iMlango is an award-winning education programme working in rural Kenyan communities. iMlango works to improve education outcomes in maths, literacy & life skills for 180,000 children in 245 schools. The programme delivers access to educational technology, supporting teachers to teach, and learners to learn.

Over the past six years, the iMlango programme has progressed to evidencing the ability to more than double learning progress rates for students in key subjects like maths within a holistic approach to support overall wellbeing, making it possible to narrow the learning gap related to poverty within challenged communities in rural Kenya.

iMlango focuses on three main programme pillars to improve learning outcomes:

1) Great tools:

• Digital Attendance monitoring
• Interactive learning platform for pupils
• Individualised virtual maths tutoring alongside digital learning content for literacy and life skills
• High-speed satellite broadband connectivity to schools

2) Great teams:

• Continuous training and support for teachers to integrate ICT into schools’ learning processes
• Educational support to teachers and leadership guidance to headteachers
• Support to local governments officials
• Support to parents and the wider communities

3) Real-time data and outcomes:

• Real-time project monitoring and measurement
• Provision of data reports to headteachers and local government to improve the decision making process and school governance
• Training to improve stakeholders’ capacity to interpret and use the data

The programme helps to ensure that children regularly attend school to improve learning outcomes in maths and literacy, whilst helping parents to improve their lives and the life chances of their children.

iMlango's impact includes:

• 285,000 children supported since the programme started in 2015
• 5,400 teachers trained and supported
• 1,100 parents accessing microfinance to improve their families’ economic situation

https://www.imlango.com/

• Counties: Kajiado, Makueni, Uasin Gishu, Kilifi, Kenya

• Youth
• Teachers, Parents, Government Officials

iMlango's EdTech tools and programme approach to working with students, teachers and parents can be implemented in new projects, in new countries. We are currently using the iMlango approach in Nigeria to implement a similar programme in 5 North-Western States, as many of the issues that we have seen in Kenya (e.g. low student attendance, large class sizes, the need for improvement in teacher capacity in teaching literacy) are also seen in many other developing countries in Africa and around the world.

iMlango has gone to great lengths to achieve sustainability. One innovative initiative that has been implemented has been to strengthen the communities around the iMlango schools through Microfinance.

Microfinance aims to help overcome financial barriers for the under-served in our communities, where we lend to parents whose children attend iMlango supported schools and whose micro-businesses have a sound base for expansion.

Our philosophy is to create economic value within the communities, generating revenues from them in a sustainable manner, with a profitable financial inclusion model that ensures that the iMlango educational services can continue to flourish and benefit the whole community.

Our Microfinance service fulfils that philosophy. It functions as an integral part of iMlango, delivering high economic and educational impact.

We ask parents to set aside funds for their children’s future, and we link access to loan funds to their children’s education. This link to education is a key component of the Microfinance programme, not only helping ensure low default rates but focusing parents on the importance of setting aside money to be used for improving life chances of their children at school.

Since launch, our microfinance clients have not only proven themselves to be good borrowers, they are also setting aside resources for education and showing commitment to improving their children’s life chances through education.

iMlango promotes the WSIS values and goals to build a people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information by delivering access to e-learning and other innovative digital tools to students, teachers and parents in marginalised communities in rural Kenya. For many students, iMlango is their first experience in accessing technology and the internet - and the first step to becoming part of the Information Society.