What's Happened to Date

The Virtual School

The provision of good quality universal education is imperative. At a macroeconomic level, education provides individuals with the technical skills to contribute to, and benefit from, scientific advancement and economic growth. More specifically, numerous statistical studies attest to the fact that the better educated can command higher salaries than the less well educated, an obvious material benefit of education. Education is thus rightly seen as an investment in a person’s future income. However, the benefits of education are not just financial. Education has also been shown to improve leisure time, job satisfaction, social cohesion and even political stability.

Getting teacher time: engaging the best teachers to inspire the next generation

A key challenge in developing the 20,000 hours of bite-sized, easy to digest videos required for the Virtual School will be encouraging and enabling teachers to donate their time to deliver lessons within the platform.

Deploying learning content: making the best content accessible and user-friendly

Teacher Curriculum

Teacher programme

Using ICT as a teaching tool is a relatively new skill for most teachers around the world including those of developed countries. Our 22-hour programme embeds basic PC knowledge and illustrates how ICT technologies can improve teacher training. The programme demonstrates how the use of laptops, projectors, online courseware, social learning tools and smart boards can all enhance student learning.

The programme will also provide access to a suite of courses that teach Microsoft Office skills.

IT curricula are unique in that they are in a constant state of flux. Technology changes quickly; what was relevant a few years ago may now be redundant. This curriculum will therefore be directly influenced through Fusion Universal’s relationships with some of the world’s largest technology manufacturers to make sure the curriculum is relevant and up to date.

Student Curriculum

Working with governments and education ministries in each country

Governments within many developing countries have mandated that IT instruction should be part of every child's education. Many developing countries have created detailed frameworks to address this but most recognise that they need private sector help to achieve their education goals. Fusion has taken these frameworks as a baseline for learning and built upon them with additional practical and vocational topics that are relevant and current.

Social Enterprise Partners

Working with local partners

Local partners possessing localised experience and grounded strategies form a critical part of our solution. Fusion has local partners in Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, Benin and Nigeria. Sometimes our relationship with a local partner is direct. However, Digital Links often acts as a third-party connection. Digital Links has been providing hardware to local education NGOs for a number of years and has built an extensive and impressive network.

Starehe, Nairobi-Kenya

Fusion Universal has partnered with Starehe Boys Centre in Kenya to help provide access to world-leading ICT tools and training for teachers, students and adult learners. Given that access to higher education and the 21st century workforce is increasingly dependent on ICT competency, these training tools will exponentially increase opportunities for affected groups and communities across Kenya.

Since its foundation in 1959, Starehe Boys' Centre has given bright but impoverished boys a safe home and an outstanding education, whilst promoting leadership and service values. However, the Starehe Boys Centre cannot continue to offer a first class education without updating its ICT facilities, training and qualifications.

Fusion is working with Starehe to access funds to upgrade its ICT infrastructure and we are providing access to our world-leading ICT curriculum and teacher training programme. Once established, Starehe will provide access to these facilities to ensure future graduates have the requisite skills for employment. We are also working to ensure the provision of ICT access and high quality learning tools for teacher training and adult access programmes by opening the upgraded facilities to the local community.

Still to come...

• Econet- USB access for individuals to software and e-learning, starting with the University of Zimbabwe
• Jeremiah- Van Lab Appeal
• Scratch Cards/e-Portal- online access for students across Dar
• Shaban Robert- Teacher Training in Dar
• ACTT- ICT training for street kids
• Kisutu- sustainable school ICT lab through an evening programme for Open University students
• Sierra Leone- ICT access programme across the Kono district

Jifundishe, Moshi-Tanzania

Tanzania is not alone in Africa in suffering from a dearth of qualified and motivated teachers.  Progress has been made towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals and Tanzania has built thousands of schools. However, this has left a significant deficit of trained teachers to fill the classrooms. Additionally, like their peers across Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzanian teachers are often underpaid and lack motivation to upgrade their qualifications and even attend class. In Moshi, in the Northern Zone of Tanzania many students are left with no instructor for large proportions of their day.

Jifundishe or ‘teach yourself’ is a free library that provides a safe place, resources, a basic education, and now comprehensive ICT training to young Tanzanians, thanks to Fusion Universal’s social enterprise. The small, two-room library hosts specialised programs such as eye clinics, malaria prevention workshops, children's reading programs, dental clinics, and writing workshops.

Having acquired a few small laptops, Jifundishe is now able to offer a comprehensive ICT curriculum within the centre. The self-paced, exploratory curriculum does not require a qualified teacher and therefore has proven an incredibly valuable addition within the library.

Deb Kelly, Managing Director and Co-founder of Jifundshe, says “Thanks so much! We have LOTS of students using Fusion at the library and they are VERY interested in the tutorials. Many are using Fusion to learn how to use a computer. We hosted several introductory workshops and now they are coming to learn on their own….exactly what we wanted!”

We are looking forward to continuing to work with Jifundishe and ensure that students in Moshi can develop the skills needed to access information despite limited formal education.

Kenya

We have just implemented the Fusion Curriculum in the Makini School, Nairobi. Feedback has been excellent:

“The digital ICT curriculum is what we really needed. The content of the curriculum is relevant from age 7-13 and up to date with current technology. I am really impressed with graphics enhancement and it runs too well on N-Computing technology we are using in our computer lab. Students are very excited and enjoy learning using the digital ICT curriculum and proud to be the pioneers of the curriculum in Kenya.” www.makinischool.com

Zambia

We have just signed up 22 schools within the iSchool initiative for their students to have access to our ICT curriculum www.ischool.zm. We are also providing access to the Teacher curriculum for all subject teachers. iSchools is a privately funded project led by the head of Zambia’s largest ISP, AfriConnect. They have also committed to engaging additional schools outside their iSchool network to spread adoption of the Fusion curricula.

Tanzania

The Tanzania Postal Corporation has just purchased 300 laptops with the Fusion curriculum to run evening classes in their new Community Information Centres. The centres have been set up in rural locations right across the country.

Ghana & Benin

Our longstanding contact in Ghana is in the process of implementing the curriculum into 15 schools and is excited to be able to begin distribution of the French translated curriculum into Benin.

Riders for Health

Riders for Health is a charity enabling doctors on motorbikes to provide medical care in very rural locations. They operate in Zimbabwe, Zambia, The Gambia, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania and Malawi. All 300 doctors are now also equipped with laptops and Fusion courses to ensure they get the most out of the technology. www.riders.org