Using Technology for Education

There are over 10 million children out of school in Nigeria, and even those who do go to school often lack the books, school supplies and even trained teachers to get the basic literacy and numeracy skills they need to get ahead. A small private school in the northeast of Nigeria, however, is taking the education of its students into its own hands. It offers extracurricular classes in a program run by the American University of Nigeria. According to the Baobab blog in The Economist, the teachers use a computer called a Raspberry Pi to facilitate the math and science courses they offer.

A Raspberry Pi costs less than $40 and is the size of a credit card. This makes it accessible to students in countries where computers are beyond the means of most families and school budgets.

The advent of technologies like the Raspberry Pi, as well as tablets and smart phones, have the potential to bring quality educational resources to poor children around the world.

The 60 million girls Foundation is committed to using new technologies to advance education, especially for girls, in developing countries. We are currently running a pilot project in Sierra Leone to bring science and math tutorials to girls in the integrated learning centre in Kabala.  The first phase of the project gave the girls access to the programs on a USB key, which could then be downloaded on to their computers. The second phase brings a wider range of programs on the Raspberry Pi.