Improving school participation: Open access to a digital educational platform in Namibia. – Stories of UNICEF Innovation

"“What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help a child to learn.” – African proverb

Transposing the proverb onto the technology for development project, “Do Like Edu,” captures the essence of why such a tool was conceptualized, developed and implemented. Key stakeholders came together to till the soil and plant the seeds for lifelong learning by helping children love learning through the “Do Like Edu,” e/m-learning platform. For learners from the most vulnerable communities, high repetition rates (particularly at Grades 1, 5 and 8) and soaring drop-out rates (especially in senior secondary phase) describe the education landscape in Namibia. Out of a 100 learners in rural Namibia, only 1 will have graduated from Grade 12. To improve schooling, teaching, and learning, the Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC) launched the flagship programme called School Accountability and School Governance (SASG) with the motto, “Quality education is our shared responsibility.” The objective of SASG is to increase community involvement in education for improved outcomes for all phases of schooling. A key pillar of SASG is strengthening learners’ capacity to meaningfully participate in school governance. DO LIKE EDU Through high-level engagement in school activities under the motto “Do Like Edu” learners are encouraged to act with agency for effectively participating in school governance. Edu is an animated character who visits learners at school and encourages them to live happier and healthier lives and do better at school. Our e/m-learning platform is a digital learning arm of “Do Like Edu” and was rolled out under the same name to leverage learners’ familiarity with Edu to promote the uptake of the eL/mL platform. By design, with a focus on equity and by leveraging mobile phone coverage, the digital e/m-learning platform promotes access to open educational resources to users in remote regions at no cost for the end user...."