Thursday 4 April 2013

More work with less effort


Computing School Results of Songambele Ward
Even in the remotest parts of Tanzania, things are gradually changing with the introduction of new information and communication technologies that make work efficient. This brief article shares the experiences of how teachers in 6 schools were able to use computers in setting, marking and releasing examination results in the shortest possible time. On 13th March 2013, a total of 388 pupils of Standard VII in Songambele Ward sat for their Ward Examinations. The pupils from the 6 schools in the ward included 215 girls and 173 boys. The pupil population per school was as follows: Songambele, Masenha 13 boys and 13 girls, Ndachi  63 girls and 32 boys, Isang’ha  51 girls and 44 boys, Muungano 10 girls and 14 boys and Mtunguchole  girls 15 and 25 boys. These pupils were examined on the five subjects of: Mathematics, Kiswahili, English, Skills of Work and Science.

Hands on computing the results 
Ms Marcelina Julieth and the Village Executive officer reviewing results
Supervising the pupils to do all the subjects and marking all 388 papers per subject is a tedious job for teachers. This activity took two full days. After marking all the papers, the results were given to 2 teachers undertaking ICT training at the Songambele Maarifa centre. According to Dorosela Mabale, Happy Matandala and the Ward Education Officer Marcelina Raphael who are ICT trainees, computing the results using Excel package they had learned will make it easier to present all the school results. With the assistance of Maarifa Centre Field Officer and ICT trainer, the three educationists used the computers at Maarifa Centre to compute the total and average marks for every pupil per school. They compiled the results for all the schools and generated a list arranged according to the performance of the pupils starting with the highest mark to the lowest. Using excel their work was very much simplified as after two  hours overall results were out where by the Best Performer for every school was known as well as  Ward Best Performers.

Previous this kind of job was done for two or more days as they were using calculators to have totals and average mark for every pupil then had to arrange them manually for every school to have best performer, and getting the best pupil per Ward.

Ms Marcelina Raphael testifies her new experience
Ms. Marcelina Raphael is the ward Education Officer and shared her experience in Kiswahili as follows:
Kawaida kazi kama hii huwa tunaifanya kwa siku mbili mpaka tatu wakati mwingine na hii  husababishwa na vitendea kazi tulivyokuwa tunatumia yaani vikokotozi vya kawaida. Tunashukuru sana kuwa hiki kituo cha Maarifa centre maana kwa mara ya kwanza matokeo yametoka baada ya masaa mawili tangu walimu walipomaliza  kusahihisha mitihani. Kwa kushirikiana na watendaji wa kituo na walimu ambao ni wanafunzi wa darasa la computer tumeweza kuingiza matokeo ya wanafunzi wote, kwa kutumia program ya excel tumetafuta jumla na wastani wa kila mwanfunzi na kupanga matokeo kwa shule na baadae kwa kata nzima, kazi hii imefanyika kwa muda wa masaa mawili tu kitu ambacho hatukuwahi kufikiri kama kinaweza kuwezekana. Tunashukuru sana kituo cha Maarifa Songambele, uongozi wote wa kituo pamoja na  wadau wote waliofanikisha kuwepo kwa kituo hiki chenye manufaa makubwa kwa jamii yetu.

In the past this kind of work was quite hectic and usually took us two or more days. This is due to the equipments used which are normal calculators. We are grateful to have this Centre in our community as for the first time Examination results were out only after two hours following the marking of the papers by the teachers. With our close cooperation with Maarifa centre staff together with Teachers who are ICT trainees at the Centre, we managed to compute all pupils’ results and by using Excel Program we were able to find totals and average mark of every pupil and lastly we arranged according to performance of the pupils per school and per Ward. This work took us two hours only something which we never thought before that could happen.  We thank the Centre Management and all stakeholders who in one way or another manage to run the centre.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Empowering Songambele Communities with Digital literacy

What is digital literacy?

Digital literacy is about the level of experience someone has with computers. It refers to having skills and the knowledge to use computers competently in many applications for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In today’s world, almost everything is going digital hence the need for communities to acquire the basic skills in information and communication technologies. Since the establishment of the Songambele Maarifa centre in November 2012, communities are constantly getting new knowledge that can be used to improve their livelihoods.  Among the capacity building initiatives at the Mmaarifa centre are scheduled ICT trainings.
The centre is equipped with five computers dedicated for training communities on various computer packages. These include Introduction to Computers, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point, Internet and e-mail.
Who can be trained?
The centre is open to all community members regardless of whether one is a farmer, business person, hawker, student, teacher, nurse or even an unemployed youth etc. The first ICT training started in December 2012 and involves 24 trainees; 4 teachers, 3 business people, 5 government employees, 7 youth (boys and girls), 2 church leaders and 4 school leavers. This group of trainees will finish their training by end of March when another group will start. Already over 86 community members have registered and a criteria will be used to select the next batch of 24 trainees. ‘At the end of the training, each participant will be tested and awarded a certificate of participation’, remarked Mr. Noah Lusaka of ALIN from Nairobi during a brief discussion with some of the trainees during his recent visit. The ICT trainings will enable communities explore available opportunities especially among the youths on e-learning, e-commerce, access appropriate information for development and much more.
Reaping the many Benefits of being ICT compliant
According to Ms Herieth Sila, the Maarifa centre Field Officer, ‘The ICT modules taught have been very useful to the community as they have started applying them in different areas in their lives. For instance the workers like extension officers can now type their different documents ranging from reports and other documents while the Village Executive Officer (VEO) can type letters confidently. Teachers use excel to tabulate and arrange pupils results at school; a task that used to take more time’.

"Some of the youth trainees like Johari Farijala have already been booked for employment by the Stationery shop owners at Songambele market!” Remarked Ms Herieth. Ms Zawadi Michael who volunteers at the centre as a Community Knowledge Facilitator uses her Excel skills to catalogue Maarifa centre information resources.

Many of the youth have indicated they would like to pursue further studies online as they seek Internet related work. Jared Mkanwa, the VEO says: “the Maarifa centre project was timely because it will reduce instances of idleness among the young people and thus a reduction in petty crimes. The project will in the long run reduce rural-urban migration. It is already helping parents to cut down costs for training their children on ICT skills being offered only in Dodoma at a cost of approximately Tsh. 650,000/= (USD 420).

 Watch this space for more testimonies!