Roothub SPARKS project

The global pandemic has displaced one in six children globally from formal school setting, with higher percentages of girls and young people experiencing poverty, living in rural areas, conflict zones, or with disabilities within the ages of 5-18, who don’t have access to smartphones or the internet and are thus underserved or educationally marginalized.

The impact of this problem can not be over emphasized, for example out of Africa’s 1billion people, experts project that almost 800million Africans are digitally excluded, that’s over two third of the African Peoples, the majority of Africa’s Population remains unconnected to the tools, Opportunities and services provided by the internet and mobile applications.

Africa has one of the world most expensive internet access rates. In the continents Biggest economy Nigeria, 1GB daily plan worth of data is worth 500 Nigerian Naira, which is about $1.2. Amounting to $36 a month, almost a half of The Nigerian Minimum Wage which is $80 (36,000 Nigerian Naira), leaving a larger population of the country lagging in the realm of digital  economy. As a majority of the population can not afford using the internet to learn.

Moreso, in the Middle East where we have more regions at war and unrest, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Others, We should also note as long as humanity is concerned education is prime not just for our society’s Sustenance or Solving the Day to Day society’s need, but rather Education is Prime and peaked as in itself is the bane of our World. More concerns should be drawn to Africa and The Middle East of which in realities have the worst educational systems globally and are the main Players of “the out of school game”, before and after the pandemic.

This is the problem we aim at solving, the already existing educational Lag and divide, causing the rise in individuals “out of school” within the ages of 5-18.

SPARKS - Simple Pipeline advancing Rural Digital Knowledge and skills project aims at curbing the digital lag existing among young people in underserved or educationally marginalized regions, for Teachers and students have a collaborative, interactive and Synergetic environment, through an intelligent use of USSD (unstructured Supplementary Service Data) method. 

With USSD, users interact directly from their mobile phones by making selections from various menus. Unlike an SMS message, during a USSD session, a USSD message creates a real-time connection. This means USSD enables two-way communication of information, as long as the communication line stays open. As such, queries and answers are nearly instantaneous. Thus, with USSD we could have an interactive, communicative and collaborative learning environment, this tool would be implore to teach people in the underserved regions and communities, impact them with skills and necessary lessons. Bring education to them.

SPARKS project has four major components.

• Campaigns, sensitizations advertisements and community-centered Awareness in underserved regions to awake in the targeted learners the consciousness and will to learn.
• Connecting teachers with learners, without language, tech or cultural barriers through the two-way interactive platform in the learners respective lingua franca, or native language if majorly spoken.
• Sourcing for the best educators to provide  in-product teaching and coaching modules that help them work with students.
•  Providing job opportunities and placement of learners after the course of learning.
• Continuous Revaluation of the system of SPARKS for challenges, barriers and yield updates, upgrades and better options to handle options on the run of our project.

As regards existing barriers to administering this solution such as language barriers, a tutor can start communicating in the lingua Franca of the respective country, and breaking down options to translations available into native languages using the USSD.

Of course with SPARKS we are changing the world, we are keen to unlocking the incredible yet untapped potential of Learners in underserved regions. By bring to their doorsteps the modules of learning to any course so as to empower them, equip them with the contemporary basics of our digital society.

Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of out of school 5-18years in underserved Communities, and building the best set of educators globally through technology so that no matter what backgrounds they come from, language they speak, what culture they are brought up in, all students can be successful has access to education and quality education at that.

Our target populations, are the 1.3 Billion young people who don’t have access to the internet, within the ages of 5-18. 

They are people from underserved communities, by Underserved communities i mean the regions or groups of people who face additional barriers to the access the internet and quality education, they are educational underserved communities, they are inadequately provided with the service “Education”.

This solution would address there needs as learners with a smartphone can receive lessons interactively with instantaneous response from teachers, from anywhere they are so far their phone is switched on and having a network provider, more to that is learning with their respectively languages solving the existing language barriers. The patterns of education would be studied to fit in the socio-cultural-economic need of their respective countries.

With over 7 years experience in equipping people with Digital Skills across Nigeria, our work has been delivered in partnership with Google, Facebook, Coursera and other partners impacting over 19,000 people so far. Our training centers are situated in close proximity to the rural areas, enabling us the opportunity to closely observe the challenges facing them and preferring solutions to them as well.

 Our team is comprised of a diverse and complementary group of experts in Digital skills training, human resource management and human-centered design that provides expert viewpoints from a wide array of fields. Our Rwandan leadership has expertise in rural health needs and national health requirements, while our Co-Founder’s extensive experience as a Digital skills provider/advocate in Africa allows our team to draw upon the successes and failures of digital economy initiatives. The Roothub works closely with Governements, Organisations, and community leaders to guide our national scale strategy.

 Our approach;

Firstly is by Campaigns, sensitizations advertisements and community-centered Awareness in underserved regions to awake in the targeted learners the consciousness and will to learn. This would be done by Social media influencers and sponsored posts, television advertisements, online ads, direct community to community sensitization by either visiting communities or gathering up community heads and lecture them on what sparks is all about and what is to be achieved here from them their respective community problems that we could blend into the education pattern to achieve the yes our educational goals and still societal-problem solving, at the end of the day education is and should be a tool for change of our societal ills.

Next we, build Modules to learning each course to be undertaken, in line with syllabuses, schemes of works, educational goals and patterns of each respective society, build up this units of informations for learning and upload them to servers to be delivered to learners. At this point we can say we are Connecting teachers with learners, without language, tech or cultural barriers through the two-way interactive platform in the learners respective lingua franca, or native language if majorly spoken.

Also we have schemes laid down for evaluation, we would applying both formative evaluation and summative evaluation. On the course of learning and after the course of learning. 

Finally, Providing job opportunities and aids to which can aid learners after the course of learning engage, pick up jobs and be relevant, we choose to partner with firms on approval by them, to give opportunities to a handful of our  best learners, a job within their direct environment. Serves as a means in raising the interest of learners, before and during the course of learning.

The Roothub SPARKS Project achieves lasting improvements in Digital skills outcomes by promoting local innovation within disadvantaged rural areas. Our training method is being sought after at a pace that we had not anticipated, largely because of our ability to integrate the needs of the local communities and their challenges with the expectations of thriving in the digital world. We are applying to Solve because we would greatly benefit from assistance with our scale and growth models, as well as our ability to validate the impact we are achieving.  This partnership would also further our goal of becoming a thought leader in Digital skills training design across Africa. 

Designing training solutions alongside frontline workers, community leaders, and users ensures effective and efficient utilization by the end-user. We begin by assessing the needs of learners and community members while ensuring relevance to the larger digital economy system. SPARKS is standardized to global tech talent requirements and is relevant to certification requirements. We have setup a data-reporting, monitoring, and evaluation platform to ensure the proper adoption of our solution. The result is an innovative digital training project that seeks to harness the global technology talent shortfall to provide high quality talents, and supports global scale.

Firstly is by Campaigns, sensitizations, advertisements and community-centered awareness in underserved regions, to awake in the targeted learners the consciousness and will to learn. This would be done by Social media influencers and sponsored posts, television advertisements, online ads, direct community to community sensitization by either visiting communities or gathering up community heads and lecture them on what sparks is all about and what is to be achieved here from them their respective community problems that we could blend into the education pattern to achieve the yes our educational goals and still societal-problem solving, at the end of the day education is and should be a tool for change of our societal ills.

Next we, build Modules to learning each course to be undertaken, in line with syllabuses, schemes of works, educational goals and patterns of each respective society, build up this units of informations for learning and upload them to servers to be delivered to learners. At this point we can say we are Connecting teachers with learners, without language, tech or cultural barriers through the two-way interactive platform in the learners respective lingua franca, or native language if majorly spoken.

Also we have schemes laid down for evaluation, we would applying both formative evaluation and summative evaluation. On the course of learning and after the course of learning. Respectively. 

Finally, Providing job opportunities and aids to which can aid learners after the course of learning engage, pick up jobs and be relevant, we choose to partner with firms on approval by them, to give opportunities to a handful of our  best learners, a job within their direct environment. Serves as a means in rising the interest of learners, before and during the course of learning.

Impact Measurement  

Metrics

• Growth and participation rate
• Number of new signups per month
• Number of active participants

Collection Methods

• Measured via member signup
• Attendance register for activities within the centers
• Insight, Survey Responses

Purpose

Targeted at equipping community members, especially low-income earners aged 17 - 35 from rural and disadvantaged communities in our regions/expanding regions of operations with digital skills required to access jobs, advance their career paths and create sustainable means of livelihood for themselves. 

Our overall vision is to lower the barrier to entry of technology education by deploying a holistic approach that helps our audience access the minimum viable learning needs and increase technology adoption rate. 

 Identity

Predominantly, members of our community are;

• Young School leavers of Age 14-30 with the zeal to learn and drive impact,
• Reside in rural areas with limited opportunities for economic growth.
• They possess a minimum of Secondary school certificate with a view to upskilling
• Low income earners
• Low internet access and in most cases, no internet access

These individuals strongly believe that technology facilitates advancement in the rural level of social,economic, political and cultural views of life.

 Values   

• Sharing culture: Peer network to learn from each other through shared goals, together with a growth mindset. 
• Meaningful interaction: Trainings tailored to our diverse audience that involves language based, in-person training
• Diversity in unity
• Personal Development
• Learning global workplace standard practices

 Success Definition

• Increase in number of learners from 1000 to 10000 as well as 50% increase in engagement through activities

Impact Measurement  

Metrics

• Growth and participation rate
• Number of new signups per month
• Number of active participants

Collection Methods

• Measured via member signup
• Attendance register for activities within the centers
• Insight, Survey Responses

COVID-19 has accelerated the digitization of businesses, but many Africans are still not equipped to participate in the digital economy. Most of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains unconnected to the internet, unable to access digital services and take part in the digital revolution sweeping the world.

Although mobile broadband is the most popular means of accessing the internet in the region, mobile internet adoption stood at just 26% at the end of 2019, according to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association. SSA accounts for almost half of the global population not covered by a mobile broadband network. Even for those who have access to the internet, it is expensive and unreliable. 

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the network operator’s computers. It is a mobile protocol that does not require the end-user to have an internet connection, and it is being utilized across the region to connect people to basic digital services. It allows mobile phone users to dial a string of characters, usually starting with an asterisk and ending with a hash (*1234#), to access a bare-bones, text-based menu.

USSD has a simple user interface that most people, regardless of digital literacy level, can grasp easily. This gives digital novices an entry point before they are introduced to the more complex world of mobile and web applications. Users of feature phones who already use the USSD function to check and recharge their prepaid account balances can simply extend that know-how to operate other services. There are even many smartphone owners in Nigeria who prefer to use their dial pads to connect with their bank instead of a mobile or web application. For those who choose USSD, especially for simple functions like recharging mobile airtime, it offers the advantages of greater speed, less friction and the ability to circumvent unreliable internet services.

Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of out of school 5-18years in underserved Communities, and building the best set of educators globally through technology so that no matter what backgrounds they come from, language they speak, what culture they are brought up in, all students can be successful has access to quality education.