This
article is about a teacher named Toni Maravigila. Few years back in 2011 she
was in Kenya on vacation. The place was familiar to her as she had been there
before too. It was a small village lacking the basic facilities of electricity
and water but apart from the cons the people there were friendly and
affectionate. The first day was spent playing with children and getting to
know about their lifestyle. She was on a break before heading off to a west
coast for business school. Till that time she had never thought of teaching
through the help of technology.
The
next day she was accompanied with her colleague. He was pretty much interested
in technology. He was the co-founder of the NGO for which she was working for lately. He
took her to an innovation technology hub started just a year ago. This was the
coolest place in Muhuru. Here one can get connected to the world through the
internet facility. People used to visit that place to browse on internet or to
have coffee and chat on technical issues. There they met the manager of the
innovation hub named John Kieti. He was smart and curious guy.
They
arranged a meeting with the manager there. There she discussed about her passion
to teach children and to provoke sincerity among the parents and the students
in the remote areas about the education and to improve the teaching and learning
facilities for them. Also they discussed about their educational program which
comprises of inspiring children and parents as well, improving the teaching
atmosphere and to motivate them to snatch and get benefited by each and every
opportunity provided to them. There wasn't much technical stuff in her words
which seemed to be shattering all her efforts to procure manager’s attention.
At last he recommended something which then looked a bit unrealistic…“you
should implement mobile app to assist education.”
This
was funny for a while as being a teacher she wasn't much interested in
technology. According to her, interaction is must to spread knowledge and experience
comes along with it. Her thinking was that teachers don’t need technology if
they are good at their work.
Later
she spent some time on that thought and some positive points emerged into her
mind as it would be easier to spread the education even in remote areas. She
couldn’t be available for long at a place so there should be something in her
absence which would take care of the children and ultimately the education
system will be much more efficient. This well spent time led to the inception
of ENEZA EDUCATION which means “spreading education”.
In Version 1 of their product, her co-founder, Kago,
essentially “technologized" a system she had run in her classroom back in
2005. A system which was accepted by children and was effective too but at the
same time demanded much more effort. It was difficult to analyze each and every
student’s level of progress. But now
with the introduction of this new mobile app it’s easier to teach and learning
has become fun for the kids. She could guide the students residing even in far
off areas by getting connected to them through that mobile app. They could try
online quiz and puzzles which would improve their intellect. Studying is no
more burden for them and it’s easier for the teachers to guide them and to
provide necessary feedback.
The technology was established taking care of the economic
condition of the people living in the villages. They couldn’t afford the high
valued smart phones. Hence the app was introduced in a simple low valued
cheaper phones which was available almost everywhere. This assured the
feasibility of this technology.
While in Kenya she was on a break before attending a business
school but sensing the impact of ENEZA education she dropped out during
orientation week only. In the period of three and a half years the technology
reached to 375000 students in over 5000 schools. But this was just the
initiation, the mission was to ensure 50 million students get benefitted.
Lessons assimilated by the teacher turned techie -:
Sometimes
the things which you keep ignoring throughout your life turns out to be the
most influential one. Through the implementation of technology in education the
teaching and learning process has become much more effective.
Through
technology, kids could be connected to the whole world which is crucial in
terms of real education. Adding to that the efficiency of teachers to share
their knowledge and the impact of teaching also gets improved.
To
achieve a real development it’s important to understand the interests of every
individual and try to come up with the solution which could be beneficial for
the whole society. And education is the basic pillar for that which should be
spread throughout the world. Every single child should utilize the benefit of
education. Then only there will exist a positive development which is the most
required objective to be achieved.
Now
Tony Maravigila is recognized as the co- founder of ENEZA Education. ENEZA’s
aim is to make available this low cost mobile technology to 50 million students
in rural Africa.
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