Project status: Closed

Country: South Africa

Partner: Project Isizwe

Impact goal: 5642 learners, 182 educators

About the project

The project aims to implement free WiFi into 8 schools in Mpophomeni. This will allow learners to have direct access to educational resources such as Microsoft Education program. The intended beneficiaries fall into the disadvantaged category, where they presently and historically have been excluded from internet access and the benefits of connectivity. Provisioning free, uncapped internet access to underserved South African educators and learners will ensure they are able to be included in the digital world.

Results

1,500 learners gained free internet at school. 1,300 unique subscribers in the community purchased R5 per day product

Learner home install

The project aimed to install Free WiFi at home for 30 secondary school learners in Mpophomeni. Initially we worked with the educator team at Mpophomeni High School to identify their Maths and Science learners in order to target a subset of learners and their homes. To increase the pipeline of feasible sites, we then encouraged the other secondary schools to invite their learners to apply. We had an overwhelming application response from 116 secondary school learners. To date, we have successfully installed at the homes of the 31 most feasible leaner homes. 

Education/Maths and Science

As South Africa’s second academic term of 2024 commences (Wednesday 3 April), Project Isizwe is formally kicking off 2 education programmes in Mpophomeni, both in collaboration with our Maths and Physical Sciences education partner, Siyavula. Siyavula is a free, online personalised learning, curriculum aligned platform that supports learners through guided Mathematics and Physical Sciences lessons and assessments.

Educator training project: All Mathematics and Physical Sciences educators have been invited to 4 weeks of online training seminars between 9 April and 2 May. These professional development sessions will train the educators on the use of Siyavula for their learners, including registration as well as setting up classes, assigning work and measuring learning, results and impact. Project Isizwe has integrated Siyavula’s reporting system and will track each participating school’s attendance at training sessions and subsequent learner performance  on the platform.

Learner practice project:  The 31 learners who have received Free WiFi for Education at home will participate in a targeted Mathematics and Physical Sciences project. Each of them will be invited to participate in Siyavula’s online learning programme for the term, with a particular focus on improving their skills in these subjects ahead of the end of term examinations in June. We have collected a set of baseline results and look forward to a positive impact in their examination results.

Changes and unforeseen challenges

After 2 years we included connectivity to the 6 schools in the coverage area. This is with the goal of showing that a community Wi-Fi network can not just sustain itself but also the local schools in the community. This gives learners Wi-Fi @ school and home. It also creates a more scalable model for rolling out community Wi-Fi networks across Africa. 

The initial community members that we were dealing with lost interest. We then focused on two others Lihle and Sipho to keep the project rolling. Once the project became successful and more access points were rolled out we had to manage the expectations and regret frustrations of the original community stakeholders.

About the partner

Project Isizwe was founded 2013 with a vision to provide equitable connectivity for 50 million African citizens through uncapped internet. The non-profit organization partners with internet service providers to enable impoverished African communities to equitable access the internet.

Visit their website here to learn more about.