Vodafone Group Plc Vodafone Foundation 'Instant Classroom'
March 02 2015 - 03:00AM
RNS Non-Regulatory
TIDMVOD
Vodafone Group Plc
02 March 2015
2 March 2015
15,000 child refugees to benefit from Vodafone Foundation
'Instant Classroom'
-- Digital 'school in a box' created to bring tablet-based teaching to refugee camps.
-- Vodafone Foundation Instant Classroom takes 20 minutes to set
up and can be used in classrooms without electricity.
-- To be deployed in partnership with the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) to 12 schools in Kenya, Tanzania and the
Democratic Republic of Congo over next 12 months.
The Vodafone Foundation today announced the Instant Classroom, a
digital 'school in a box' that can be set up in a matter of
minutes, helping give children and young adults in some of the
world's largest and poorly resourced refugee camps the opportunity
to continue their education.
The Vodafone Foundation Instant Classroom has been specifically
designed for areas where electricity and internet connectivity are
unreliable or non-existent and will be deployed in partnership with
UNHCR's Innovation and Education units.
The Instant Classroom is shipped in a secure and robust 52kg
case which is equipped with a laptop, 25 tablets pre-loaded with
educational software, a projector, a speaker and a hotspot modem
with 3G connectivity. The tablets can connect to the laptop
locally, enabling teachers to deliver content and applications to
students without the need to access the internet.
All the components of the Vodafone Foundation Instant Classroom
can be charged simultaneously from a single power source while the
case is locked. After 6-8 hours of charging time, the Instant
Classroom can be used for a full day in a classroom without access
to electricity.
Over the next year, the Vodafone Foundation Instant Classroom
will be deployed to 12 schools in refugee settlements in Kakuma in
Kenya, in the Nyarungusu refugee settlement in Tanzania and in the
Equatorial Region in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instant
Classroom will this year provide up to 15,000 children and young
adults aged from 7 to 20 with advanced teaching aids that are
currently only available in a minority of schools in developed
nations.
The Instant Classroom builds on the Vodafone Foundation's
experience with tablet-based learning programmes. In 2014, the
Vodafone Foundation worked with UNHCR's Education and Innovation
units to develop the Instant Network Schools programme, which
introduced tablet-based learning to around 18,000 pupils in the
Dadaab refugee settlement in northern Kenya. Teachers at the Dadaab
schools said the tablet-based lessons have been so popular that
pupil attendance had increased by an average of 15 per cent.
Over the next two years, the Vodafone Foundation Instant Network
Schools programme will be extended to support additional schools in
refugee camps in Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of
Congo with the aim to reach more than 40,000 children and young
people.
Vodafone Foundation Director Andrew Dunnett said: "At the end of
2013, UNHCR estimates that there were 50 million refugees and
displaced people worldwide, half of who are under the age of 18.
With refugees displaced from their homes for an average of 17
years, many have little or no access to education. The Vodafone
Foundation Instant Classroom is robust, simple and powerful. It
puts the best technology that educators have to offer into the
hands of children and young people living in the toughest of
environments."
UNHCR Innovation Lead Olivier Delarue said: "In the face of
increasingly complex humanitarian crises, UNHCR is tasked with
finding new, creative ways to meet the developmental and
educational needs of young refugees and stateless people worldwide.
We welcome the opportunity to work with the Vodafone Foundation to
find innovations that work in the refugee context. Innovation for
us is not about developing educational products; rather it is about
using technologies that partners like Vodafone Foundation have to
offer as a new way of identifying and testing solutions to enhance
educational opportunities."
For further information:
Vodafone Group Media Relations:
www.vodafone.com/media/contact
Note to editors
Pictures of Vodafone Foundation Instant Classroom can be
downloaded here:
https://www.flickr.com/x/t/0093009/gp/vodafonegroup/dpgww9/
A short film which shows the Instant Classroom equipment being
set up can be viewed here;
http://youtu.be/DVnoXyBsJI8
About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecommunications
companies and provides a range of services including voice,
messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile
operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 54
more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31
December 2014, Vodafone had 444 million mobile customers and 11.8
million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please
visit: www.vodafone.com
About Vodafone Foundation
The Vodafone Foundation's Mobile for Good programme combines
Vodafone's charitable giving and technology to make a difference in
the world. Globally, the Vodafone Foundation supports projects that
are focused on delivering public benefit through the use of mobile
technology across the areas of health, education and disaster
relief. The Vodafone Foundation invests in the communities in which
Vodafone operates and is at the centre of a network of global and
local social investment programmes. The Vodafone Foundation is a UK
registered charity, registered charity number 10989625.
About UNHCR and UNHCR Innovation
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General
Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate
international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee
problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights
and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can
exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another
State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate
locally or to resettle in a third country. Providing access to
quality education is a core component of UNHCR's protection
mandate.
UNHCR Innovation is a multi-departmental unit established within
UNHCR to work collaboratively with refugees, academia, and the
private sector to creatively address challenges faced by uprooted
or stateless people worldwide. UNHCR Innovation aims to empower
staff to work together with refugee communities to design
innovative solutions to the challenges they face.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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