On July 28, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“I thought that this was a great idea and was very excited about the potential for this. Having an integrated model that looks at economic development along with education is something often talked about but does not happen as often. Although it’s not the first time someone has designed a model like this, it has had impressive results, including a significant increase in the number of students benefitting from the program.”
“This initiative seems to be at its early stages, and I’m excited to see how it progresses. Would they mind expanding the discussion on how this initiative impacts education?”
- Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” Judges: Escuela Nueva, Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, CARE (United States), African Leadership Academy, UNICEF
Our focus is on education--through and through. First, our model begins with very close partnerships with schools. We develop close relations with the community through community outreach and education efforts and by sponsoring community gatherings (cultural, athletic, awards) so families understand we're working together as a team committed to the long-term success of the children. Once we have strong standing in the community we work with the school and establish a school improvement team that covers all stakeholders (teachers, managements, students, parents, and any other relevant community members). From here we work with the SITeam to develop programs and projects to help community members learn effectively. The SIT determines their priorities and we work with them to carry them out--from fundraising and logistics to implementation.
Perhaps this method is not novel in itself; but it spurs creative use of resources, low cost activities, and amazingly strong results the involved the local community every step of the way (our first graduating class at our model school had a 100% pass-rate on the Natl Exam, with 100% placement into high school--whereas the national average is 60% and 38% respectively). Additionally, our use of mobile technology to help the school evaluate their work and collaborate with supporters has proved to make a huge difference as successes are built upon early and ineffective measures are ended quickly. The constant and reliable data we're able to collect informs future interventions and updates our supporters in ways that are quite unusual for most international development groups. Additionally, we use dedicated volunteers who are extensively trained but who pay their own costs.
This whole approach means nearly 0 administrative costs and with the community leading all the programs, they are easily sustainable. It takes far longer on the start-up phase, but the long-term effects have been profound and completely transformed the feel of the education at the school. Given the successes at our pilot school, we've expanded to a second school in a different region to see if these results are replicable. One year into our expansion, the results are promising and suggests future expansions can be undertaken with relative easy and very low start-up costs--and hopefully will yield economies of scale as we expand within the regions we serve.
Comments
On July 28, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“I thought that this was a great idea and was very excited about the potential for this. Having an integrated model that looks at economic development along with education is something often talked about but does not happen as often. Although it’s not the first time someone has designed a model like this, it has had impressive results, including a significant increase in the number of students benefitting from the program.”
“This initiative seems to be at its early stages, and I’m excited to see how it progresses. Would they mind expanding the discussion on how this initiative impacts education?”
- Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” Judges: Escuela Nueva, Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, CARE (United States), African Leadership Academy, UNICEF
Our focus is on education--through and through. First, our model begins with very close partnerships with schools. We develop close relations with the community through community outreach and education efforts and by sponsoring community gatherings (cultural, athletic, awards) so families understand we're working together as a team committed to the long-term success of the children. Once we have strong standing in the community we work with the school and establish a school improvement team that covers all stakeholders (teachers, managements, students, parents, and any other relevant community members). From here we work with the SITeam to develop programs and projects to help community members learn effectively. The SIT determines their priorities and we work with them to carry them out--from fundraising and logistics to implementation.
Perhaps this method is not novel in itself; but it spurs creative use of resources, low cost activities, and amazingly strong results the involved the local community every step of the way (our first graduating class at our model school had a 100% pass-rate on the Natl Exam, with 100% placement into high school--whereas the national average is 60% and 38% respectively). Additionally, our use of mobile technology to help the school evaluate their work and collaborate with supporters has proved to make a huge difference as successes are built upon early and ineffective measures are ended quickly. The constant and reliable data we're able to collect informs future interventions and updates our supporters in ways that are quite unusual for most international development groups. Additionally, we use dedicated volunteers who are extensively trained but who pay their own costs.
This whole approach means nearly 0 administrative costs and with the community leading all the programs, they are easily sustainable. It takes far longer on the start-up phase, but the long-term effects have been profound and completely transformed the feel of the education at the school. Given the successes at our pilot school, we've expanded to a second school in a different region to see if these results are replicable. One year into our expansion, the results are promising and suggests future expansions can be undertaken with relative easy and very low start-up costs--and hopefully will yield economies of scale as we expand within the regions we serve.
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