Inveneo

Primary School Case Study

The Sisters of Notre Dame

The St. Julie Model Primary School computer lab
by Laura Hosman, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Berkeley

Sister Anita with staff at the St. Julie School, Buseesa, Uganda

The Sisters of Notre Dame, an international congregation of Catholic women, established a primary boarding school for students in grades 3–7 in rural Buseesa, Uganda in 1995 -- The St. Julie Model Primary School. A secondary school was started in 2003, and the primary school has since added grades one and two. The primary school is co-ed, while the secondary school is only for girls. The sisters who run the school hail from the United States, Germany, and Uganda. In total, there are approximately 150-180 students who attend this school, and they live in the dormitories, while the sisters who are also the school's teachers, live in the convent. The school has six classrooms, of which one now functions as a computer lab. The school and convent both make use of solar power to meet their energy needs.

Background and History
The children attending these schools mainly come from the Kibaale district of the state, which is often called "the forgotten district" or "lost district" because of its severe lack of roads, infrastructure, electricity, and poverty. Even so, the fees to attend this school are much lower than for many private schools in Uganda, as they are able to keep fees low thanks to donations coming from the United States, which defray the costs. The school is working on becoming self-sustaining, so that when the sisters from the US and Germany return home or move on to another mission, the Ugandan sisters will be able to continue their work.

The idea to put a computer lab in the school was the result of a visit to Buseesa in October, 2005, by two provincial superiors, who are based in California. The superiors discussed the idea with the sisters in Uganda, and in June, 2006, secured a grant from a foundation, also based in California, to fund the project. One of the sisters, Sister Anita, who is originally from the United States, took the lead in pursuing this project, and as such, may be considered the project coordinator.

Because of the solar-power energy setup at the school, the initial thought was to opt for laptop computers for lab, because the sisters were already utilizing solar-chargeable laptops themselves. However, a few drawbacks became clear rather quickly with the laptops: the hardware would be far more costly than traditional PCs, both for the initial outlay, and for repairs (because generally the whole computer needs to be repaired if one part breaks), especially with numerous young children using them on a regular basis. Next, they would each require an expensive inverter to convert DC to AC power, and finally, they were not very energy-efficient, and would in fact require quite a bit of power to run.

In the Spring of 2007, through word-of-mouth, (in fact, from someone at the internet service provider that previously provided internet service to the mission, but has since gone out of business, leaving the sisters with no Internet connectivity,) Sister Anita learned of Inveneo, a non-profit company based in San Francisco that provides innovative ICT (Information & Communications Technologies) solutions to those in rural and remote locations in the developing world. She emailed them, and a dialog began.

In order to determine how ICT can most appropriately meet the needs of their clients, the people who work at Inveneo ask their clients what their existing infrastructural conditions are and what the goals are that they want the ICTs to help achieve. Inveneo then assesses whether their products are a good match for these circumstances and expectations. Inveneo creates ICT devices that spring from a consideration of the external environmental conditions, energy supply (or lack thereof), and long-term energy costs facing a client. In this particular case, the technology users would be multiple classes of children rotating in and out of the computer lab throughout the school day; environmentally, there would be considerable dust, heat, and humidity; and the energy supply was limited.

Solution
The solution proposed was to outfit the computer lab with twenty computers that operate on a 12-Volt battery system that is recharged through the school's existing solar power setup. (Twelve volts is an extremely low amount of energy required to power computers.) The software and operating systems are free and open source for both the servers and desktops. The computer lab has been operational for approximately four months.

One unique aspect of Inveneo's focus on project sustainability is that they recruit, train, and certify local ICT professionals, so that these small- and medium-sized business entrepreneurs perform the installation, maintenance, and support for the projects. This not only keeps costs down for the projects, it also promotes sustainability by building local expertise and abilities, which benefits the local economy. This focus on the "local" is even more important once one factors in maintenance and support.

It is easy to forget that technology deployments rarely run perfectly upon installation, and the St. Julie school computer lab is no exception. The software has required reinstallation three times, for various reasons. The solar panels blew off the roof or have been dislodged twice during storms. There are ongoing network problems and individual computer issues. This reality underscores the importance of having local, trained technical support for ICT projects. In fact, this point can be taken further—there is also a benefit to having competition among local ICT technicians. Inveneo has trained multiple local technology experts in the Kibaale region, and the St. Julie school found that the second local partner to which they were introduced was more interested in and amenable to working with a school and meeting its particular needs and concerns.

In terms of teacher training, the school has hired a young man from the local village who has computer skills and training. He assists two of the sisters to teach the students during the week, and then also trains the other teachers on the weekends. Approximately 70% of the teachers and staff are Ugandan and do not have prior experience with computers, so training is important. Even so, not all of the teachers are attending the ICT training thus far, which illustrates the fact that not all teachers are, in fact, eager to embrace technology and adapt their lesson plans and teaching styles.

Goals and Objectives
The goals for having a computer lab and making use of ICTs at the St. Julie mission are pragmatic and realistic. Uganda instituted a national testing program in Computer Studies in 2004, which consists of both theory and practical use of computers (including use of word processing, databases, spreadsheets, and the Internet). Students must sit for a certain number of exams at the end of their studies, both after the primary level, and to obtain the Uganda Certificate of Education four years later. Computer Studies is now included in the list of elective exams with which students can meet the required total number of exam subjects. The school's goal is that their students will be able to sit for the Computer Studies exam by 2010, and as a result, that these students will also have developed the credentials and skills to use technology to help them get a job, which can provide funds that will enable them to further their education.

At present, the computers are being used to teach students how to type, and to use word processing. The students studying accounting have set up a balance sheet, in order to apply something they are learning in the classroom on the computer, There is also a dictionary program on the computers that the students can use to learn new words (in English) and to improve their grammar. In the future, the school hopes to acquire some read-aloud story books for use on the computers, math-practice software, and eventually, and Internet connection. Still, they are mindful of the fact that the computers are there to meet the goal of supporting the national testing curriculum.

Regarding student interest in the computers, Sister Anita reports:

"The students are so excited. They love any moment they spend in the lab and any free second I have, they want me to take them in there. They would love to listen to more music and, of course, they miss not having the Internet. Since we do not have a telephone network and a satellite connection is very expensive, we live without that. In fact, it would be a mammoth job of controlling that, for sure. So we have what we need and what we can manage."

Discussion
It may be too soon to comment on the outcomes of the technology initiative at the St. Julie Mission School. Even so, the project allows us to identify a few characteristics of the school that bode well for the success of the project.

The technology that was installed is a complement to the existing infrastructure and pedagogy at the school. It may be considered as an enhancement to the teaching and learning process.

The goals for adding a computer lab are clear, realistic, and measurable. The goals are in line with the introduction of Uganda's Computer Studies exam, as well as with the capabilities and interests of a sufficient number of the teachers. Teacher training is provided, but not required. Those who are not currently interested are not forced to take part against their will. The project also benefited from a project champion who was willing to investigate alternate possibilities for the technology, deployment, and maintenance, as well as to look after training and lead the first computer courses.

The technology may be deemed appropriate for the local circumstances, as it took into consideration the environmental conditions, the energy capabilities, the characteristics of the potential users, and the long-term costs. The project may be considered sustainable, as funds are expected to continue from donations.

Appropriate local partners were identified for project deployment, while service and maintenance were built in to the agreement. The local economy is supported through the employment of both the technicians and the computer instructor.

Re-shifting the focus to the bigger picture, we can identify several characteristics from this project that may inform the Ugandan government in its efforts at ICT deployment at a national level. There are inherent difficulties extrapolating from a single case study. What has been successful in one location may be completely inappropriate for another. History has demonstrated that development is a multifaceted, complex process rooted in the socio-cultural, political, economic and historic reality. Any attempt at policy prescription must be preceded and informed by a sincere effort to understand the particular situation at that point in time, and of how it got there, on both a recent and historical time scale. We are mindful of this limitation.

The first best-practice characteristic we can identify is an understanding of technology as an enabling tool and a complement to existing teaching and infrastructure, not as a silver bullet, and not an end in itself. The second is a realistic assessment of the current situation. If there are insufficient schools, classrooms or teachers, these must precede technology initiatives (or at best, be combined). It is beyond the scope of this paper to make recommendations as to how the recruitment of teachers and building of schools will best be achieved, but this reality does need to be addressed.

The next characteristic concerns the size of the endeavor: modest efforts that are in line with local realities and appropriate to local conditions are more likely to be adopted. They may prove more successful and sustainable. This may be a case where the government would want to continue focusing on and promoting cases and pilot projects, rather than legislating an overnight change to be implemented in all schools across the country regardless of readiness or appropriateness—as was the case with the "overnight" promulgation of universal primary education legislation. Smaller projects are more easily adapted to changing conditions. Even successful, scalable projects often begin as pilots, the successes of which may inspire the confidence to "think bigger."

A further characteristic is the identification of the technology appropriate to the project. Oftentimes, simpler is better. In this case, some of the newest available technologies were utilized, but this had much to do with the local requirements, in terms of environment and the power source. In the end, the choice of technology must be determined by the project's characteristics.

Another characteristic is setting realistic, achievable goals. The goals set forth for the technology at St. Julie's school are in line with Uganda's recent offering of an exam in Computer Studies. Further, they are concrete, enumerated, and are feasible for the school to reach. A goal of "harnessing technology to leapfrog into the information society" is vague, unrealistic; it is therefore not measurable and likely unachievable. It is better to clearly specify achievable goals, to avoid the aspirations gap.

Training is important. The St. Julie School is actively offering technology training to teachers, and yet not pushing this too hard. There are a sufficient number of teachers who are interested in using the technology and are taking the training courses. The school is in the (financial) position to be able to offer training. These are all key human resource issues that the state must factor in to any technology initiative. Just as there is no shortcut for teaching children how to read and write, there is no dependable accelerated technique for making adults who have never used technology comfortable with it—each will adjust differently.

A project champion is important as well; this has been well-documented in ICT-for-development project implementation studies. The St. Julie School benefited from the presence of Sister Anita; similar project champions will need to be identified, empowered, and supported in any government-led ICT-in-education projects.

Sustainability is important. The St. Julie School uses solar power, so grid electricity on an ongoing basis was not a factor in this case, but it may be for numerous schools across the country. This will need to be taken into consideration—will the government commit to pay for these costs. Additionally, support for and maintenance of the technology was part of the contract/agreement with the local technicians at the St. Julie School. Such an agreement should be the case for schools that will be the target of ICT deployments, and employing local technicians will help the economy and make the support and maintenance efforts more efficient. Ongoing funding for project continuation is another consideration. The St. Julie School can expect to continue receiving funds from the US, and will continue to have teachers. By contrast, public schools will need continued public funding to meet this need.

Establishing feedback loops is important as well, which promotes a top-down-meets-bottom-up method for project implementation. In this case, the NGO Inveneo establishes such a dialog for working together, first by working with clients (bottom-up) who approach them, and second by asking the clients what their needs, goals, and present circumstances are. It then offers its expertise (top-down) to provide solutions, while at the same time training local staff with the skills to carry out deployments on their own in the future, and to provide support/maintenance on the current project. If recent history may be considered indicative, the Ugandan government will likely make use of public-private partnerships to carry out ICT-for-education initiatives. Establishing similar feedback loops will be essential to avoid an overly top-down mentality, and to determine what local needs, desires, interest, and capabilities actually are.

The technology in the case presented seems promising in terms of adoption and the meeting of goals because all of the other pieces were in place, and the technology is a complement to them. The school has the proper infrastructure; it has a classroom that can be used for computers. It had a project champion, and it has ongoing support. It did not set its expectations unrealistically high for the technology to solve or address problems.