Last updated January 27, 2015
 

Status update — April 13, 2020

Kiva and iSchool Zambia have agreed to end their partnership after 5 years and $118,225 in loans raised. This decision was made due to the challenges iSchool faced in managing a credit program. iSchool joined Kiva as an experimental partner in 2014 with the purpose of financing teachers and schools that were not able to afford the iSchool technology upfront. Between February 2015 and November 2017, 46 schools received Kiva loans for iSchool tablets in Zambia. However, despite iSchools’ efforts to help borrowers successfully repay and a Kiva Fellow sent to support them in 2018, 32 borrowers defaulted on a portion of their loan and iSchool did not have the bandwidth or experience to continue managing a credit program. We thank iSchool for the years of collaboration and wish them success in their future endeavors.

Partner Description:
 
iSchool is transforming how learning happens in primary schools in Africa through interactive, enquiry-based teaching and eLearning for children in a locally contextualized form and local language using modern tablet technology. iSchool is doing for education in Africa what mobile phones did for communication. Africa can skip over the western school computer-lab model and take iSchool tablet devices straight to the very diverse places where children are learning. The iSchool system improves numeracy, literacy and critical thinking and in some cases doubles teacher and student attendance.
 
 
A Unique Lending Approach:
 
Through lending, iSchool would be able to extend their reach and service schools that are not able to afford the iSchool technology upfront. This would include schools in rural areas that are most in need of educational support and resources. iSchool would use Kiva capital to allow schools to pay back the cost of the iSchool program over time, in monthly installments. iSchool borrowers could also use Kiva capital to purchase solar chargers for their iSchool tablet devices.

iSchool is the first content company in the world to change the way teaching and learning is done by modernizing school pedagogy through placing an entire primary school curriculum in animated, voiced and written lessons on tablets in multiple languages.