Enkisoma - Nextgen Learning for Disconnected Students

Only 59.6% of the world population has access to the internet.  Kenya, is one of the leading ICT innovation hubs in sub-Saharan Africa with high internet penetration of 40% with 21.75 million internet users. Access to the internet is particularly important in the education sector especially with the new challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the growing teacher-students’ ratios. The pandemic that disrupted lives and livelihoods caused schools in many parts of the world to remain closed for more than with about 117 million students  still out of school due to mandated lockdowns as of September 2021 exacerbating further the digital divide further. 

In addition, 1.3 billion school-age children around the world do not have internet at home to access learning resources.  This situation is dire in sub-Saharan Africa 71% of teachers are unable to access tools, resources, and internet for remote learning and 90% of learners do not have devices at home.

In Kenya,  only 22% of learners were accessing online education during the peak of the pandemic when students stayed at home for 10 months, making the learning crisis worse. According to a survey conducted by Usawa, 9 out of 10 school heads indicated that less than 30% of their schools had measures in place to reach children with the required materials while at home. 

Additionally, most schools are unable to give their learners quality, experiential learning due to weak digital infrastructure and high cost of internet access. In addition, teachers are now required to facilitate learning in a learning model for which they were never trained and for which they have little experience.Most low income families lack electricity, connectivity, affordable data and devices  at home with many unable to afford a low cost laptop or PC upfront (with the basic ones costing above USD 300). 

Students who lack access to digital  learning, tools and connectivity miss out on updated content, tools, virtual experiments and edutainment. This leaves learners and teachers less prepared with skills relevant to the 21st century business and job market.

Project objective: 100,000 students in 100 schools in Kenya have access to equitable and sustainable quality digital learning by year 2024. 

In response to the problem above, Enkisoma will work with the relevant stakeholders in the education sector including the Ministry of Education,  digital content creators,  curriculum developers and technology companies to increase access to  innovative and modern digital learning to 100 schools.  The schools will be selected with advice from the Anglican Church of Kenya  (ACK) Education Directorate with whom Enkisoma has an agreement with to enhance digital access to ACK’s 4,000 schools in Kenya in 10 years.  The 100 schools will be prioritized based on criteria developed which will ensure that schools in low income urban/rural areas, girls’ schools in marginalised communities will be prioritised based on a selection criteria and initial assessment conducted. The digital content is also culturally sensitive, contextualised and curated to meet the learners needs.

The project will complement the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology  efforts to offer free primary and secondary school education. Although the ministry is allocated about 4.7 billion USD each year, the funds are not enough to modernise/ digitise learning as fast as needed. However, as the leading ICT innovation hub in sub-Saharan Africa, and only second to Madagascar in terms of internet country spread, Kenya is well positioned to digitalize its education sector (World Bank 2019).

The proposed solution will also complement United Nations efforts to improve digital learning and skills of children and youth in marginalised communities. UN has set aside USD 3.5 billion by 2030.  

The solution

Enkisoma Africa will expand its current work and will set up innovative computer pay-go labs with a set of hybrid open solutions designed for offline teaching and learning in the targeted 100 schools. Learners in each school  will be given access to devices in the pay-go labs that are pre-loaded with relevant and modern content aligned  with the curriculum including videos, simulations, and mock exercises. The contents will also include digital textbooks as the cost of buying textbooks for most families is prohibitive while those distributed by the government are shared amongst learners.

Enkisoma is currently pursuing partnership with Microsoft to increase computer clubs in schools and intends to train more teachers to enhance digitalisation of education. Teachers’ professional development on how to use technology to enhance learning and how to facilitate learning of digital skills is fundamental in order to accelerate learning and offer engaging interactive experiences for students.

 Enkisoma is in working partnership with Endless and has used their operating system in the past in the school devices. Discussions are ongoing on obtaining devices at less than USD 200. Other ongoing discussions are with Pinnacle and Asus on  possible future collaboration on soft and hardware solutions.

 

Enkisoma has worked with  digital content developers in the past to develop content for the targeted high schools while ensuring its alignment to the Ministry of Education guidelines and curriculum. Enkisoma has engaged one of the content developers, Kytabu platform that has digitized hundreds of textbooks required for primary and secondary schools, plus thousands of TED Talks recorded in 42 languages (English, Swahili and local dialects), learning games, a virtual classroom for in-class chats and some past tests and exams. Kytabu allows students to access any textbook in the country’s entire education curriculum library, rent the size of content they need, for a time they need it while still fitting the amount of money they have.

 

 For its project with MIT Solve, Enkisoma will  expand the partnerships above. Specifically, Enkisoma Africa will carry out the following end to end tasks in 100 schools to ensure the successful installation and use of the devices.

 

• Client Engagement & Needs Assessment Analysis
  •  Enkisoma will approach the targeted school to discuss partnership with the school to install a computer lab.
  • Subject to successful negotiations, the development of a work plan and Letter of Appointment/ MOU will follow
  • Assessing the computer lab requirements (soft and hardware requirements, electricals, furniture/workstation and security requirements)
• Development of Specific School Computer Lab Execution Plan and Budget
  • Based on the needs analysis findings and recommendations, Enkisoma team will prepare a project execution document comprising of the detailed workplan, quality control, risk mitigation, financials and budgets.
  • At this stage, the team will also draft a monitoring and evaluation, repayment and communication/ visibility plan.
  • Reporting and monitoring templates will be designed at this stage
  • The project team comprising of Enkisoma, ACK education directorate team, and the specific school management will be established at this stage
• Computer Lab Installation
  • The school computer lab is installed as per the agreed requirements, work plan and budget.
  • The devices to be installed are preloaded with the relevant learning content as agreed with the school according to teachers and learners needs.
  • Installation and upgrade of the computer lab may also require enhancing the security of the devices, rehabilitation of the physical building, ensuring reliability of the source of power.
• Training of Computer lab Personnel and Teachers
  • Selected teachers and lab staff will be trained on content, device use, care and maintenance. This will provide teachers with the relevant skills needed to incorporate technology in the classroom
  • Awareness creation on Safety and Health protocols to be observed by lab users will follow
• Computer Lab Testing and Commissioning
  • The technicians, teachers and selected students will test the installed devices to ensure there are no bugs or other issues
  • Once all issues are resolved, the lab will be commissioned as agreed.
  • Launch of the lab - Enkisoma will engage MIT Solve, ACK, media and the school for communication and visibility activities pre, during and after the launch.
• Support & Maintenance, Monitoring and Evaluation
  • Once installed and in use, Enkisoma team will make periodic visits to the school for support and maintenance.
  • Enkisoma will use its  data collection tools as well as a monitoring plan to measure project progress and success 
  • Enkisoma will prepare quarterly project reports guided by the data from the monitoring plan.
  • The reports will be disseminated to key partners like MIT Solve, ACK, Ministry of Education officials , other stakeholders and investors
  • Evaluation- Every two years, a review or mini evaluation of the success of Enkisoma projects in Kenya will be carried just before the AGM.
  • Lessons learned will be documented periodically- this is important for each project so that the learnings can inform the design and implementation of the next project
• Project Closure
  • Enkisoma will exit from supporting schools after an agreed time period based on the needs of each school 
  • The exit strategy will be stipulated in the MOU between Enkisoma and the school.
  • A closure meeting with all stakeholders will be held and a project closure report developed and shared with all.

 Enkisoma has subcontracted and has working arrangements with computer engineers, technicians and service providers , software and hardware supplies, content developers to ensure that simultaneous installation of a couple of schools can take place at the same time. At its optimal operations, Enkisoma estimates that it will install labs in 25 schools each quarter.

 

Enkisoma will target 100 secondary schools each with approximately 1,000 students  (aged between 14 and 18 years) and will equip two teachers/computer lab technician in each school with the relevant skills and knowledge. In total, 100,000 students from low income and marginalized communities are expected to enhance their learning through access to modern digital learning. Enkisoma also aims to train 200 teachers in the relevant computer skills, maintenance, monitoring and reporting on project performance .  The project will target educational institutions with low levels of digital access especially those that cater for women and girls in rural, peri-urban schools, urban poor, low income areas. 

Access to modern, quality and digitized content is expected improve the performance of the above students who currently do not have the required hard copy materials nor digital access since they cant afford. They will be at par with their peers in private schools.  Enkisoma's solution is expected to increase students enthusiasms, interest, creativity and innovation. 

The contents that Enkisoma will install will mostly be Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) theory, demonstrations and pre-loaded experiments. This will be crucial for students with inadequate Physics, Biology and Chemistry labs teachers and materials. It will increase their performance in STEM subjects and enhance their career choices.  In Kenya,  there is a clear gender disparity in STEM participation where only 30%-35% of girls are registered in STEM courses in colleges and universities. In addition, their graduation scores are low compared to those of males. The solution is expected to increase the interest of secondary school girls in STEM subjects.  For teachers, they will find it easy explaining STEM concepts and conducting STEM experiments will be less costly for the school. The students are expected to take on more responsibilities as the teachers role shift to being more of guides.

 The Teachers Service Commission of Kenya estimates a shortage of 58, 291 teachers at post-primary level. Installation of digital devices in schools targeted by Enkisoma will reduce the growing teacher- students ratio  (as high as 1: 70 in some secondary schools) as more students become responsible for their own learning with the devices. 

For students with physical  disabilities, the devices will reduce the distances they walk to the nearest libraries to rent a textbook or gain access to a device. This applies to most students with home responsibilities after school who will have no time to go to the libraries. 

 Overall, the 100,000 students targeted will be at par with their peers in Kenya and globally as they enter the globally competitive and adaptive workforce to meet the requirements of a rapidly industrializing economy. 

At a macro level Enkisoma Africa's solution  will contribute to achievement of Goal 4 of UN Sustainable Development Goal, which ensures equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all. The solution will also contribute to  achievement of Goal 5 which focuses on achievement of gender equality and empowerment all women and girls. The solution is also aligned to Goal 9 that aims at building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, in particular it will increase access to information and communication technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries.

At the national level, Enkisoma will work with appropriate ministries and departments that are key in enhancing the education and ICT sectors to ensure the project complements and gains from ongoing government efforts.  Enkisoma's solution will complement government's efforts in enhancing quality education. The government is committed to enhance both sectors and in FY2021/2022 it has set aside $210 million to fund various initiatives in the ICT sector including $100 million for government shared services, $67 million for the Digital Literacy Program (DLP), $12m for maintenance and rehabilitation of the National Optic Fibre Backbone (NOFBI) Phase II Expansion Cable, $11m for installation and commissioning of the Eldoret-Nadapal Fibre Optic Cable, and $16m to fast track the development of the Konza Technopolis, Kenya’s first smart city. All these projects will enhance internet penetration and digitization of education. They will also provide future employment opportunities for current students. 

Enkisoma Africa CEO, Sankei Kenga comes from pastoralist community called the Masai.  Pastoralists are people herd livestock, often as a nomadic wanderer without a set farm area.  The Masai migrate with their thousands of their livestock to seek for greener pastures and water for their cattle, sheep, goats and donkeys. Majority of the  Masai children's education is terminated as the family migrates from one pasture to another throughout the year. In Kenya, pastoral communities are about 30 million. In addition the pastoral communities are some of the most marginalized and poor in the Kenya due to periodic famine, encroachment by other communities, livestock diseases, inaccessibility of some of their lands, lack of government prioritization and low literacy levels. 

According to the Ministry of Education, as of year 2020, 3.5 million students were enrolled in secondary schools with females being 1.77 million which was was slightly higher than the number of male students (1.75 million).  However in pastoral communities the situation is different. According to the 2019 Kenya National Census, in Narok County the transition from primary to secondary school is very low with 143,271 out of 232, 941 females enumerated reporting  that they have completed primary education compared to 31, 271 who had secondary school education and only 496 had attended college or university. This statistics are similar in many of the counties that Enkisoma has prioritized for roll out of its activities.

Having witnessed the negative effects of lack of access to education on n especially of girls in his community, the CEO's passion to work in the sector was ignited. Access to reading materials and updated curriculum was limited for him and many of his peers. Students walked long distances to and from school and still had to perform their herding duties once they got home.  His interest in education was enhanced by missionaries from Europe who volunteered as teachers in his community in Narok county, Kenya. They provided access to more modern materials and teaching methods. 

Enkisoma CEO has vast skills working in the education sector, having initiated a Pay Go project where 10,000 university students paid for their devices in small amounts as they continued to study in Cool4Africa company. He has vast experience working with start-ups, in fundraising and expanding pilot projects. He founded Upstart Africa, has worked for Airbnb and Kontent Limited. 

At Enkisoma he works with 2 permanent and 4 temporary staff, has outsourced 10 computer technicians/technicians for needs assessments and installation of computer labs. For each project, a committee composed of Enkisoma, 2 school staff and regional education secretaries from the Anglican Church of Kenya, 1 board member is formed to oversee the successful implementation of the project. 

 Enkisoma Africa board level provides the relevant governance and guidance at at a strategic level. The board members have immense skills amongst them from  project management,monitoring and evaluation expert; fundraising and strategy expert; communication and public relations expert; business development expert to lawyers.   

In order to understand the needs of the schools, a needs assessment is carried out by the project manager and the technicians. These needs are documented and used to make decisions on resources that will  be invested in the school. The principal, board of governance, teachers, lab staff and students are interviewed during the needs assessment. The design and development of the lab is also participatory.  The Anglican Church of Kenya and education officials who understand the local community  are also interviewed to give different perspectives to the needs assessment. Schools are then selected using a pre- determined criteria that has been agreed upon with ACK.

Enkisoma is seeking support from MIT Solve in the following areas;

1. Technical support in upscaling its current operations from like minded  Communities of Practice (including technical business advisory services, software, hardware technical development)  

2. Funding to support Enkisoma's expansion to 100 schools (setting up of 100 computer labs each with a minimum of 30 devices; training of teachers and lab staff; content development) 

3. Strategic connections to funds including debt/equity financing, venture capital, seed capital, grants, angel investments, incubation and acceleration funds,  related awards schemes, bids, government award programmes.

4. Technical support in business and financial modelling for fundraising, strategy and business planing that will enable Enkisoma reach its profitability goals. 

5. Strategic networking and connections with organisations and leaders who have vast experience in the same field of digitalisation of education especially in marginalised communities in Africa. Enkisoma would like to leverage advice, product and business feedback.

6. Marketing, pitching in fundraising  and networking events as well as other opportunities to show case Enkisoma's work and potential plans.  

7. Exposure to learning opportunities from other start-ups in similar spaces. This might include MIT Solve supporting volunteers  to work with Enkisoma to build the capacity of staff, board or stakeholders

8. Participation in similar educational technology trials and pilots.  

9. Software/content development testing, trials and pilots from organisations engaged in similar technology

ability to provide devices to large numbers of students at a fraction of the cost - 

offline solution application- no internet access 

collaboration with 

STEM 

5 years- target 4,000 schools; 

4 000 000

increase the number of computer science students in the schools by 60% 

scaling to Tz and Uganda 

m  & e 

goal 4 of UN Sustainable Devlopmnt Goal - 

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

goal 5- 

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Target

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation9.c

Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

Enkisoma  and Anglican Church of Kenya have agreed to focus on access to quality digital learning in marginalised counties in Kenya. This include the counties of Garissa (23.8% poverty rate), Marsabit (24%), Tana River (18%), Laikipia 1(5.0%), Kitui (13%) ,Narok (20%) amongst others. The counties selected also have some of the highest illiteracy rates in Kenya. As described before, the counties also have pastoralists communities that have much less access to digital learning.

 The solution targets girls from marginalised and low-income communities that are more likely to drop out of school. Anglican Church of Kenya also has rescue centres  for girls coming from abusive homes and those that are potential victims of female genital mutilation. The rescue homes are also learning centres. Enkisoma will target some of these rescue homes. In addition, ACK has special schools for students with special needs, and some of these schools will be prioritized for Paygo labs.

 The devices will also have enhanced accessibility  features for those that have difficulties in hearing, speaking or seeing. The students are from diverse cultures and communities. Teachers in the schools apply unique training styles to improve learning including instructions in the students’ mother tongue in some instances.

Due to the high cost of setting up  computer labs in schools, our model enables schools to pay for digital access services through small installments of about USD 2 per student per term. This is amount is paid as part of tuition fee at the beginning of each term. 

As such, schools  seeking upgrade, expand do not have to seek expensive capital (which is transferred to parents) to install computer labs. Enkisoma solution increases the speed of access to digital education as our model focuses on plug and play.  Enkisoma bears the cost of installation at the first state and then recovers it slowly from the parents.  On average a secondary school in Kenya has 800 to 1,000 students. Setting up a computer lab requires an initial investment of USD 10,000 which most schools cannot afford.

In one term if all students pay, Enkisoma will recover about USD 2,000, the school has two terms bringing the total collected to USD 6,000. By the third year, Enkisoma will have recovered its cost and collected some more for maintenance, replacement and upgrading of devices. Enkisoma envages that it will be profitable and able to support its operations once the initial 25 paygo labs are installed in 25 schools, factoring in a 5% non repayment. 

Enkisoma also reduces maintenance costs by training teachers and lab staff as champions who will be the first line of support. Enkisoma contract runs for 3 years after which the school will be paying for content access and maintenance.

Students who cannot afford to pay for their access fee will be given a special voucher but expected to contribute an hour per week to support school community activity/volunteering. 

 In such set up there is minimal or no credit default exposure as labs belong to Enkisoma. Enkisoma will in turn take up insurance cover to mitigate some of the risks.  

In the event that the school does not remit the required payments after one term, the devices are automatically switched off through remote access by Enkisoma.  

Enkisoma has incorporated sustainability in its model. It anticipates that collections from the first 25 schools will propel it to profitability. As described in the previous section, each student will pay USD 2 per term and USD 6 per year.  Each school has about 800 to 1,000 students. In one term if all students pay, Enkisoma will recover about USD 2,000, the school has two terms bringing the total collected to USD 6,000. By the third year, Enkisoma will have recovered its cost and is able to cover  maintenance, replacement and upgrading of devices. It will also be in a position to fund its operations of setting up labs in other schools. Enkisoma envages that it will be profitable and able to support its operations once the initial 25 paygo labs are installed in 25 schools, factoring in a 5% non repayment.  

Currently Enkisoma is fundraising and looking for investors (equity/debt, angel investments, venture, grants,  companies, awards and so on) to enable it expand its operations and scale up its projects. The work is resource heavy with each lab requiring an initial investment of USD 10,000, bringing the total to about USD 250,000. 

Enkisoma's directors and shareholders have also invested in the company and personally contributed share capital contributions for start up activities. 

 

Enkisoma's directors and shareholders have also invested in the company and put share capital of about USD 20,000 for start up operations. 

 

From October 2021, Anglican Church of Kenya, Enkisoma and the management of Alliance High School held discussions and agreed on working modalities to establish a Paygo Lab in the school. The lab was completed and launched on November 30th, 2021. About 2,000 students are set to benefit from the new devices, upgrading of the computer lab and installation of modern learning materials.  The learning materials are geared towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum relevant to the 21st-century business & job market. For this pilot lab, Enkisoma also secured USD 7,000 from Safaricom (Vodafone) Ltd to support set up, upgrading of the lab, procurement of hardware and content development.   Alliance procured the computer workstations, Enkisoma spearheaded the setting up and connectivity of the devices.

Enkisoma has collected access fee from 1,800 students amounting to USD 3,600 in its first term (Jan- March 2022). Enkisoma projects to collect about  USD 21, 600  in two years some of which will be used for maintenance and support, monitoring and evaluation meetings, retraining of teachers and lab staff, device security and upgrade of antivirus and content.