Facts and Figures
- DDF Project Title
- Youth Digital Literacy & Capacity Development
- DDF Fellow Reference Number
- DDF 06
- Partner in The Gambia
- Starfish International
- Geographical Coverage
- Urban-Rural
- Period
- 2022 – 2023
- DDF Grant
- D300,000
- Cash Contribution
- Nil
- In-kind Contribution
- D68,400
Challenges and Opportunities
Mam Yasin believes that the overwhelming majority of middle and high school students in The Gambia, who are already from financially challenged families, are at risk of being left behind by the digital educational system, whose age has come. The learning system in the country is traditional and classroom-based. And in most cases, has not made the transition to digital. Consequently, most student graduates are not functionally skilled enough to pursue national and international opportunities in the new digital age.
Mam Yasin Sarr (The Gambia)
DDF 06
When a Patriotic Educationalist Employs Tech-Driven Education to Upskill Disadvantaged Schoolers for the Digital Age
Mam Yasin Sarr is an educationalist and Specialist in World Class Standards, focusing on Reading, Writing, and Curriculum Development. She ‘’knew that instead of being in the classroom, what would be more impactful is to train teachers and help institute an educational system that can handle the problems the Gambian school structure currently faces.’’ She finds that the Gambian learning system lacks functional and wholesome educational programmes, and is also failing to adapt to digital education, whose age has come, and she wants to do something about it.
‘’To accomplish this goal, my husband and I created a nonprofit organization called Starfish International. Its mission includes the provision of international service opportunities centered primarily on meeting the educational needs of disadvantaged Gambian girls and boys’’
~Mam Yasin Sarr. Co-Founder, Starfish International.
Mam Yasin holds a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Starfish International’s (SI) ultimate goal is to ‘’establish a state of the art academy of excellence that will provide the Gambian girl-child an advanced education from preschool to graduate school.’’ For now however, SI is running programs out of it’s library grounds in Mam Yasin’s native village of Lamin. From here, they offer after-school tutorials, chidlren and adult literacy classes, health and community outreach schemes, small business development programs, and intensive summer school activities focused on self-development.
‘’As we are in the age of digital education, very few well off Gambians are able to strive in the digital world…I want to provide disadvantaged young high schoolers with affordable opportunities to acquire digital skills even before they graduate from school, to excel in their education and future workspaces.’’
~ Mam Yasin Sarr, Project Lead.
About The Project
Mam Yasin’s new initiative is to renovate, expand and convert an existing computer lab to a digital learning centre (DLC) able to host twenty-five (25) underprivileged middle and high schoolers. The DLC is to offer online tutorials on the subjects the students already do at school, including English, Maths, Science, and Physics among others. Other deliverables comprise of computer literacy programmes; well-rounded education on the impact of technology on Today’s Generation, as well as risks associated with the use and abuse of the internet.
DDF Results and Impact
- Building Construction Work: The computer lab building has been expanded, renovated and repainted.
- Computer and Mutimedia Equipment: Purchased 6 computers, 1 video camera, and 1 wireless microphone for recording online lessons for students.
- Training:
- Started having essential Information Communication Technology (ICT) classes. For example: learning about the hardware and software parts of the computer.
- Added Microsoft Office Suites; Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.
- Other courses soon to be added; Computer Science, English, Mathematics, Humanities, etc.
