Project Able Too

Promoting Inclusive education through an interactive online platform for Teachers and parents of children with special educational needs.

In Cameroon, 500000 children with special needs under the age of 18 are registered in schools. Just about 300 teachers are trained to handle these children with special needs, thus giving a ratio of 1 teacher : 1600 children with special needs.

Although the Ministry of Basic Education is making efforts to implement its policy on inclusive education, its application in schools remains far from the desired reality.

Children with disabilities are still left behind in the classrooms, others are still hidden in the homes because of stigmatization, and others do not go to school because of the high costs in specialized centers. This is because we do not have enough teachers trained to handle the special needs of these children.

Our project aims to solve this problem by developing an interactive online platform through which teachers and parents will be trained.

This online platform that will connect the 300 teachers already trained with other none-trained teachers, parents and specialists around the world, giving them the opportunity to learn from each other.

Our platform will provide them with:

1. Dedicated forums per disability where they could share their knowledge and experiences.

2. An online library with resources in special education for the training.

3. Access to free online and printable educational resources.

4. An assessment and loyalty scheme for active and consistent users of the platform.

With the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and the penetration of Internet within our country, there is a lot of interest developed around the digital economy and a higher probability to reach out to a wider audience. That is the reason why we opted for a web application to train teachers and parents thereby improving the education of children with special needs.

Our solution is innovative because it is the first online platform dedicated to enhancing the capacities of teachers and tutors in the area of special needs education and inclusiveness. Due to the limited number of teachers with appropriate skills to handle inclusive classes, most children with special needs don't have access to quality education both in school and at home. This online platform will break every barrier by exposing the teachers and tutors to learning opportunities worldwide.  It provides a platform for the sharing of best practices and access to diverse learning resources for inclusive education.

We make use of the digital economy to connect teachers and tutors to learning resources and experiences which will enhance their inclusive education skills. We have developed an online platform which requires the use of smart phones, tablets and computers in order to access important resources on special education. It bridges the gap which exists between different locations and promotes the sharing of experiences and best practices remotely.

Our goal is to have at least 1000 teachers and tutors of special needs children registered on our online platform over the next 12 months. In order to achieve this goal, we intend to organize 20 training sessions in schools and associations of parents with special needs children in order to guide them on how to make maximum use of the platform. We hope to have at least 500 engaged teachers and tutors who will serve as ambassadors of the project bring in their colleagues to register on the platform.

Our vision is to have at least 50% of teachers and tutors of children with special needs registered on our platform in five years to come. Every school in Cameroon should have registered members on the platform who will serve as ambassadors in their schools. We equally look forward to having at least 50 experts of special needs education registered on our platform who will provide professional training resources to the registered members of the platform. We will have an intercontinental mix of members on the platform sharing best practices and taking advantage of available online resources.

In order to promote our project, we plan to use both online media and local telecommunication media such as national televisions and radios. We also plan to meet associations dealing with the problematic of children with special needs.  We will focus more on visual Promotions via different media because people's attentions are easier caught by visualizing than reading. We will go to schools and create partnerships with the schools to promote inclusive education. The schools will be showcased and ranked as inclusive institutions based on their engagement and the engagement of their teachers.

We are currently serving about 20 persons with our solution and physical training sessions. We currently have seven teachers registered on the platform and we have organized a training session for 17 teachers in our pilot school known as Tassah Academic Complex. These teachers will soon be joining the online community in order to take advantage of the unlimited online resources available on the platform. They have been motivated to and are eager to be transformed into inclusive teachers and tutors.

We hope to have at least 1000 persons registered on the platform who will represent the teachers and tutors community in 12 months from now. WE hope to get to 5000 registered teachers and tutors in 3 years from now. These teachers and tutors will be not just from Cameroon but other targeted countries as well in order to enhance the sharing of best practices from different contexts. We hope to have more inclusive classes and have more teachers and tutors who make use of assistive technologies to enhance inclusive education.

Our team is comprised of young dynamic ladies representing different
fields of work such as researchers, social entrepreneurs, engineers and
educators. We all all several years of experience in development works
as well as software and hardware development and management. We have a software Engineer as well as a hardware Engineer among us. They have technical expertise when it comes to managing an online platform and doing necessary online activities to reach out to the targets. We also have researchers and Development workers who have the skills necessary to mobilize and engage communities in projects.

In order to ensure the sustainability of this project, we simply need to properly train the initial teachers and parents who will then serve as ambassadors of the project. They will be able to get other colleagues registered on the platform and they will be able to guide them on how to make use and take advantage of the platform.

People will be able to advertise their products and services through our online platform and pay us for that. The more our users on the platform, the more people will want to showcase their products and services through it.

We will later on introduce premium services and packages on our platform which will be paid for. Any regular member who wishes to become a premium member will have to pay a premium member subscription fee of about $10 per year. This subscription fees will enable us to pay for the running expenses of the project and ensure its sustainability over the long run. The premium member package will be a highly motivating package which will entice the users to take advantage of it international institutions and NGOs

We are applying to Solve because we believe it will offer our project the required visibility at the international level which is necessary for success. It will provide us with the appropriate networking opportunities and possibility of meeting potential partners who can join us in the Inclusive world. I t will also provide us with a platform to pitch our project and hope for additional sources of funding needed to scale the project and achieve our desired goals in 12 months to come. We will have the opportunity to mentored by experts and quickly attain the level of self-sustainability.

Our key barriers include:

Lack of financial resources needed to scale our project and achieve our goals.

Lack of foreign partners who can help us get members from other countries necessary for the sharing of experience and learning of best practices on the platform. 

Solve can help us by connecting us to potential partners for the project and potential funding opportunities to run the project and graduate from the pilot phase. We also require mentorship which we believe we can have through the Solve program.