Lessons building a computer lab for kids has taught me about development
In the second quarter of 2018, my dad sent me a picture of children learning to use a computer in a colourful classroom in the village primary school I attended 25 years ago. He followed up that message with a short prayer, “God bless you abundantly”, then a message of pride “You did it.”
In reality, it was “we did it”. Five months before then, I had visited this school, and left with a lot of pain in my heart. This is what I saw:
I left with a promise to return.
Why a computer lab?
This was actually a very simple decision. I had been involved in training kids to use computers for a while, starting with the project I did 10 years ago, so I know how much value children get from learning to use computers. Also, if you want kids to learn faster, get them curious, and computers inspire endless curiosity.
Over the next couple of months, I would work with my dad to identify needs, build a relationship with the headmaster (who was very helpful), and interface with the community to show the need for the project we wanted to build.
Lesson: Start. Now. If it doesn’t work today, it may tomorrow. I didn’t quite get where I wanted with the project I did 10 years back, but it provided useful insights for this project.
A bit of luck
On our first visit to the school, we were curious about a new-ish building on the premises — it was locked and barred, but looked ok otherwise. Inside the building were several desks and sewing machines.
When we contacted the headmaster, he confirmed that the building had been built as a “skills acquisition centre”, but had been locked up since commissioning.
We enquired if we could use two of the four rooms for our lab. A few days later, we got the answer — yes, we could. Perfect. This development immediately cut about N4 million from the potential project cost.
Lesson: The government probably could deliver the right infrastructure for education if they weren’t so busy building white elephant projects. Also, a lot of these skills acquisition centres get built, but most hardly ever get used.
Setting up
Our first task was to secure the building so the computer equipment would be safe. We took out the ceiling and sealed the space with thick wooden planks, to ensure if burglars came through the roof, it would take a while before they could break into the rooms. The planks were of course reinforced with ‘deterrents’ before the ceiling was put back in place.
We then reinforced the window bars from both sides — if someone broke the bars outside, there would be a second set of bars to break before they could get inside. We also secured the doors. The windows were replaced, and we were ready to go.
For the final touch, we got an artist to splash the room with children friendly colour.
Making tables is no easy task
While we secured the rooms, we were also getting tables ready for the classrooms. I designed a simple HDF top table with metal legs — the instructions for the carpenter were very simple: use off white HDF for the top of the tables, so they reflects light, and help make the room lighter.
I asked for progress photos so I could direct the process, but after we got the metal frames done, the carpenter went dark.
When we finally got a picture, this was the white table we requested to have made:
Of course the carpenter couldn’t absorb the cost of getting new table tops, so we had to pay again to get what we wanted, which were these:
Lesson: Expect black tables when you ordered white tables from a Nigerian carpenter. If you get brown, be grateful, it’s a middle ground.
Hiring
The first thing I tried to do before we started renovations was hiring a teacher. My first solid option didn’t work out, but luckily found two young graduates teachers a few weeks later, who didn’t only believe in what we were trying to do, but were excited. It was also great to have a male and female teacher.
It was important they were part of the renovation process, so they know where we were coming from. To accommodate our teacher, we completed a 3-bedroom house on campus which had been built for the headmaster years before, but was never finished.
Two security men were also hired to look after the lab on day/night shifts.
Equipment decisions
We put a lot of thinking into what kind of computers to buy. We had considered getting desktops at first, but desktops are bulky, albeit rugged. The desktops would also have needed more power, which is an important consideration, due to the location.
We also considered using Raspberry Pi units, but we were dissuaded due to the lack of ubiquity for Raspberry Pi systems in the location. Windows is still the leading OS.
We finally settled on Asus Laptops — light, strong, fast, modern, and checked the box for power efficiency. They also allowed us give similar equipment used in private schools to the kids in the village. This was our original promise.
Lesson: Laptops deliver more benefits, and adapt better to rural environments. They also eliminate the transition culture shock which would have happened if the kids needed to transition to laptops in later life.
We also got printers as well as steel wires for securing the laptops to the tables. We also added large UPS for the printers. (We are still working on arrangements for internet service).
The school already had a generator they rarely used, so the headmaster committed it to the service of the lab. A week after the tables came in, we had PHCN connect the building to the grid.
We were set!
A venture full of lessons
It’s been 4 months (a term) since we opened the lab and the experience for the kids has been wonderful. I get video updates weekly, and it is just wonderful how they enjoy their classes.
The school teachers have also enjoyed the project. Most of the teachers have participated in after school classes to also learn to use computers. This is major extra value added to our project. The more the teachers learn, the better they can teach the kids in class.
Apart from the lessons up shared, I’ve learned the following:
- Partnerships are important — sell the vision to the partner first. Without the support of the school headmaster (and the school teachers), it would have been virtually impossible to execute this project. The moment the headmaster bought into the project, everything went smoothly.
- Our people are poorer than we thought — during our planning, the headmaster had suggested that to run the project sustainably, we needed to charge a security levy of N200 per term from the pupils to fund the security guards, generator fuel and maintenance. By the end of the term, it turned out that most households could not afford this levy! I cancelled the levy and included the security stipend in our monthly budget.
- The hardest thing is starting — there is a lot of need in our rural communities, but I consider preparing the next generation for the future as the most important task. Beginning this project has made me realize “this thing isn’t that hard”. With just a little funding and dedication, we can completely change learning in our local schools.
- We have enough unemployed graduates to meet our teaching staff needs.
- The biggest cost is staff — this is a recurrent expenditure. To scale this project, we have to find a more sustainable way of solving this problem. One way could be working with NYSC — I don’t like the programme, but if it’s there, we might as well use it.
The future
After the first three weeks of reports from the classrooms, I had already made up my mind were I wanted this to go. Over the last couple months, as I’ve gradually brought myself around to the idea of participating more actively in non-political public service, I’ve decided this would be my key focus area: providing tech education to areas with little or no opportunity.
Thankfully, there are many in my immediate circle who think same. The first target is to build 100 of these labs over the next 5 years.
I hope to share lessons and insights as we go.
