The fact that stares at us from the start: there are 10.5 million children out of school in Nigeria.

Nigeria is the richest country in Africa but has more girls out of school than any country in the world. Studies are clear — educating girls grows economies, reduces conflict and improves public health. For these girls and for their country’s future, Nigeria’s leaders must immediately prioritize education.

In the midst of all these troubles, since 2009, the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has killed 2,295 teachers, displaced 19,000 educators and destroyed nearly 1,400 schools. In the northeast region, where Boko Haram is based, over 3 million children do not attend school.

One of the casualties of war is the destruction and often, never fully restored the education system of a country. 

3% of global humanitarian assistance was allocated to education in 2016

According to UNESCO, almost 250 million children are living in countries affected by conflicts. Of this number 1 out of 4 children, approximately 61 million children are currently out of school because they live in conflict and disaster zones.  Girls are 90% more likely to be affected in conflict areas than elsewhere.

Less than 3% of global humanitarian assistance was allocated to education in 2016. For the UN goal to be achieved by 2030, a radical rethink of the allocation of humanitarian assistance in education should be considered.

English Forward has proposed an “earn as you learn” tokenomics built on blockchain to encourage students to learn English as a tool to access the available online information and get better-paying jobs.

How could we use blockchain to be a more efficient conduit of humanitarian assistance?

In the wise words of Nelson Mandela:

Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.

Let’s consider that each student and teacher in a region has an English Forward token wallet, and at the start of the school year, a small amount in tokens (from humanitarian assistance grants) is deposited into each wallet. These tokens allow a student to earn as they learn on the English Forward.

Three segments of society and how blockchain could better their lives

Taking a look at this classification highlights the need for the blockchain.

1. A young person, isolated by social-economic stature, conflict and geographic position could interact with other students and teachers globally and earn tokens while they learn.
2. Working people, looking to improve their English could spend part of their study time interacting with learners and teachers globally, and help create an active, safe and encouraging environment for learning English, and also earn tokens for this contribution.
3. Employed or retired English experts (linguists, teachers, professors, enthusiasts) in both developed and undeveloped countries could earn tokens by interacting with learners in the Q&A, as well as selling their services on a peer to peer marketplace. 

The altruists can donate their tokens back to promising students in the form of scholarships, course payments or gifts to encourage further the knowledge of English. 

Imagine starting to study English, and during the process of learning, being paid to learn and being able to use these education earned tokens to buy bread, tomatoes or mend your shoes…

What if we could incentivize a student to learn English, creating a reward system to fast track their progress towards being a fluent communicator?

With blockchain creating an immutable record of a student’s studies and progress, in times of conflict or displacement, the students’ records would be preserved and none of their educational progress would be lost, ready for them to pick up at any time.

These students are excluded because of discrimination, lack of training in inclusive teaching methods among teachers, and a lack of accessible schools catering to their needs.

The internet creates an environment free from discrimination and can level the playing field and allow disabled students an equal opportunity to a good education.

Some of the most influential disabled people that have influenced our lives

1. Stephen Hawking, one of the most well-known physicists in the world, and was diagnosed with ALS when he was 21.
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is considered to be one of the greatest American presidents was paralyzed from the waist down and spent his life in a wheelchair.
3. Ralph Braun – the late founder of the Braun Corporation – one of the leading manufacturers of wheelchair accessible vehicles 
4. John Hockenberry is one of the most successful journalists in history
5. Marlee Matlin is an Academy Award winning actress, known for her leading role in Children of a Lesser God 
6. Stevie Wonder, the legendary musician, the singer-songwriter was born blind
7. Frida Kahlo is one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century
8. Helen Keller, an author, political activist, and lecturer was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
9. Lenin Moreno, one of the most powerful people with a disability to hold the public office since FDR was the Vice President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2013
10. Sudha Chandran is a famous ‘Bollywood’ dancer and television actress, who lost a leg to infection in 1981 after a car accident.

Blockchain technology applications and the information on the internet provides the perfect opportunity and vehicle for including disabled students into a global learning environment, giving them the confidence and tools to compete with their able-bodied counterparts equally. It would not only give them the ability to access education but the ability to store their study records safely for future use.

New technologies are allowing disabled access to education

Learning for a disabled student was once a pipe dream, and something that to attain could have meant overcoming incredible hardships. In many parts of the world, it still is, but the internet and emerging new technologies are allowing disabled people easier access to education.

Technology continues to grow at an incredibly fast pace and with each growth spurt comes new technologies that solve challenges that were once unimaginable. 

The Internet and online learning have changed the flow and direction of learning for disabled students.

It allows disabled students to learn at their own pace and in their own space.

Technology helps disabled distance learning students :

• promotes convenience with access to online academic resources from the comfort of their own home;
• communicate with other communities of online learners and teachers from their homes, saving the challenges and many hours of commuting to an educational institution. 
• creates an environment which encourages a sense of motivation as their strengths rather than their limitations are highlighted o
• allows rapid development and a positive attitude toward learning as confidence develops
• promotes curiosity and resilience
• offers easily learning accessible materials
• removes the stigma of having a disability and fosters and encouraging a learning environment

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” -Benjamin Franklin

In our modern computing age, it would seem easy to assume that students could rely solely on technology to learn and educate themselves. 

So why do teachers matter? 

This is actually a very complex question and one that has far-reaching effects on our communities. There are some people who believe as access to technology in education increases it will diminish the need for good teachers. This is totally untrue. I believe their role will be enhanced by technology and allow them to teach more effectively.

I think back on my school days and can clearly remember teachers that inspired me, and changed the course of my life by influencing a decision, helping me to shape my thoughts and encouraging me to persevere. Teachers matter in so many different ways.

The thing to remember is that we are all individuals, and one of the greatest mistakes made in education is assuming that a one size fits all approach will do the job of educating a classroom of students. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Not only is every student unique, but every classroom is unique too. 

Every teacher has a unique teaching style, and try to fit this style to the needs of their classrooms. There is no single solution, and whether a teacher favors spending quality one-on-one time with each student, or using a project-based learning approach and interactive activities, or a peer-to-peer learning method when enhanced with the technology they can all ignite a passion for learning. 

Khan Academy uses a mastery-based learning approach that focuses on the student as an individual and moves them forward based on their progress and understanding rather than curriculum milestones and test schedules. 

Coupling a mastery-based education system with a blockchain-based reward system 

The use of technology allows real-time capturing of data and tracking of a student’s progress and frees the teachers up to do what they were meant to do – interact with their students instead of spending time grading papers or teaching the same subject matter over and over again.

The opportunity of coupling a mastery based education system with a blockchain-based reward system would create an incentive layer that could enhance the teacher-student interaction and improve outcomes.

The reward system for teachers can be developed to focus on the most relevant methods of teaching, as teacher effectiveness has been found to be the most important predictor of student learning.

There are 130 million children in school who are not learning basic skills like reading, writing, and math, due to having no teacher or having an untrained teacher. 

Teachers that are currently untrained would be incentivized to upskill on “earn as you learn” programs, and additional teachers recruited through these incentives.

The UN estimates that about 70 million new teachers are needed to fulfill their goals for 2030. This shortage, coupled with the fact that in a third of countries, less than three-quarters of teachers are trained to national standards poses a huge challenge. 

We know ”what gets rewarded gets done”. Blockchain provides an immutable, transparent method of fast-tracking this process and achieving the United Nations goals for 2030.

Rewind and fast-forward

UNESCO and UNICEF believe that new policies must focus specifically on the most marginalized children as part of larger efforts to improve access to and quality of education. To do this, governments need robust information on who these children are, where they live, whether they have ever attended school and if they are likely to do so in the future. 

Many of these children remain invisible within current data collection methods. Children with disabilities are amongst the least visible – reliable data simply don’t exist – and they are being overlooked in national responses to out-of-school children. 

The report calls for action to invest in better data and demonstrates that reaching the most marginalized may initially cost more but also yields greater benefits. Better statistics and innovative tools can help guide governments and donors to allocate their education funding more effectively and efficiently.

What roles are being offered and what is your most suitable role, if you want to participate?

Add to that eye-opening statistic that there are more ways to bully than ever before – text messages, postings on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of which devastate children’s developing self-esteem.

Then comes on my viewfinder this thing called EdTech Tsunami. Let me explain.

You can sense that there are BIG changes coming to the education “playground” as the bullies are slowly pushed out and policymakers are initiating sweeping changes that will ultimately impact billions of students. 

As with any big challenge, there are big opportunities for the stakeholders in the Edtech space.

If the right conditions are created, the Internet can offer an opportunity for addressing the learning needs of multicultural groups globally, and at the same time bring resources into the Edtech environment in the form of company profits, and the re-investing of these profits into creating additional tools and systems online for students.

This would also include access to educational material for a large number of learners that are currently out of school, in a scalable and cost-effective way.  

Scalable and Cost-Effective

To achieve the goal of equal education for everyone, the use of new technologies is crucial. Blockchain will have an important part to play as more developing countries are added to the list of places on earth that can access educational tools, and students can be accredited for future employment, are added.

This is about empowering lifelong learners, helping youths obtain the skills that allow them to access employment, supporting women, girls, and disabled people and allowing them to participate in learning without cultural and social barriers. All these can be achieved with a blended learning environment that can leverage the vast resources of the Internet and potentially help connect education to work.

The accurate safe storage of credentials on the blockchain and creating self-sovereignty is an important key to this success.

Digital Navigation

Navigating in a digital world is a vital skill in participating in the global economy, which is dependent on 21st-century skills. 

The examples we have in countries like India, China, and South Korea demonstrates how connectivity serves as a foundation for access to information economy jobs and advancing innovations.

As of April 2019, 56.1% of the world’s population has internet access, and 81% of the developed world. In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population, would be online by the end of the year. Source Wikipedia

Using the Internet for learning is a very real possibility globally. Even though billions of people use social media, it has not been harnessed effectively and deliberately to advance education.

Why Internet-led learning for the World Is a good idea

There are great challenges to education in many parts of the world, some of which are not as obvious as you would imagine. 

Here are some thoughts and challenges that need to be considered in achieving the goal, which can be helped by the internet

• There is an absence of learning materials in many countries 
• Access to limited quality and quantity of teachers.
• Dissemination of current content and learning resources at a lower cost.
• Internet can remove the barriers to education that marginalized groups encounter (this includes women and disabled people)
• As the workplace becomes increasingly global, an education that has relevance in the global context is necessary
• Lifelong learning and on-the-job continuous professional development require the flexibility of “time and place education” as employment patterns change

A host of new solutions will be created to access and disseminate education to the developing world, and this in itself will create a Tsunami of opportunity for companies in the Edtech space.

Are Blockchain and Education the perfect partners? Tell me what you think and help me push with the English Forward advocacy to those who can benefit from it.

The surefire entry into an established corporation is to first get accepted into the so-called “Ivy League” academic institutions. Higher education comes at a steep price as an investment for higher-paying jobs. A graduate student normally takes a US $200,000 loan for pursuing higher education resulting in the estimated student debts exceeding the US $1.3 trillion!

That’s the big picture on the “delimiters” of higher education but for the details, have you ever wondered how difficult it is to get into an Ivy League or other famous universities in the US?

System Status Quo

It’s estimated that more than 100 million people apply for admission to a university in the United States every year. Of these, only 20 million are eligible to gain admission, and the final number of people actually studying is only 2 million.

If you want to study at an Ivy League or other famous universities, you’ll be among 25k or so that gain admission each year.

The final column in the image below from The Ivy Coach ~ 2021 Ivy League Admissions Statistics | Ivy Coach will show you the total applications that are accepted for each university.

Accreditation by Trust

The reason reputable tertiary institutions receive thousands of applications each year is that they have created trust between students applying, companies wanting graduated students to work for them, and the level of education a student will receive at the institution. That is why institutions only accept the brightest and the best applicants, as these students become their ambassadors, and will carry in the institutions’ good name with their future success. It creates a circle of aspiration by creating trust.

Hack-education – the major loophole in the system

The ease with which a person is able to manipulate and falsify their qualifications is astounding. There are documented cases of high-ranking politicians and government officials lying about their tertiary education qualifications, just to gain access into top academic institutions or better-paying jobs.

Top level hackers are capable of breaching record-keeping systems of the institutions and can alter or delete the qualifications of applicants.

These qualifications are difficult for institutions to verify, especially if candidates have received the qualifications from multiple tertiary institutions or online institutions.

Blockchain and ‘Digital Trust’

Blockchain is a vehicle for the exchange of things that have value without the need to have a third party or centralized point of contact to verify that the exchange (a students application credentials and study records) are correct.

This is a huge plus for Blockchain technology as it creates an immediate trust between institutions and applicants, speeds up the application process and cuts down on the costs and man-hours needed to verify the accuracy of a student’s qualification records.

Gatekeeper to accurate record keeping

Blockchain technology has the ability to limit fraud manipulation and hacking. Once information has been entered and verified on the blockchain, it becomes immutable, and cannot be altered. If an applicant wanted to change the data on the blockchain, they would need the consent of the users making it very difficult to alter records.

We often talk about our connected, global village and aspiring students are able to travel to many parts of the world to complete their education. This makes it difficult for institutions to track back the sometimes multiple education points that the student has obtained qualifications from.

Conversely, it’s also difficult for a student to convince an institution that he is a worthy applicant if he doesn’t have access to all of the documentation and records of his qualifications from the centralized institutions where he studied.

All of these factors often result in lengthy delays as verifications can take months to coordinate and verify.

Smart contracts – debt collecting ninjas

Mounting student debt in the US (the latest figure is $1.5 trillion) is leaving institutions with the mammoth task of tracking down outstanding course payments and receiving payments for the education received by the student.

A smart contract gives an institution the ability to record on the blockchain that a student has outstanding debt, and until the debt is repaid in full the student’s qualification certificate does not get issued.

KYL – Know your lecturer

Institutions and companies may pay to buy testimonials and positive reviews from random people to create a peer verification of the course or degree.

Every student wants access to high-quality lecturers and learning material, and the only way to receive accurate opinions is with peer reviews.

These verifications must only come from the actual students that have studied under the lecturers.

Peer reviews are entered into a private blockchain, with access only allowed to the lecturers and students that they have previously taught.

These records can be accurate and up-to-date and give guidance to future students wanting to learn under the lecturer as to the quality of the education they will receive from that person.

Personalized P2P Instruction

Online education is changing rapidly with the traditional version of pre-recorded videos being replaced by a one-on-one tutor system where students can get access to live teachers and information in real time. Choosing the right person as a teacher often is the key ingredient in the speed at which a student will learn and the results he will have.

Blockchain technology has the ability to provide a decentralized education system where there is a real-time exchange of information between teachers and students.

Earn as you learn

Future possibilities allow institutions the ability to link the lecturer’s bonuses back to the earning potential and future impact that their previous students have on the industry as this further enhances the reputation of the institution and build more trust with future applicants.

Teachers would be rewarded with the blockchain protocols native tokens which in turn can be exchanged for FIAT or the tokens on another blockchain network in exchange for other goods and services. Students, in turn, can be rewarded for course progress and completion.

Blockchain, with its promise of decentralization and immutable records, can play an important part in transforming the Education Technology (EdTech) landscape, but we all need to want the transparent, trustless and decentralized system and work towards the betterment of the system.

Disclaimer: This is a guest article. The views, opinions and positions expressed within it are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Cryptopolitan. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.

Poor management, failing infrastructure and load shedding can be very detrimental to a student’s education. This is a reality in the developing world. Mention the words “load shedding” in many first world countries and you’ll be met with a blank expression…mention it in South Africa and you’ll hear “it’s a part of our life”.

Many countries and cities in other parts of the world experience complete blackouts for protracted periods of time. Imagine you’re a student learning English and studying for an important exam, and load shedding or a power blackout occurs…

What do you do? You are totally reliant on the battery life left in your phone or computer, or if you’re fortunate enough to have an alternate battery backup system. And if your battery lasts you long enough, you’re still reliant on municipal and government infrastructure for cellular and internet connectivity.

Compare this to an article I read in Edtech Magazine regarding first world education.

“The IT network is the backbone of the modern learning environment, and when power is interrupted, nobody earns a passing grade…The estimated 22.2 million higher education students served by 4,298 colleges and universities throughout the country depend on technology to be accessible anytime, anywhere — and always on.”

Challenges to Online Distance and Location-based Learning

Reliable and predictable electricity supply is critical with online education and access to learning material and the internet, and tutors and lecturers need it for proper collaboration and the tools built into learning management systems. It is also required for communication between students and lecturers who are not in the same geographical locations.

As English Forward progresses and we focus on geographically dispersed students having access to equal learning opportunities, particularly in the higher education sector, we assume that they will have some access to a digital device and the internet, and this is already challenging in many parts of the world. Add to this an unreliable power supply, and you have growing challenges on the development of online distance and location-based learning.

Social and economic inequalities are pervasive in global education, and the electricity crisis many faces adds another layer to the unequal playing, or rather “learning” field. This greatly impacts the short, medium and long term socio-economic status of entire communities in developing countries.

The power crisis impacts both teachers and students, limiting their ability to fully engage in the digitally enabled educational environment, leaving, in many cases, the educational process to rely on archaic methods and systems.

Tragic Consequences in the Offing

The bright light of enthusiasm in a young students mind slowly becomes a dimming light at the end of the proverbial tunnel of hope, and their dreams are extinguished by the lack of access to stable power systems and the internet.

Tragically, it is the students who already have the lowest level of access to the benefits of digital education that are also most likely to impacted by an unstable electricity supply, compounding the problem and creating a greater socio-economic chasm.

So how could we address this challenge and create a solution that is sustainable and accessible to students in power challenged areas?

That is the question and the challenge I put to the leaders in the cellular and alternate energy sectors.

Disclaimer: This is a guest article. The views, opinions and positions expressed within it are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Cryptopolitan. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.