U-reporter Enables RICNET to carry out action research about her sms platform

RIC-NET has been running sms platform since 2010 to send sms alerts, receive feedback on radio programmes, sensitize parents about their roles at schools,  sensitise citizens about their roles in the governance and electoral processes, provide weather information alerts, market information and preventive health alerts.

Every year RIC-NET sends out over 500,000 sms on these different issues to over 3,500 citizens in her database residents of Rwenzori region, therefore the organisation required a clear feedback on effectiveness of these sms in delivering the intended massage.

The organisation sample two District Kasese and Kabarole and send over 1,500 sms to users the following questions:

 1. Is SMS a useful way of informing parents on issues about their children at school? Yes/No, why?

2.       Have you or your parent ever taken action because of the SMS received about education from RIC-NET?

The results of these questions are as follows

836 people responded the first question and 510 responded to the 2^nd question.

Out of 836 people, 497 disagreed with sms as effective channel for information to the parents with mostly giving reasons as most parents are illiterate, expensive to buy phones, not able to engage on phones. But this contradicted the fact the 836 out of 1,500 people had responded to the poll.

Responses based on Gender on 1^st question

Sex	no	other	yes	Total
F	130	4	67	201
M	234	5	164	403
N/A	132	5	95	232
Total	496	14	326	836

It was observed that mostly people from Kasese responds to sms than Kabarole District.

Responses based on sex, category per district

Category	Sex	Kabarole	Kasese	Total
no	F	49	81	130
	M	51	183	234
	N/A	36	96	132
other	F	2	2	54
	M	1	4	5
	N/A	1	4	5
yes	F	27	40	67
	M	49	115	164
	N/A	21	74	95
Grand Total		237	599	836

Response on the 2nd question

 55%  (282 people out of  the 510) who responded to question 2 had taken action because of the our sms. This was positive compared to 33% who regarded sms as effective in sharing education information to parents.

This  can generally imply that, though only 326 people regard sms positive, at least  282 of these take action action.

RWECO HOLDS THE TECHIE LEARNING WORKSHOP

RWECO held a the Techie II learning session for staff of organisation participating in the C4C funded projects in Uganda. Participants where drawn from  Health Child, LACCODEF, UNHCO, RWECO, I-NETWORK, CFSU     , HAG, CEW-IT and RIC-NET.

This session was facilitated by Micheal Niyitegeka a communication specialist with financial support from IICD.

participants of Techie 11 workshop

Micheal clearly started by defining a communication strategy to include  complex processes that organisation apply to ensure a the client receive a specific message and take a specific action.

He  exposed members to several examples of different communication strategies employed by both business companies and NGOs e.g. Coca Cola and TED.

He helped  participants to clearly identify and ensure they take care of key aspects of the communication as:

• What is the message? The intended target and  impact?
• Who is the carrier of the message?
• The timing and  real timeliness?
•  Localisation of the message or  products for accessibility.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the communication process during the execution and after.
• Sustainability of the communication strategy and the messaging.

Later, participants where exposed on how RWECO/RIC-NET has used different communication channels of carrier as part of the communication strategy. Participants looked at the different blogs combined with you-tube channels , Google searches and feedback mechanisms. The organisation online reporting tool for staff and ushahid for crowd sourcing were also exposed.

At the end of the two days workshop, all members to design communication strategy for their organization and send it to Michael for guidance and copy to Pamela.

Teacher suprises RWECO IICD and CFSU staff monitoring the ICT enabled teaching project with their skills

on 2nd June 2014,a team from RIC-NET, RWECO and CFSU together with IICD staff toured the C4C project staff to ascertain the progress of the project and its implementation. The tour covered St.Thereza Girls SS and Kilembe. St Charles and Bwera PTC were not visited because of limited time on the side of the IICD staff. 

Objectives of the Visit.

1.      To ascertain whether the project goals and objectives are achievable or not.

2.      To acquaint the new IIC country director with the extend of the implementation of the project.

3.      Identify new intervention that can be incorporated into the project in the near future and the future for sustainability.

attending to a lesson in kilembe SS

OUTCOMES FROM THE VISIT.

 6 teachers from ST.Thereza Girls SS and 5 from Kilembe SS have benefited from the training both internal and external and are able to use the ICT tools.

a). Lesson preparation. Teachers of English showed a lot of skills in lesson preparation and presentation. The use of the equipments in lesson planning and presentation were exhibited properly. Teachers showed knowledge of the ICT tools.

b). lesson presentation: Teachers are able to present lesson using ICT tools. Lessons were prepared properly and presented in the set English rooms. Use of tools in lesson presented was well depicted. Equipments are well used in lesson presentation especially the speakers, projector and the laptop.

attending to a lesson at St. Thereza Girls Sec

C). English rooms. Schools have set aside English labs where the equipments are kept and being used. However English labs need power regulators to avoid power short circuits leading to destruction of the computers. School administration will continue working to improve the conditions in the English or language rooms.

d). Project and the school administrations. School administrations are well behind the projects and its intended objectives and goals. Head teachers are fully aware of what is taking place and are fully supporting the teachers in the implementation of the project. More schools need to be incorporated into the projects such that the results are wide in the district and bigger change can be realized. If possible more Equipment is provided relative to the numbers of teachers in schools and thus lesson preparations hampered. Servicing of the equipments in the school be done

meeting Deputy Head Techer st. Theresa Girls Mr. Nzandu

e).SMS platform. SMS have increased the parents response to the school programs especially fees payment, collection reports and attending school days and meetings. Improved effective communication in the school.

This has picked up well and results already at hand in most of the school. However there are still instances where there is delay in message to be transmitted due to network problems. Schools will still continue to provide telephone contacts for parents and other categories.

f). Use of ICT in the school. Helped in the packaging of the reports. Teachers can now access their emails and other school networks. Schools are not having ICT teachers and use any one with ICT knowledge and thus teachers of English find it hard to deal with simple mentainance problems apart from Kilembe that have a qualified ICT teacher. Administration packages in supervision, teaching, accounting and School management software’s. More other tools as camera in capturing images and voice recorders.

g).Use of the equipments given to schools. Helped to integrate the teachers in ICT, not only those from the English department but other teachers from other departments like French Kiswahili who have frequently used the tools and humanities who have frequently used the tools and the equipments. Improved the learning especially in those activities and subjects where ICT is used. “Our performance in languages has improved” according to the head teacher St.Thereza Girls. Improved composition writing among the students. Have attracted more teachers in the schools to have adopted ICT skills in lesson preparation. Thus improved computers literacy among the teachers and the students. Helped in lesson sharing among the teachers. Improved team work in lesson preparation and more especially involving the students.