Reaching young learners with Oppia
After getting a favorable response from Emmanuel Anglican High School, you can read about my experience here.
I buckled my shoes with renewed anticipation to see how much I could spread the word about the Oppia learning platform.
That being said, join me on another exciting trip to Eminent Bright Academy!
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
–Nelson Mandela
Over the years the prospect of gaining a brighter future has been tied to education and we all agree with Nelson Mandela that with education one can change the world.
What do we have to do to attain this life-empowering education you might ask?
Let’s take a look at the educational situation in Nigeria
Unicef reports that even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5–14 years are not in school. Only 61 percent of 6–11 year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36–59 months receive early childhood education.
In the north of the country, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 percent. Getting out-of-school children back into education poses a massive challenge.
Bringing a powerful weapon to schools- Oppia
With my bag in hand, and wearing a smile, I stepped into the premises of the school and requested to see the management. When asked if I was there to seek a job because I did look the part, I responded that I came with something the school would be interested in.
The headteacher was in the office when I got ushered in and I introduced the Oppia platform and gave a demo of how the students could learn, how intuitive the lessons are, and how the students would love it.
Although the headteacher had some concerns about adoption by parents and hinted that the platform be brought up in the P.T.A. (Parents Teachers Association) meeting. I suggested that it would be more convincing if the children had a feel of what learning with Oppia was as this could be a motivating factor to the parents. Soon the principal joined us and she relayed my purpose for visiting the school which got him more inquisitive and he had a lot of questions;
- Will the school have to pay any fee to be registered?
- How will I carry out the study due to a lack of computers in the school?
- Will the students be able to use the platform on their own since they are vacating soon?
These questions were an indication of an interest the administration has in seeing how both the students and the school would benefit from using the Oppia platform.
I was able to provide satisfactory answers to the questions asked;
- No, the school didn’t have to pay any fee to be onboarded on the platform, it is free
- My laptop would be used and the teachers could download the mobile app in addition to mine for the study
- Also, the mobile app doesn’t require data to use after download, this way the students could learn with the app while at home and be engaged without the parents having to worry about data usage.
A roadblock?
The downside was that same as in other schools, the children were taking exams and only the secondary students still had to be in school since they weren’t done yet.
The headteacher and principal agreed to let me carry out the study with the available students and we had an hour for the sessions just so it doesn’t interfere with the exam schedule.
A classroom was arranged to fit in the students and we kick-started the pilot study. Since the students were older it was way easier to coordinate them and in the course of the session we attracted the attention of some teachers who were curious to know what type of session the students were participating in.
Day 2 (Miss Rhoda our parents will download Oppia)
For our next session, the principal had once again given us time to continue the lessons and I was happy that they were willing to explore possible means even though foreign to them that the students would find engaging to learn.
We started with me asking the students some questions from our last session to see how much information they remembered hearing their chants of “Miss Rhoda let me answer” showed that they recalled a lot.
After the warm-up, we continued with the lessons and at the end of the session a student said:
If we need to come on Saturday to continue more topics I would come
The teachers were surprised at their eagerness and I was pleased that they enjoyed the sessions to think about being present on weekends.
Results
From the graph above, we have a peak percentage of 24.40% improvement for the students showing the majority of them scoring above 15% in the post-tests.
When we concluded the pilot study, a teacher asked some questions about how they found the lessons and what they would do next.
Benjamin chipped in that he would inform his mum to download the app so that he could continue during the school break, and
Abigail expressed appreciation to Oppia for providing a fun way to learn and sending Miss Rhoda to her school.
The headteacher also noted that she now felt confident bringing up the Oppia platform to the parents and assured me that they would do their part to ensure the students continue learning with Oppia after thanking me for visiting their school.
I thanked the administration for their time and also informed them that I would check in on them once school resumes for the next term.
It was a memorable experience for both the students and me!
“They cannot stop me. I will get my education if it is in the home, school, or any place” -Malala Yousafzai