Even before COVID-19, there were more than 2.7m primary school-aged children that aren’t reached by school systems in Ethiopia and Uganda, according to UNESCO. Since 2016, Geneva Global has run an award-winning accelerated education program called Speed School in these two countries, delivering impressive results. The Speed School accelerated learning model delivers the first three years of a national curriculum in just 10 months to out-of-school children aged 9 to 14 in efforts to re-enter them in the formal school system. But when the pandemic closed down schools and Speed Schools, Geneva Global was forced to come up with a back-up plan. In July 2020, Geneva Global partnered with Frontline to pilot a system that will see its Speed School project engage remotely with the educators and parents to improve teaching and learning outcomes and to streamline administration - all through tapping the power of SMS.
“School shutdowns due to Covid-19 began less than three weeks into the Ugandan school year. For that reason, despite having been engaged in a training just before the shutdowns, Speed School teachers had very limited opportunity to engage with their students and try out the new skills they had garnered. To ensure that learning was not lost, Geneva Global used FrontlineSMS out of the gate to engage facilitators in capacity strengthening activities,” says Ellen Carney, Geneva Global’s Associate Program Director in Uganda and Ethiopia.
Schooling is built for communication. Frontline’s platform makes it easy to organise, keep records of, and automate outreach between teachers, students and parents, and administrators. Frontline makes it easier to leverage SMS’s comparative reach, readership, and accessibility to school-based communications. Geneva Global’s system enables learners to advance their knowledge on their own during the pandemic and in absence of physical classrooms. Geneva Global began by connecting with its facilitators - the teachers at the Speed School program - in Uganda using the SMS program.
Connecting the facilitators was especially important because the Speed School program had recently expanded to four new districts in the Northern Region of Uganda, nearly doubling the program’s overall geographic scope, says Ellen. Speed School in Uganda currently operates in six districts; Kitgum, Loro, Otuke, Omoro, Amuru, Nwoya and Gulu. Further, Geneva Global works with three collaborating partners and government officials to implement the program. This meant that over two-thirds of all Speed School facilitators in 2020 were brand new to the program.
Beneficiaries of Speed Schools in Uganda before Covid paralysed physical learning in March 2020
PHOTO: ELLEN CARNEY/ GENEVA GLOBAL
At the same time, facilitators, collaborating partners, and Geneva Global officials worked closely with beneficiary communities to gather contact information for parents of the Speed School learners. Speed School learners are enrolled from the most vulnerable communities in the regions where Geneva Global operates and, in many cases, the children are the first in their family to attend school. Most families do not have access to technology beyond a basic cell phone and radio, and many do not have access to either.
“This posed a challenge for us as we assessed the possibility of developing SMS messaging for parents, as not all parents had access to cellphones, and of those who did, many were not literate. We mitigated this challenge by utilising another aspect of the Speed School programs called Self Help groups,” says Ellen.
In cooperation with the accelerated learning aspect of the Speed School program, one parent from each household is enrolled in a community-based Self-Help Group that aims to strengthen capacity among parents, specifically concerning financial literacy and economic security. These small groups of parents continued to meet to work on income generating activities amidst the pandemic. It was realised that in almost all of the Self Help Group, at least one mother or guardian had access to a cell phone and at least one mother was functionally literate. Geneva Global therefore launched SMS messaging to parents in October, recognising that inasmuch as not all parents have cell phones, the content of SMS messages can be spread by word of mouth throughout the community.
“While lockdowns were strict and cases of COVID-19 were on the rise, Geneva Global used Frontline SMS to regularly communicate to parents the risks of the virus, signs and symptoms to look out for, the location of testing facilities, and recommendations on ways to keep themselves and their children safe,” adds Ellen.
In October, the rate of COVID-19 spread diminished enough that Geneva Global was given the green light to launch home-based implementation of the Speed School program in Uganda. Facilitators began meeting regularly with pupils in small groups at home or in a public space in their community to deliver accelerated lessons. SMS messaging was pivotal to the rollout of this program, which has finally brought learners back to the Speed School program after more than seven months. SMS was used to guide facilitators in their planning and delivery of home-based instruction and to inform parents of the exciting new development.
Ethiopian Speed School students in jovial moods before Covid struck in 2020 and affected physical classes
PHOTO: ELLEN CARNEY/ GENEVA GLOBAL
“SMS messages were sent multiple times each week to update all facilitators and beneficiaries on the status of the home-based learning and to remind all involved to respect rigorously the COVID-19 precautions we had put in place. The initial reports have been very positive, with pupils, facilitators, and parents all satisfied to have the learning resume,” says Ellen.
In Uganda, Geneva Global uses FrontlineSync system to connect 230 Speed Schools, reaching 230 Speed School facilitators and nearly 7,000 Speed School learners and beneficiaries. Ellen manages the SMS system with her colleagues; Julius Kyaligonza and Augustine Koni. To cover the cost of messaging on the end of facilitators and parents, the team purchases airtime bundles bi-weekly to ensure there is no cost passed to the recipients. Due to the efficacy of the system, Geneva Global plans to launch the SMS program in Ethiopia during the 2020/21 school year. The team anticipates approximately 600 Facilitators and nearly 17,000 learners will benefit from the Frontline system.
“We used SMS to assign readings and projects and utilized the survey function to follow up with meaningful and thought-provoking questions to reinforce the Speed School pedagogy and deepen their capacity for confidence with different classroom strategies, even though they could not be in the classroom,” signs off Ellen.