{"id":32047,"date":"2016-10-07T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=32047"},"modified":"2016-10-08T09:10:01","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T15:10:01","slug":"entertaining-millions-african-children-might-be-key-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/entertaining-millions-african-children-might-be-key-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Entertaining Millions of African Children Might Be the Key to Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the nearly 130 million school-aged children<\/strong> in Africa today, it\u2019s estimated that one-quarter of them won\u2019t have the opportunity to attend school<\/a>. Of those that do get the chance, a small fraction will receive access to quality teachers and adequate resources that fully support their education.<\/p>\n

Though primary school enrollment rates reach as high as 90 percent<\/a> in East Africa, the majority of students are not learning basic literacy skills within their first few years of education. If trends like these persist, Africa\u2019s future generations will remain alarmingly vulnerable. The question is what is to be done.<\/p>\n

After living in Tanzania during and after her undergraduate years, Nisha Ligon witnessed how poor education deeply infiltrated numerous other issues. With a background in science and filmmaking, she moved to the U.K. to work for a company that created educational video content for kids in the developing world.<\/p>\n

Kids need the resources and motivation to learn at a low cost and massive scale.<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She soon experienced a mounting sense of frustration, however, as she realized the majority of kids who needed it most would never access what she produced. So, she quit her job and moved back to Tanzania. After a fortuitous two-hour coffee meeting in Dar es Salaam with a handful of other creatives, educators, and technologists, Ligon co-founded and became the CEO of Ubongo in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201c440 million kids under the age of 15 in Sub-Saharan Africa stand to miss out on opportunities for a quality education,\u201d says Ligon. \u201cOur goal is to give kids the resources and motivation to learn at low cost and massive scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ubongo<\/a>, which means \u201cbrain\u201d in Swahili, produces interactive educational content for children and delivers it to African families via technologies they already possess, like radio, television, and SMS.<\/p>\n

Instead of building a new technology, Ligon and her team decided to focus on producing fun, high-quality, localized content for the technology that was already being used in East African households. They created the first-ever animated TV series in Tanzania, called \u201cUbongo Kids,\u201d which teaches math and science to primary school-aged children in an engaging and accessible way.<\/p>\n