I am a.....

• Team of graduates from an innovation program withn interest in education and social projects

Tell us about your idea

A wide range of resources can be found on the Internet to support learning, but what happens when there is no Internet connection available, or if the learner does not have access to a laptop or smart phone?

In Peru, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Information (INEI), only 3.7 out of every 100 rural households have "access to the Internet", while in the urban areas it reaches 35.7% (without considering Lima). In the capital, the figure almost doubles to 61.8% (first quarter of 2019). The same situation is repeated in other countries of the region such as Ecuador and Colombia, and even on the other side of the globe, in India, the percentage of households with Internet access is 23.8% (NSSO), with rural availability of 14.9% and urban availability of 42%. 

The difference between rural and urban in Peru is abysmal, but nevertheless it is drastically reduced when we talk about mobile phone ownership, here the rural area registered 79.6% in 2018 (INEI), the urban area 93.5% and Lima 94.2%. 

This gap has become even more significant this year because of the coronavirus and the emergency shutdown, classes have been cancelled throughout the country and may not be restarted until next year. So public schools and the government have relied on alternative media to help them maintain education, they have set up a website with educational material  (documents, videos, among other things), as well as programs (just 1 hour per day per grade level) on TV and radio nationwide.

PROBLEM

Students (3 to 17 years old) living in rural areas often have limited access to the Internet, therefore they have very limited access to adequate resources to continue their education. They cannot access additional materials on the web platform, and if they did not manage to listen to the program at the time of its broadcast (TV or radio), they have no way of doing it again or to accessing a history of these broadcasts.

IDEA

Implement a repository of educational content in audio format, accessible via free call at the national level. 

Usability is key for children and teenagers to be able to access on their own. Navigation will allow them to find the content according to their grade, subject, and class. The content of the audios must be adapted to short and friendly formats. 

Examples

0800 AULA1 (primary school) or 0800 AULA2 (secondary school)

OPTION 1 - 1st grade

OPTION 2 - 2nd grade

then

OPTION 1 - biology

OPTION 2 - language

Through this tool, multiple choice questions can be included, in this case, students would answer through the keyboard of their mobile phones. 

This service must be promoted by the government to guarantee free access to it.

There is an opportunity for private schools to collaborate by providing content that they have already prepared.

What part(s) of the pre-COVID school system do you wish to leave in the past? Why?

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to share this idea.

I had the opportunity to travel deep inside my country, to explore not only the big and popular cities, but also the small and remote villages. I once observed children walking on the same path as me, they usually greet you and talk a bit, that opportunity they told me they were going home from school, that they have to walk almost 2 hours in each direction every day. Luckily they walked with a big smile, but that answer certainly shocked me.

Back home I talked to my brother-in-law who used to live in Marcabal, a small town in northern Peru. He told me that in some very small towns near his hometown, children have to walk 1 to 3 hours to get to school.

This situation, combined with Coronavirus context, inspired us (team effort!) to share this idea. It is an idea that can be applied to many other countries that have a similar situation; we want to do our part to improve education.

What region are you located in?

• Latin America and the Caribbean

Where are you located?