TabLab gives a spark of hope to Tanzanian learners!

Many Tanzania learners living in rural remote areas face enormous challenges as they struggle to equip themselves with education. Often they are unable to access basic things like books, teachers, school uniform and they cannot even imagine services like electricity and internet connectivity. This sad reality prompted the development of TabLab to help transform education in these rural schools through technology and long-term professional development support for teachers and schools.

The TabLab is a portable tablet lab that includes rugged tablets that can easily move from class to class in a rugged humidity-proof box with locks and wheels. The tablets wirelessly access a huge library of of offline content that include the whole Khan Academy videos, Offline Wikipedia, thousands of textbooks and many other teaching resources. The tablets are also loaded with numerous educational apps like Geogebra which operate offline. The TabLab is an innovative school transformational program that combines the power of technology, teacher training and long-term school support.

The TabLab Trainer explains that his organization was inspired to do something different, as it realized that many projects intended to give learners access to new technology fail due to lack of sustainable solutions. Large scale technology initiatives for rural schools have failed because they do not provide longtime teacher training and school support, nor do they address the long-term costs of operating the computer labs. Technology integration and teacher training is a gradual, long-term process. He believes that TabLab Education is addressing the many challenges faced by teachers and students throughout rural schools in Tanzania. TabLab adapts strategies to suit the needs of the learners, teachers and the school management ensuring that everybody is an agent of change within the school. The ability to access offline content, educational software, transport, share and store thousands of books on tablets saves on costs and ensures efficient resources are readily available for teachers and students. “We have moved from the mentality of ‘here’s is a computer lab’ or ‘here’s a technology’ to ‘here’s a sustainable solution”.

The great thing about the TabLab is its mobility, as it can be easily transported from class to class, serve up to 60 students at a time and can run for up to three days without being charged. With a server that accommodates the school curriculum from grades one to 12, learners and teachers are able to use the TabLab to serve their educational needs. What’s more, this encourages the whole school to adopt a sense of ownership towards the facility, reducing the risk of vandalism.

Using ICT solutions to give under-served schools to technologies has long been a goal of many governments and organizations. However, hurdles such as illiteracy, lack of computer skills and no proper infrastructure means that this is not feasible. Banjika secondary school is a rural remote secondary school in Karatu, Tanzania with a population of 500 students and only 16 teachers. Many of the students are orphans and those who live with their parents cann’t afford the schools fees. They walk very very long distances every day to get to school and back home and some of them sleep on empty stomach. With all these challenges the school has not managed to do well on the national exams.

TabLab Education team has been working with the school for the past six month and we are slowly beginning to see a transformed school. We have trained all the teachers on using the TabLab in their teaching. Teachers have started using technology for traditional learning and, over time, transition to student centered learning approaches such as Project based learning. During the a 6-month period, students in one of the form two streams have shown huge gains in comprehension of mathematics concepts.

Mr. Muyinka Meshack, the Deputy headmaster of Banjika Secondary School says, the project has opened up a new world for both learners and teachers. “They can use the TabLab during their free periods and it has assisted them greatly in their projects,” he says. For 15 year old Aziza Omary a form one student, it has not only helped her achieve better results at school, but also it has also opened her up to a future career path. “I didn’t even know such a job as a computer engineer existed before I began researching on the TabLab. Now that’s what I want to be.” She says she knew little about computing previously , but that offline web resources are now more helpful to her than the school library is. With the TabLab, she save time and gets more done, she say.

The TabLab provides access to an environment students’ and teachers would not otherwise experience. More importantly, in doing so, it is helping create a better future for Tanzania and Africa through Education.