Addressing Backwardness of Education in the Southeast region

Our solution addresses the poor standard of education in the Southeast Asia region including Vietnam,Philippines,Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailand

The project is aimed at improving the quality of education of learners with a focus on undeserved children across the Southeast countries(Vietnam,Philippines,Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailand) via equitable access to quality education by integrating workable EdTech solutions tailored to meet the needs and demands of these learners,specifically,the children of marginalized and disadvantaged communities.

The project is solving limited and uneven access to learning opportunities by Primary and secondary school children in the Southeast Asia,particularly, the vulnerable and marginalized children coupled with long closures  of schools with over 150 million children out of schools in the region as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.The solution we are proposing,therefore,include the following;

1.Training and Equipping Teachers with relevant technology:This involves training of qualified and competent teachers and school leaders to implementing curricula relevant to the needs of school children with special attention to underserved children.The teachers,school leaders,stakeholders and parents,particularly,low-income parents should be equipped relevant digital skills and knowledge to enable them work together towards helping their children and wards have easy access to education,both during peace and crisis like COVID-19 crisis.

2.Affordable and Accessible Technology:The use of technology like USSD,SMS,radios,televisions by educators to deliver education to learners would enable underserved children in low internet connectivity environments have easy access to quality education,and forestall the digital divide in the region,since there is no need for internet and data usage.

3.Adoption of Blended method of Education Delivery:In-person classes should be complemented with online learning to ensure learners engagement and personalization.This method would help the underserved learners.

  I am working to solve limited access to education and digital divide bore by the underserved school children in the Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand,Malaysia which in turns lead to their poor performance in literacy,numeracy,science and other subjects.

 The root causes of the problems include the following;

1.Absence of accessible and affordable Education Technology(Edtech) to complement offline education

2.Long School closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

3.Limited numbers of low-cost education providers to serve the disadvantaged and marginalized groups

4.Financial and socio-economic constraints faced by the low-income groups which prevent their children and wards from access to quality education,unlike their counterparts from rich families that have access to offline and online education,both during peace and crisis.

  Over 150 millions children were impacted by school closures in the region.

  One of the factors contributing to the problem in the communities is low internet connectivity.This prevents the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups from access to remote learning.In addition,parents and teachers are not equipped enough with relevant digital skills and knowledge to help integrate technology into education processes in the region.

  Moreso,funders and innovators solutions do not align with the police makers,and also fail to establish rapport with them.This is one reason why EdTech is not successful in public schools,and even worsens the education inequality.Funders and innovators might not take into consideration in developing their solutions,the science of learning which emphasizes evidence base.This might account for the reason why children in the region perform below OECD average in numeracy and literacy results.

  The solution serves the school-attending age group,particularly,the undeserved school children in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

  The solution is developed to improving education standard of the children across the Southeast region.Even though some children have limitless access to quality learning opportunities,both via in-person classes and virtual models,they still perform very poorly in their academic work.Hence,the solution also addresses the cognitive abilities,social and mental well-being of these children for better and improved learning outcomes.

   It is pertinent to look in the ways the disadvantaged and marginalized groups are currently undeserved which include the following;

  1.They have limited access to quality education as a results of infrastructural,financial constraints and long school closures due to COVID-19 pandemic without caring for them.And most of them could not start the secondary education after the completion of primary school. 

   They live in low connectivity environments,hence,Edtech integration into learning-teaching processes is ineffective.In addition,electricity supply to them is poor,which can increase equitable access to learning opportunities.

2.Non-provision of appropriate technology(internet,electricity etc) to meet their educational,social and economic growth and development.

3.Limited number of public and low-cost private schools:The parents are low-income earners,and can not afford the tuition fees of their children and wards.The public and private education providers to serve the vulnerable groups are not enough.

   I find out their infrastructure and financial positions to deeply understand their needs for equitable access to quality education.

   I engage them with digital training and Mobile Reading Clinic.The solution will address their needs by enabling every child to quality education.

  The problem(Backwardness of education in Southeast region) is well aligned to both the Challenge and dimension I have selected,as follows;

   The school children across Vietnam,Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia perform below average in their academic work,including literacy,numeracy and science which is caused by limited access to quality education for over 167 million children,digital divide and long school closures as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.This leads to fall in the standard of education across the Southeast countries.

   The solution(raising the education standard via Increasing equitable access to quality learning opportunities through open sourced, offline, or virtual models, especially for undeserved learners in low connectivity environment)

    The children of Southeast region have potentials and hold a key position in transforming the region,and the world as whole.The solution,therefore,proposes strategies tailored to meets the needs of the learners,particularly,the undeserved children in low internet connectivity environments,to increase their access to quality education.

   The solution,therefore,involves blended methods of delivering education and instructions to learners,especially,the undeserved,which include low-cost in-person classes and accessible and affordable EdTech which include using USSD,SMS,radio,televison and recorded devices for learning-teaching processes,without the needs for internet subscription,use of data.

 The target population is the school-attending age group,with a special focus on the disadvantaged and marginalized groups across the Southeast countries(Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia).The target beneficiaries are well-aligned with the Challenge and the dimension I have selected.

The Team Leader is Akanbi Issa Idowu,the CEO of God First Education Foundation,Nigeria.

The solution is innovative by providing accessible and affordable EdTech solutions to underserved children to increase their access to quality education as their opportuned counterparts.

The technology does not involve data subscription which is,therefore,suitable for low internet connectivity environments.

Yes,We have delivered education to underserved learners via USSD,SMS,television,radio and recorded devices.This has helped to increase access to learning,and their attainments have improved.

The use of technology USSD,SMS, television, recorded devices, renewable energy to offer affordable and accessible EdTech to learners, especially,the underserved children in the low connectivity environments.

The solution would increase equitable access to learning opportunities and outcomes,with a focus on disadvantaged and marginalized group,as low-cost but qualitative education blended with affordable and accessible virtual learning are provided across the Southeast Asia region so as reach the marginalized and vulnerable groups.

The solution would also develop and improve their cognitive abilities, social and mental wellness, making positive impacts on their lives.As a result,their performance in numeracy, literacy and science would dramatically improve.

The solution has a long-term outcomes as it allows the children, specifically,the underserved to use their potentials who hold a key position in transforming the Southeast Asia countries and the world as a whole.

I use monitoring, evaluation and learning to measure my progress towards my impact goals.

96% of the beneficiaries have excelled in their academic performance as a result of the solution.

My impact goals for the next year include increasing equitable access to quality education by every child across the Southeast Asia region, regardless of race, locations, gender, social and financial status.

My impact goals for the next three years include establishment of more schools throughout the Southeast Asia countries, capacity building, provision of wider network coverage, internet and broadband penetration across the Southeast Asia region.

My impact goals for the next five years include developing and promoting STEM in the Southeast Asia countries for the emergency of great minds among the children and youths that will transforming the region, and the world as a whole, making positive impacts on many people's lives.

Products: Accessible and affordable EdTech products are not enough to go round the over 167 million school children.

Access to talent:It is difficult to find talent that would help relevant technology.

Market size: The size of each country in the Southeast Asia region is very big,and needs great effort,time and energy to reach many people.

Technology: Infrastructural constraints persist like poor electricity.

Financing:No enough capital to finance the project.

Legal:There is need to establish strong relationship with policy makes for successful projects.

Cultural: Culture of a place is a barrier to innovation.The people might oppose such a solution in their communities.

Market entry:This entails protocol that might hinder one from entering the market.

My organization is God First Education Foundation.I am the CEO.The organization was found to develop and promote quality and sound education for learners,from primary to university level,and support the underprivileged,vulnerable and marginalized groups to have access to education as every child counts.

We have staff strength of 30 members,all are full-time workers.

The team members seasoned and qualified staff.They possess qualities like problem-solving skills, communication skills, organizational skills and interpersonal skills like motivation and inspiration.They are also innovative and creative.

The team lead is innovative and creative,and he is passionate, focused and success-driven.

The solution to limited access to quality education and education in balance across the Southeast Asia region is an example of how our team lead can conceptualize and implement a new idea.

We partner with Faizat Learning Centre.

We help in the enrollment of new intakes into the institution, recruitment of teachers, curriculum planning and growth of the institution.

To help our solution has positive impacts on people's lives,to scale up, and support us both in moral and monetary terms.

We need help in fundraising and capacity development and technology to facilitate achieving our goals.