UK Foreign Secretary visits Kenya to strengthen ties on important topics including girls’ education

Photo credit: FCDO

Dominic Raab, UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State, visited Kenya this week to meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta and discuss strengthening ties between the UK and Kenya on a number of important topics, including trade, climate change and education.

myMlango supports the UK and Kenya's emphasis on education, especially girls’ education, in these discussions. Our sister programme iMlango, which operates in rural Kenyan communities, has helped support better education outcomes for over 200,000 children over the last seven years.

Mr Raab had seen what can be achieved by a strong UK-Kenya relationship focused on education in October last year when sQuid - iMlango’s lead operational partner in Kenya - welcomed him to their head office in the UK, where they showcased the iMlango At-Home Learning App.

The app provides important online access to learning resources for students when schools are closed due to Covid-19.

After seven years of working in schools and in seeing the effects of the pandemic on learning loss over the past year, myMlango and the iMlango programme look forward to supporting the Kenya and UK Governments by continuing to deliver improved learning outcomes using our in-school and at-home EdTech services.

UK and Kenya to host major education summit this year

Coronavirus has worsened the global education crisis, with 1.3 billion children – including 650 million girls – out of education at the peak of school closures. Experts warn that many children will never return, particularly as countries experience an economic contraction in the wake of the pandemic.

Missing out on education does long term damage to individuals and communities, with girls particularly at risk. The benefits of schooling are transformative and multi-generational - a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of five and twice as likely to attend school themselves. With just one additional school year, a woman’s earnings can increase by a fifth.

The Government of Kenya has made education a central part of their strategy to become a newly industrialised nation by 2030. A Global Partnership for Education partner since 2005, Kenya has made impressive gains, achieving universal primary education and breaking down gender barriers to get as many girls as boys enrolling in school.

The education summit, announced by UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Kenya President, Uhuru Kenyatta will take place in the UK in mid-2021 and will convene key global players and decision makers, with the aim of getting all children into school and learning.

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To read the full article on the Global Partnership for Education website, please click here. 

Photo credit: Kelley Lynch / GPE

The impact of digital learning on young learners

e-Learning is a young concept among some of the African nations, but Kenya, as an early adopter of this technology, is a shining beacon of vision and innovation in this field. Over the last 6 six years, sQuid Kenya has risen to the challenge of digitising their education space, first with Government-sponsored programme iMlango, the digital attendance-monitoring and learning platform for state-run schools, and more recently myMlango, a comprehensive sister package for private schools, adding to its armoury in the fight for literacy, numeracy and great educational outcomes for all Kenyan children.

Research shows, and our experience backs up the notion that when children are exposed to technology from an early age, they develop greater curiosity and are therefore more likely to learn complex concepts earlier than their peers who lack this opportunity. Furthermore, in an educational context, technology and ICT in the delivery of learning concepts are now mandatory in the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

With the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, never has the need for a robust infrastructure for remote working for everyone, including our children been more important, and at sQuid continuous improvement and evolution is at the heart of our ethos. We want the best experience for our learners, teachers and parents, and love listening to you. This is why we are making exciting changes to our portal:

Revamped CBC content

To respond to the needs of our young learners, we are making it possible for them to access relevant content delivered in the animated medium they so enjoy. This will make curriculum delivery and student engagement easier for teachers, and now that children are at home, will support parents by ensuring that they are productively occupied for the length of schools’ closure and beyond.

KCSE Maths revision videos

Our KCSE candidates need all the support we can give them during this period, so we have introduced actual KCSE Maths past papers for revision, in the form of videos explaining every question in detail, in a virtual classroom setting. These allow the learner as much time, and as many revisits as they need to go over this material, so that they can learn without pressure, at their own pace.

We plan to extend this offering to cover all other subjects in the near future, and will keep you updated of these exciting developments. In the meantime...

STAY HOME, STAY SAFE, STAY SMART!

Until next time,
The myMlango team

myMlango News

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Celebrating International Women's Day

This International Women’s day we’re celebrating the achievements of women and girls in Kenya, where we work to improve equality and empower them to become the best that they can be.

The 8th of March has provided a focal point each year for women’s rights movements and gender equality. 110 years on since International Women’s Day was established, there’s still a long way to go to achieve full equality, and here at myMlango we’ll continue to strive to improve the lives of women and girls across all our school communities and beyond.

Whether it be working to improve education outcomes for girl students in iMlango schools; delivering Microfinance to entrepreneurial mothers in marginalised communities to grow their businesses and improve their families’ lives; or by providing myMlango’s digital education service to help support iMlango for years to come, we’ll continue our work to ensure women and girls have equal opportunities.

An equal world is an empowered world; so here’s to all of the women that inspire, challenge and support us, this International Women’s Day.

The myMlango Team

myMlango launches new Student Subscription service for Kenyan children

myMlango, the new Kenyan e-learning platform, has launched a Student Subscription service enabling students to access the platform’s engaging learning content and revision materials direct from their homes.

myMlango helps students to improve their literacy, communication and digital skills, and prepare for key exams. With myMlango, parents are able to measure their child’s progress and identify areas in need of improvement, using the platform’s reporting functionally.

Parents are able to purchase an Annual or Termly Student Subscriptions using sQuid, the secure digital payment service. Regulated by the Central Bank, sQuid provides a safe way to top up using M-Pesa and pay for a myMlango Student Subscription. Parents who sign up to sQuid will also be able to access an exciting range of competitions and rewards in the future.

myMlango is brought to you by the creators of iMlango – Kenya’s pioneering e-learning programme, which has supported and impacted over 200,000 students, including 68,000 marginalised girls and 5,000 teachers, in 245 rural schools.

For more information on myMlango’s Student Subscriptions or to sign up, please click here

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About myMlango

myMlango is a Kenyan digital education service developed by sQuid. The interactive e-learning platform provides affordable access to a comprehensive range of specialist learning content, resources and revision tools - enabling learners to access a personalised education experience, and to learn and progress at their own pace.