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Kamangeni Phiri, Correspondent
MS Keresia Chuma, 42, an Early Childhood Development teacher at Magedleni Primary School in the far-flung corner of rural Gwanda, has fallen in love with STELA, an offline tablet.
For close to two years, the electronic gadget has become an inseparable part of her professional life. She carries it to the classroom when conducting lessons and to the play centre for outdoor games.
“The STELA tablet makes my work much easier,” says Ms Chuma. “It has all the skills needed to assess and assist learners; hence I rely on it often.”
STELA is an acronym for the Smart Tablet Early Learning Assessment.
Before she started using the tablet Ms Chuma would spend a lot of time researching and preparing visuals for her lessons. By the time she shifted to delivering the actual lesson, she would be mentally exhausted.
“When I wanted the kids to do a visual, for example, I was supposed to start by researching from the syllabus or text books so that I see which media to use for that activity.
It was a tiring process. I would at times find it difficult to come up with activities for my class,” says Ms Chuma who has seven years experience teaching ECD classes.
The offline tablet is updated automatically once when it gains access to the internet. It is synchronised with a server in Cape Town, South Africa and comes with a solar power pack for recharging since most rural schools lack grid electricity.
“Nowadays, preparing for a lesson has become so easy compared to the pre-tablet days. I only have to look up for an activity on the tablet and it will tell me which media to use,” enthused Ms Chuma.
While most teachers in Southern Africa are still struggling with the traditional scheme-cum-plan book, some rural-based ECD teachers in six Sadc countries are having it easy with the smart tablet. Benefiting schools were drawn from Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The offline tablet is more like a digital scheme book, curriculum, syllabus and project plan all rolled into one. It is designed to end the lack of access to high-quality early childhood (preschool) education in developing countries through its wide range of learning content.
“The tablet is cost efficient and time saving. It helps a lot in the teaching and learning of the ECD learners. It also moulds the kids. Administrators, particularly the teacher-in-charge, use the gadget in evaluating and monitoring the ECD teacher when delivering the lesson,” said Mr Leonard Dube, a headmaster at Simbumbumbu Primary, one of the smart tablet benefiting schools in Gwanda.
The offline tablet forms the main component of a community empowering programme dubbed the School Readiness Initiative (SRI), a brainchild of the Switzerland based Roger Federer Foundation set up by and named after the legendary international tennis star .
The foundation’s board approved a budget of more than eight million Swiss Francs (US$9 121 560) for the Zimbabwe initiative. So far, 151 (114 females and 37 males) teachers and 7 035 (among them 6 319 women) parents have benefited from the SRI programme to date.
In Zimbabwe, the Roger Federer Foundation is working with the government, Child Protection Society (CPS), and Uluntu Community Foundation, among several other partners, in implementing the STELA tablet.
“So far, 100 schools have benefited from the SRI programme’s STELA tablet project in three rural districts in Zimbabwe. We have 10 schools in Gwanda, 48 in Rushinga and 42 in Zvimba districts that are utilising the smart tablet,” said CPS director, Ms Mercy Sakanya.
The tablet, a subset of the Early Learning Kiosk, was introduced in Zimbabwe to benefiting rural schools in February 2020.
The Early Learning Kiosk is equipped with several tools and applications that allow ECD teachers to continuously build their capacity and improve skills. It is a package that comprises three components; the STELA tablet itself, a natural playground module and the toy production module.
The playground and toy production modules are accessed through the tablet’s Toolbox items.
“The two modules guide ECD teachers in mobilising parents to establish natural playgrounds for outdoor play area and produce toys for indoor play areas for ECD learners using mostly locally available material and human resources. Communities are involved in the establishment of playgrounds,” said Ms Sakanya.
The STELA tablet has as its key features two applications, the KnowHow app and Childstep app.
The KnowHow app promotes peer-to-peer learning among ECD teachers. It includes an accredited self-guided early learning six-week course for the ECD teacher. The six-week course has modules that contain local learning videos, audio and a storybook in local languages.
The Childstep app, on the other hand, helps the teacher track the developmental milestones of individual ECD learners.
“The app provides guidance on activities that teachers can do to improve in areas where the child is lagging behind. It also produces class averages to guide the teacher in areas they need to focus on as they implement the competence-based curriculum.
The gadget helps guide the teacher/parent conversation on what the later can do at home to assist in the achievement of developmental domains that the child is yet to achieve,” said Ms Sakanya.
The tablet’s content was developed by a local team of consultants from the University of Zimbabwe working in consultation with teachers and stakeholders within the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
But in 2020, Covid-19 stalled the uptake of the STELA tablet. Schools had to close for lengthy periods as part of efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic.
“The STELA programme was supposed to run from 2020 up to 2021 but had to be extended due to the pandemic. Implementation of the smart tablet requires face to face interaction with children in a class setting. However, the tool was implemented more effectively in 2021 when schools reopened. It is running as a pilot project until adopted by the Government,” said Ms Sakanya.
The Government has since 2014 made ECD education compulsory. However, resources for ECD learning and infrastructure remain a challenge, not only in Zimbabwe but in Africa as a whole.
Most schools, especially those in rural areas, had to employ paraprofessionals to help kick-start the programme.
“We realised there was a huge gap in rural schools in terms of infrastructure and learning resources. Uluntu, working with the Government, came in with a number of intervention programmes that included the STELA tablet to help capacitate the teacher.
Our focus was to help rural schools establish child friendly and age-appropriate learning environment,” said Ms Sibusisiwe Sithole, the executive director of Uluntu Community Foundation whose organisation is implementing the SRI programme in Matabeleland region.
The NGO also distributed the smart tablet to benefiting schools in Gwanda.
Government, working closely together with several NGOs like Uluntu Foundation, held a number of trainings for teachers’ indoor and outdoor programmes. Parents were also trained on doll making under the supervision of ECD teachers while the community helped in setting up outdoor play equipment establishment.
“All the trainings and projects were guided by the STELA tablet. The programmes enable parents and the community to play an important part in the children’s education at an early stage,” said Ms Sithole.
The SRI interventions and successes were uniform in Gwanda, Rushinga and Zvimba districts.
Experts argue that the STELA tablet can only bring the desired change in Zimbabwe’s education if it includes all schools.
“The tablet is giving some pupils an unfair advantage over others despite its noble efforts to close the digital gap between urban and rural schools.
Such technology should be accessed by all teachers regardless of their geographical location, if we are to holistically enhance the quality of rural education,” said Bindura University of Science Education lecturer, Dr Felix Chari.
South Africa-based Zimbabwean educationist, Dr Nhlanhla Landa, said rural Africa’s development was hamstrung mainly by poor mobile phone network and lack of internet access. He said authorities need to invite more stakeholders on board to help expand the spread of technologies like the offline STELA tablet to all rural schools.
“There will be more benefits if the project is spread throughout all learning levels in primary and secondary schools. The tablet can help the rural pupil’s online learning during these Covid-19 times. Colleagues and I have done some research in the Eastern Cape province and the issue of mobile phone network connectivity emerged major among the disadvantages faced by the rural pupil in migrating to Information Communication Technology-enhanced online learning during the covid-19 pandemic.
However, the success and expansion of this good initiative still depends on sustainable energy sources. There is a need to start seriously thinking about solar energy and rural electrification,” said Dr Landa, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Fort Hare.
Ms Sakanya said once the Government endorsed the programme, the STELA tablet programme will be adopted nationally.
“The tablet remains a pilot programme for now. Its contents incorporate the Zimbabwean ECD curriculum but are yet to be evaluated. The anticipated outcome is that there is evidence (through an evaluation study) that it has been implemented well and aligns with the competence-based curriculum before it is adopted by the ministry,” she said.
The tablet’s adoption appear imminent after Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister, Edgar Moyo, expressed satisfaction in the manner the pilot project is run.
“Our officials are monitoring teachers to ensure they use the programmes in the tablet correctly. We are confident the smart tablet benefits the learner because its programmes are actually part of the curriculum. Going forward, we would very much wish to include all schools once the evaluation is done,” he said.
For now, ECD teachers who are not part of the running programme can access the tablet’s key “Child Steps” app on Google Play Store. — Twitter handle: @kamangeni
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