Inequality is a pre-existing condition – Oprah Winfrey, #ClassOf2020 commencement speech
Uncertainty has never been this certain. The last few months these words have lived through us, consciously or sub-consciously, spoken or unspoken; “unusual” “unprecedented” “new normal”. Most certainly, we are living in a historic time, fighting a historic battle. Covid19, has been described as the unseen enemy. Conspicuously, this unseen enemy is bringing to light the inequalities amongst us. UNESCO estimates that over three-quarters of the world’s roughly 1.5 billion school children are not going to school and learning from classrooms as they used to.
For the last 6 years, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of rural and informal settlement schools across East Africa through Kids Comp Camp. From my experience, I recognise that children in rural and slum communities in Kenya are the hardest hit by this pandemic. I spoke to one of our students in rural Kenya and they told me, “I have never opened a book since school closed in mid-March”. However in parts of Nairobi, I have observed parents and teachers struggling to select which app best works for their children to continue learning from home; is it Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams? We have even seen court cases on how much schools ought to charge for online learning.
For the last 6 years, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of rural and informal settlement schools across East Africa through Kids Comp Camp. From my experience, I recognise that children in rural and slum communities in Kenya are the hardest hit by this pandemic. I spoke to one of our students in rural Kenya and they told me, “I have never opened a book since school closed in mid-March”. However in parts of Nairobi, I have observed parents and teachers struggling to select which app best works for their children to continue learning from home; is it Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams? We have even seen court cases on how much schools ought to charge for online learning.
The Government of Kenya, has been championing e-learning through television, radio and the Internet, even with mentions of the Kenya Education Cloud. Yet, according to a recent online learning report that surveyed 3,700 households in 42 counties in Kenya, “Less than 10% of learners in public schools are accessing digital learning materials and only 22% of students are accessing online learning resources with those enrolled in private schools being twice as likely to take part in digital learning compared to their counterparts in public schools”.
As I reflected upon the disparity between learners in a rural public school versus their peers in an urban private school in Kenya, these words spoken by Oprah Winfrey during her commencement speech to the graduating #ClassOf2020 came to life: Inequality is a pre-existing condition. In exactly the same way that #Covid19 is more likely to be fatal for those with pre-existing health conditions, it is also visibly widening the pre-existing learning inequalities between rural and urban learners in Kenya.
While many of us may not fully understand what is happening or are still in denial, experts continue to emphasize a possibility we need to come to terms with: Life may never get back to normal. Dr Michael Ryan, a WHO Director stated, “Corona is here to stay, like HIV”. In fact, the WHO is warning of a second wave of #Covid19 infections. Therefore, with this new understanding and renewed strategies, we need to rise to the occasion and confront the widening inequality. This all begins with the attitude that something can and should be done, no matter how small the intervention. In times like these, every attempt counts. Doing something is better than doing nothing.
As I reflected upon the disparity between learners in a rural public school versus their peers in an urban private school in Kenya, these words spoken by Oprah Winfrey during her commencement speech to the graduating #ClassOf2020 came to life: Inequality is a pre-existing condition. In exactly the same way that #Covid19 is more likely to be fatal for those with pre-existing health conditions, it is also visibly widening the pre-existing learning inequalities between rural and urban learners in Kenya.
While many of us may not fully understand what is happening or are still in denial, experts continue to emphasize a possibility we need to come to terms with: Life may never get back to normal. Dr Michael Ryan, a WHO Director stated, “Corona is here to stay, like HIV”. In fact, the WHO is warning of a second wave of #Covid19 infections. Therefore, with this new understanding and renewed strategies, we need to rise to the occasion and confront the widening inequality. This all begins with the attitude that something can and should be done, no matter how small the intervention. In times like these, every attempt counts. Doing something is better than doing nothing.
While the governments and development partners do their part, I believe there is an opportunity for individuals and communities to do more to address these gaps. In the words of Barack Obama, “Government is critical, but not enough”. As I continued to think about how to minimise the learning disparities for rural African youth, I began to notice how frequently I received a WhatsApp message from my village. I’m in countless WhatsApp groups since apparently in Kenya it is almost impossible to do any community based initiative without a WhatsApp group; this cuts across my urban and rural circles. Which begs the question, “Why then don’t we use the same medium to support learning during and after #Covid19?”
The words of American professional tennis player, Arthur Ashe, should inspire us to think of ways we can practically contribute towards closing the education and opportunity gap among young people in rural Africa. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can”. From where I sit, there are a couple of readily available resources that we can leverage to address the growing learning gap:
The words of American professional tennis player, Arthur Ashe, should inspire us to think of ways we can practically contribute towards closing the education and opportunity gap among young people in rural Africa. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can”. From where I sit, there are a couple of readily available resources that we can leverage to address the growing learning gap:
- In Kenya smartphone penetration is placed at 90% and 74% of Kenyans can access WhatsApp and with about $35 you can access a smartphone. Moreover, Google internet bundles have been launched to supply 4G high speed internet even in rural areas.
- In Africa, it is said that it takes a village to raise a child. Even in digital times, we can continue to leverage on community networks. These could be schools, churches, youth groups and community groups. From these networks we can raise community champion(s) to rally communities behind Covid19 interventions.
- Life is too short to be original at everything. We can learn from what is working elsewhere and apply it where we see clear gaps. For instance, a friend is a teacher in one of the international schools in Nairobi. She is able to record lessons on Zoom, compress them and share with students with limited connections. We can compress (further) or shorten the content and “forward” via WhatsApp to kids in the rural areas.
To that end, we at Kids Comp Camp have put together a simple intervention. We would like to focus our efforts on empowering the teacher both as an instructor and community mobilizer. We believe the greatest hindrance to devolving education technology to rural communities in Kenya may not be technology infrastructure but a lack of skill, motivation and access to a support system by the teachers. To address that, we have put together a virtual “Rural Remote Teaching and Learning” training session to guide teachers in rural schools on how to create content digitally and share lessons remotely using technology available to them like a basic smartphone and a limited connection.
The training will equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to use applications and programs to conveniently and effectively prepare lesson plans and share content with children and their parents. The training will also cover programs and strategies they can use to mobilize their communities to embrace remote learning as well as how they can monitor and evaluate remote learning. How can you, the reader, be a part of this?
First, sharing is caring. Please inform any teachers you know in rural areas within your networks with access to a smartphone and a connection (even if limited) about this program. For now, we can only handle a group of 20 teachers per cohort and registration is based on a first come served basis. The sooner they can register the better. Ask them to register here.
The training will equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to use applications and programs to conveniently and effectively prepare lesson plans and share content with children and their parents. The training will also cover programs and strategies they can use to mobilize their communities to embrace remote learning as well as how they can monitor and evaluate remote learning. How can you, the reader, be a part of this?
First, sharing is caring. Please inform any teachers you know in rural areas within your networks with access to a smartphone and a connection (even if limited) about this program. For now, we can only handle a group of 20 teachers per cohort and registration is based on a first come served basis. The sooner they can register the better. Ask them to register here.
Second, please help us to fund this project. Support can be availed via MPesa Till Number 691 470 (Kids Comp Camp), or you could donate here.
Third, if you have spare devices — smartphones, tablets, iPads, laptops — please consider donating them to teachers in rural areas. We can’t wait to report on the progress of our “little thing”. Feel free to get in touch with us via [email protected] if you have any ideas on how we can improve this initiative.
- With Kshs. 2,000 (~$20) per month we will access Zoom to host the virtual training.
- With Kshs. 2500 (~$25) per week we will access 12.5GB of Internet to coordinate and conduct the teacher training.
- With Kshs. 5,000 (~$50) per month we will facilitate the teachers who are unable to afford internet access. However, we will ask all participating teachers to “Bring Their Own Devices and Internet” as part of them owning the project.
Third, if you have spare devices — smartphones, tablets, iPads, laptops — please consider donating them to teachers in rural areas. We can’t wait to report on the progress of our “little thing”. Feel free to get in touch with us via [email protected] if you have any ideas on how we can improve this initiative.
This is a guest post by Caleb Ndaka Mutisya; a luminary who first shared it on his Medium page. He is the co-founder of @kidscompcamp. He is also an Obama Leader, Mandela Washington Fellow, Window's #Insiders4Good Fellow and TEDx Speaker.