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EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES

One of our educational initiatives is aimed at providing internet access to Mlambe School - with this provision of internet - we believe education can improve exponentially. 

 

In western societies computers are increasingly seen as a necessity as opposed to a luxury. However this could not be further from the truth in Malawi and we hope to start changing this computing paradigm.

 

In Autumn 2014, volunteers Lucy Ifould and Saalim Koomar constructed a solar-panelled earthbag computer room, continuing the charity's reputation as local innovators as this is the first school computer room in its district of Balaka. A huge thanks here goes to the kind donors who gave us the 6 laptops that we took out after wiping them and installing the faster and open-sourced Linux operating system as opposed to Windows. 

 

We believed that access to computers would advance education at Mlambe school hugely and this has already been the case. Local teachers now have: an office from which they can operate, a much faster filing system- without all the papers!, and most importantly access to endless resources online which we believe will lead to improved lessons, the most important factor when discussing a school's efficacy. Mlambe school's older students also have a priceless chance at practicing on computers, taking part in typing lessons held by teachers and other such educational activities.

 

However, access to these computers does not end with Mlambe school's teachers or students. We were fully aware that interest in the computer room would be high due its very nature as the first of its kind in the area. Therefore secondary school students have devoted hours where they can utilise this valuable facility in order to complete their homework or pursue further study. This has already been a huge success with local secondary school students travelling from far to make use of this great resource. What's more, devoted hours have also been assigned to members of the community around Mlambe school who wish to learn more about computers. 

 

Again we realised the importance of this resource and have ensured that these computers are not closed off to anyone in the community- one of our core values.

ADVANTAGES OF I.T. EDUCATION

  • Sharing teaching resources

  • Allows teachers to deliver novel and innovative lessons

  • Allows students to pursue independent learning

  • Students can research subject matter further

  • Audio-visual interactive lessons

  • Recreation

UNIVERSITY OF THE PEOPLE

  • Higher education platform that offers online, free degrees from the first accredited online University

  • Online podcasts from lecturers of established Universities such as Oxford, Harvard and Columbia with broadband connection not required.

  • Microsoft’s ‘4Afrika’ initiative provides full scholarships for students from Africa and scope for further internships and employment opportunities with the company.

  • Other scholarships offered from HP, Western Union, Intel and UoPeople itself.

  • Huge increase in employment opportunities.

  • A unique and special opportunity to broaden horizons.

INDEPENDENT LEARNING PLATFORM

  • Currently, education in Malawi is in troubled times with the major factor influencing this being the fact that education is only free during primary school (up to Standard 8).

  • On advancement to secondary school, then, many students simply cannot afford the school fees which amount to around £100 a year- a huge amount when speaking in relative terms. 

  • The computer room therefore, is of vital importance to both secondary school students who can afford the fees in order to widen their learning, but, perhaps more significantly, for those students who cannot afford the fees.

  • Students can pursue independent learning online and, once they feel prepared there is the option to just pay to sit exams. 

  • This could be a revolutionary concept in Malawian education until the government abolishes school fees for secondary school students.

SHORT-TERM GOALS

  • Build a solar-powered 'earthbag' computer room with second-hand computers gathered in England (at least 10 for this initial project). This computer room will provide access to computers and the internet for the whole school. 

MEDIUM-TERM GOALS

  • If this project is successful, we hope to expand and provide schools elsewhere in rural parts of Malawi with the same educational initiatives that we have established at Mlambe.

  • Expansion of ‘earthbag’ building of schools will lead to increased dissemination of educational initiatives such as this.

 

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