Mwandi Project
Providing digital primary school education in remote rural Zambia through e-learning tablets, animated lessons and technical support.
In 2015, the iAfrica Foundation established the Mwandi digital education project, in the Mwandi District of Zambia’s Western Province.
The Western Province of Zambia is the poorest in Zambia. Economic growth is yet to benefit most of the rural population there. In Mwandi district, 89% of the population lives below the poverty line. Most of the population survives by subsistence farming, in an area where soils are sandy and rainfall is low.
The Mwandi Project set out to test the use of digital education technology in this challenging environment. The project trained teachers, equipped schools with digital teaching and learning materials, established mentorship and peer-networks and provided power and connectivity solutions.
Six primary schools in the Mwandi area were equipped with e-learning tablets containing the entire Zambian primary school curriculum, in English and local Zambian languages. Lesson plans for teachers helped them adopt modern interactive enquiry-based learning and move away from conventional rote methods. Students gained access to thousands of matching fun multi-media animated lessons.
The project also set up a Service Centre near each of the schools, providing security and charging facilities for the tablets when not in use at the schools, plus internet access, printing, technical support and a range of other services to help the community. This initiative aimed to provide rural communities with better access to information and markets, helping them to break out of the poverty trap.
The initial Mwandi project was supported by the Peter Cundill Foundation, with additional support from Microsoft. It was implemented in partnership with iSchool Zambia and Connect Africa.
Over successive years, evaluations showed positive outcomes compared to neighbouring schools. Teachers adopted improved teaching methods and pupil’s numeracy and literacy progressed more than their peers in other schools.
The Mwandi project provided valuable lessons, guiding the design of iAfrica’s subsequent ZayoHub project. First amongst these is the realisation that substantial change requires close engagement, over time. To improve education depends not just on delivering materials, but on helping teachers to use these resources to the best effect, adapting how they teach. This is best achieved with ongoing access to mentorship, as well as the support of the head teachers and education authorities. A second lesson was the significance of investing in power and connectivity; power solutions are essential for accessing the benefits of digital learning, while connectivity unlocks a wide range of benefits that can drive improved teaching and learning at very low cost.
iAfrica Foundation is committed to improving education in rural schools in Zambia, using some of the lessons learned from Mwandi, and is working closely with Mwabu to develop and deliver affordable ed-tech solutions that work in poor rural environments, online and offline.
