Sustainable Offgrid EdTech for Education Continuity and Outcomes in the Developing World

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_SVRG develops and supplies technology solutions and business models for cross-cutting integrated rural development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The strength and USP of SVRG's solutions is this broad integrated approach, that works with communities to develop a systems approach to simultaneously address their main needs and priorities, usually catalysed by access to energy, ICT, and enhanced agricultural productivity.__A consistent priority raised by our client communities is improved access to education. But whereas there are any number of technologies to use when integrating energy access, or water pumping, or agricultural value addition, there are no generally available technologies for basic off-grid, off-internet, language- and curriculum-independent education support.__We in the UK are of course familiar with any number of such systems - from BBC Bitesize, to Khan Academy, White Rose Maths, and any number of basic advertising- or in-app-sales-driven basic numeracy and literacy apps for smartphones and tablets. And we have become particularly familiar with the utility and power of all of these in maintaining children's learning and engagement with education during the COVID lockdown and closure of schools.__But the communities we work with, in the developing world, face multiple challenges in this context. Existing educational material (for example free apps, or educational content environments like Khan Academy) is rarely tailored to their language and curriculum needs, and requires access to good internet connections in order to work. Consequently few schools, especially poorly-resourced rural schools, use any EdTech to support teachers' educational efforts or pupils' learning outcomes. And when, as now in the face of a global pandemic, schools close the result is that education stops. There is no encouragement for, or facilities or systems to even permit, remote/home learning by students. And the consequence is that many will fall further behind in school or may not even return to school - especially girls whose parents may have been reluctant to send them in the first place.__In this project, we will develop simple educational content - based on teacher experience - that is language and curriculum neutral and can support both preschool, classroom and home learning. And more importantly, we will develop a localised solution which enables this content to be accessed and disseminated without the need for individual devices to have internet connections. This will then form the basis of an educational component in our Smart Villages model which our client communities and schools have been asking for, and which can then be progressively tailored to meet individual local curriculum needs, from a standard core functionality. Furthermore, this system will also enable us to share broader "life skills" information which curricula and teaching in developing countries rarely cover, such as COVID awareness, climate change and environmental stewardship material, in consultation with local educators and experts._