Much recent news around Facebook has focused on
its purchase of
WhatsApp, but the social media giant has started another, more
charitable initiative. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at
the Mobile World Congress in Spain yesterday that Facebook is
teaming up with tech and communication companies to bring low-cost,
high-quality education to Rwanda.
The initiative, called SocialEDU, will operate out Internet.org, which is a
collaboration among Facebook, Samsung, Nokia, Qualcomm, Sweden’s
Ericcson, Taiwan’s MediaTek, and Opera software. In a press
release, the partnership
lists five components they find necessary to bringing education
to underprivileged areas:
- Free content
- Free data
- Affordable smartphones
- Localized, social educational experience
- A government that supports innovation
At the conference, Zuckerberg explained,
“there’s no clear plan… that this will be good for Facebook, but
I can say it will be good for the world.” The SocialEDU trial in
Rwanda will act as a “blueprint” for future plans.
Although the government already provides taxpayer-subsidized
schooling, Rwanda’s education system ranks below 166 other
countries, having fallen 16 spots
since 2009, according to the most
recent United Nations data. Part of the problem is that
40 percent of teachers have little profesional experience. By
connecting students to higher quality educators, SocialEDU can
reduce this institutional shortfall.
Another barrier for Rwanda has been that “school-related costs,”
even for “basic school materials such as uniforms, books, and
pens…pose serious challenges for successful school attendance,
performance, and completion” in the country,
notes a 2013 study by the Rwanda Education NGO Coordination
Platform. Open access to information on digital devices can
mitigate students’ need for physical textbooks and the financial
burden of buying new ones for each subject, each year of
school.
And, Facebook’s emphasis on socially-oriented environment may be
the needed tool to boost the number of Rwandans that continue into
secondary education, which right now accounts for only 31 percent
of citizens.
This effort may lend itself to solving not only Rwanda’s
educational troubles, but some of America’s as well. While
internet-based education, such as massive online open courses
(MOOCs), continue to grow more mainstream, they
struggle to retain students, even at tech-savvy universities
like
Stanford. On the popular MOOC site Coursera, an
average 96 percent of students quit after only a few weeks. One
of Facebook’s strongest skills is drawing in, connecting, and
holding onto users–to the point of social media
addiction–which could keep students engaged.
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