Start a Library Trust

The SALApp is a multi-device literacy application aiming to bridge the literacy gaps in marginalised African learners aged 4-12 years. It is an interactive and fun education application that allows offline functionality, and the content is accessible on the web, android, and IOS devices. 

It has guided literacy and remedial programmes: within the five literacy bands- emergent, beginner, transition, intermediate and independent. The SALApp offers individualised learning, gamified assessments and generates reports for demonstrating the theory of change.

The analytics tab for the educator/teacher enables parents and teachers to generate different reports and collaborate to assist any learner being left behind. 

The main problem that the app solves is the lack of access to literacy reading materials in schools. In the wake of Covid -19 in 2020, children could not attend physical classes. The teachers were also not adequately prepared to deliver the syllabus online as it required digital and literacy skills. 

When Kenyan children were taken through assessments after eight months of staying at home, more than half of the 1.1 million grade 8 pupils failed to meet the 50% mark in languages, science and mathematics in their entry exams after the lockdown. The assessments revealed that children in urban areas performed better than those in rural areas and pupils in private schools performed better than those in public schools. These results were a clear indication of the huge digital divide caused by the pandemic, which propelled the regression of learning development in children and changed our perceptions of access to education. We, therefore, developed the literacy app with a variety of reading materials and guiding manuals to; a)enhance independent learning both in school and out of school, b) enhance the acquisition of digital skills: the app has preloaded training manuals for both teachers and parents to learn basic digital skills and information on child online safety and security c) to track individual learning for each learner and d) motivate learners to read not for exams but for pleasure. The content is in both audio, games, animations and flipbooks. Learners would enjoy reading them instead of watching cartoons and other uncensored content on the internet.

As we seek and embrace new ways of enhancing access to education in Kenya, there is a need to embrace digital literacy. The app has a variety of storybooks, which are powerful tools to engage and teach children continuously. While research has shown that children who read storybooks often perform better than their counterparts who do not read, no effort has been made to encourage children to read storybooks, whether in school or at home. On this premise, we designed this app for marginalised learners, which seeks to inculcate a culture of reading for pleasure while embracing digital literacy as a lifelong learning habit.

In our quest to set up physical book libraries in public primary schools in the country, we received a lot of requests from teachers and learners regarding the introduction of digital libraries since the new curriculum in Kenya emphasised on Digital literacy as a key competency that learners have to acquire.

On this realization, we conducted two stakeholder engagement workshops with teachers, education experts and civil society organizations working in marginalised public primary schools across the country. We sought their input on the content to be developed, the app features and education challenges to be addressed by the app. After development, we called for another stakeholder meeting to share updates and seek collaboration in piloting. 

We believe that if learners are signed up to the  SALApp, effectively complete all the levels of learning, and are assessed by their teachers, then they shall improve their digital, reading, speaking and learning skills. It is hypothesised that by aligning the App to Kenya’s education system and curriculum, through gamification, then learners’ motivation to learn will increase resulting in a good performance, evidenced by the analysed assessment results through the App’s inbuilt monitoring and evaluation system. 

Our current standard evidence is level 3; 

The results obtained from the assessments at the sign-up inform the learner's placement level to the different literacy bands; emergent, beginner, transition, intermediate or independent.

The reports generated from every activity undertaken by the learner show the literacy competencies acquired and determine the transition rate from one level to the other. 

We aspire the data collected from learners, teachers, and parents can help improve and contextualize the content and develop and implement literacy policies across Africa. 

The main key indicators of our literacy app are; 

1. Number of books read by the learners in a certain period of time

2. The number of learners reached by the app. 

3. Transition rate from one level to another; emergent, beginner, transition, intermediate or independent.

4. Percentage growth in key competencies acquired; Phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension
The SALApp has inbuilt monitoring and evaluation tools that generate data and measure impact as the learner interacts with the content. 

The SALApp is a multi-device literacy application aiming to bridge the literacy gaps in marginalised African learners aged 4-12 years.

We strongly believe that there is a need to strengthen the evidence in our theory for change. We intend to create more content for wider geography;  Africa and beyond. We need financial resources to submit the app to the relevant government quality assurance agencies for vetting and endorsement, and we need gadgets to install the app for distribution in all schools. 

LEAP fellows will play an important role in guiding us in aligning the collected data to inform policy development and implementation, and scaling up the content to a wider education context while maintaining quality.