Xavier Project is a Non-Governmental Organization that runs education programs for refugees in Kenya. They were among our pioneer partners who sponsored refugee students on our platform between 2016 and 2017.
A 2015 internal rapid assessment survey by Xavier Project indicated that 34% of refugee students were out of school due to various challenges. In 2016, Xavier Project gave mobile phones to two schools in Turkana County, to allow increased access to Shupavu291 SMS mobile learning in school.
The partnership piloted in 2016 with 2250 refugees, had impressive results. Students in this pilot cohort performed better on average than the other refugee primary school students. In Dadaab, students who did more than two quizzes per day on Shupavu291, improved their grades by 36% during the year. These students completed 45,000 quizzes in 2015, averaging 112 quizzes per student.
The top students in Kakuma and Daadab refugee camps were using Shupavu291, our SMS learning platform. These top two students were later awarded full scholarships for secondary school by Xavier Project.
In 2017, they scaled the project to reach 10,000 refugee students with mobile learning. Teachers also benefited from our teacher refresher course, helping them to improve their work in the classrooms. Shupavu291 motivated students to learn. It also attracted refugee students who were out of school to enroll in schools.
Shupavu291 learning platform provides bite sized lessons and assessments on any mobile phone with a Safaricom sim card. Learning content on Shupavu291 is easily accessible because it is delivered through SMS, and does not require an internet connection. Students are also able to chat with our teachers through the Ask-A-Teacher feature, that enables them to ask academic questions and get responses.
We have partnered with several NGOs and foundations similar to Xavier Project. We do this to increase access to quality education to under-served students. Read more about our partnerships on this link.
About the author:
Juliet Otieno is the Communications Associate at Eneza Education. She has a journalism and Public Relations background and loves good books. You can read more articles written by this author here.