allowing more communities onboard on our platform.

The target population for our solution are students in the higher secondary school classes in rural Nigeria, their teachers and parents. The students are currently not being well taught as their counterparts in urban areas. This has left students from rural areas at a disadvantage compared to their peers in urban areas.

This further impoverishes the community as well-educated citizens who will in turn return to develop the community are lacking.  The teachers also need to up-skill their current  skill set in order to be able to impart their best in students.  Parents will also use this resource to help their children with their assignments and monitor their children's progress academically.

Due to bad access roads, poor connectivity, lack of water,  and other basic amenities, getting good teachers who are willing to reside in these communities is difficult. 

Communal clashes are also common in these communities further affecting learning as students have to abandon classes whenever these clashes occur to avoid being fatalities.

From our interaction with the students, parents and teachers through verbal communication and administration of questionnaires, we have gathered the afore-mentioned challenges as the bane for sound education in these communities.

Framanetics will be loaded with various classes covering the Arts, Social Sciences and Pure Sciences. Each subject will have submenus with various topics covered in-depth.

Framanetics is designing an online model which cuts across major courses in pure science, social sciences and arts by providing classes from selected best teachers in those subjects. At the end of each module, there will be a quiz online for students who have access to to internet and in paper form for students without internet access. This can also serve as their assessment in school for this reason, to avoid malpractice in schools.

For the teachers, they can use this same resource to improve upon their skill and base their lesson notes on the materials contained in the resource.

Parents will be advised to reduce the chores of their children to allow them concentrate on their studies. They are also to supervise their children as they are handling their assignments, making sure that they take their assignments seriously.

Framanetics is technology based. We provide online and offline solutions to secondary schools located in rural, low-connectivity areas. Framanetics is new in these communities and is effective, hence it will attract more students to take part in our scheme especially those who have dropped out of school due to frustrations over inadequate teaching methods that was not imparting knowledge into them.

Through the labs that we will provide for hands-on experiments, the students will not only learn through visuals but also practical. 

To ensure mental balance, we will provide safe environment for the students to learn by fixing any structural deficits they may suffer in school. Students will be encouraged to report any instances of threats or cyberbullying to their teachers for necessary action.

Framanetics has been tested at Wanokom Community of Cross River State, Nigeria where online connectivity is low. 65 students of SS1 at Secondary Grammer School Wanokom were tutored using Framanetics. Their assimilation rate was confirmed to be better than what it was using traditional teaching and more topics were covered using Framanetics than with conventional teaching.

Framanetics is a new way to learn in rural Nigeria. it is the first educational solution designed for rural areas. With video tutorials and hands-on assignments, students are engaged all through the learning period and progress is recorded for each student. 

the curriculum involves a step-by-step visual explanation with provisions for live experiments which will in turn help the student to achieve live results and relate these to the lessons taught in the videos.

this solution will always be handy should a new wave of COVID-19 break-out in Nigeria as students will have a means of continuing their learning uninterrupted. Teachers will also have a means of administering classes and assessments to students thereby avoiding lost study time due to the pandemic. 

It is engaging to both teachers and parents who are not very active in the student's education to ensure they are part of the students' schooling.

From the results obtained with students who participate in the program, others will be encouraged to adopt the same and get on-boarded.

This solution currently serve 300 students by providing the offline means for them to learn as they are located in a low-connectivity area. this will be scaled up to 4,500 in the next one year and up to 50,000 in 5 years time

Progress will be measured via individual assessment and also student performance in national examinations. We will make sure that both genders have equal access to this resource.

Pass rates in national examinations are a key metric in measuring our performance. Our target is to raise this metric from around 20% to 70% over the next 5 years.

The teachers that are participating in our program will be expected to have a good understanding in their respective subject and to become better.

We will continue to conduct surveys for parents to measure their level of satisfaction with their students progress

The teams comprises of 3 full time, 5 part time staff and 18 contract staff

the team comprises of:

DORIS EBI DAN-EYIBIO:

Doris is a computer scientist with vast experience in web design and application development. she is also an entrepreneur with over 5 years experience. she is responsible for designing the Framanetics model's adaptability to rural areas for easy use.

Barr. Kizito Dan:

He is a legal practitioner with over 10 years practice. he also has an MBA and has been involved in humanitarian work with various organizations. he is responsible for the legal aspect of the project.

IWAT EYIBIO N.

He is a financial analyst and is responsible for the hiring of contract staff and overseeing the production of lecture videos by the contract staff.

Our part time workers provide logistics for field work when necessary and all have rural backgrounds with sound knowledge of local terrains and culture which has been invaluable in our research work. Their personal experience when growing up in their villages has helped immensely in gathering information and gaining insights into the plight of rural students.

Our contract staff are hired on needs-basis. They help produce the videos for the classes and answer questions during reviews and feedback sessions. Each of them is an expert educator and they are paid per video or per review session they handle.

We embrace people of different backgrounds irrespective of race, colour, religion or ethnicity. Nigeria is a multi-cultural country with people of diverse tribes and religion co-existing together in every sphere of life. Our organization reflects this same values and we employ based on merit and not on any other factor. Our goal is to diversify our workforce in such a way that any community we visit, we will have someone on our team who has roots either closely or remotely to that community

we are applying to solve to enable us raise the funds needed to provide offline and online teaching resource for secondary school students in Northern Cross River State. our major barrier is funding. if we are able to get funds from Solve, it will help us get closer to our goal as we will apply the funds to the attainment of our objective.

the funds will also be used in meeting our logistics challenge as we are currently without an operational vehicle and resort to hiring SUVs and 4x4s that can access the difficult terrain we visit for our work. 

we are a Not-For-Profit Organization and do not make any revenue from our activities. the services we provide are for the poor and vulnerable in the society. our major need is funding to enable us meet our objectives and impact lives as much as we want to. 

we also need to be groomed in modern data collection methods through trainings and webinars. this will help us measure better the impact of our activities on the society and evaluate better ways of impacting the lives of those we serve.

we will need technical assistance with developing our technology for field work and also the management of our website on completion.

we will like to partner with UNICEF and WHO. this partnership will be in the area of trainings and provision of materials for our field work. technical assistance will also be sought from these bodies

no, i do not qualify for this prize

our solution is tailored to meet the educational needs of individuals using innovative technology. we seek to achieve equitable classrooms for students living in rural communities. 

if awarded, the prize money will go into the acquisition of the gadgets needed by these students to access our resource portal both at school and at home. we will also apply this funds in acquiring projectors and computer systems for more schools for classroom use.