The EMEJA project aims to address the issue of high school dropout rates among girls in rural Kenya and Uganda via Astronomy outreach, mentorship, & targeted STEM workshops and scholarships opportunities, to be guided & supported by long-term student tracking & monitoring to ensure that schoolgirls in these regions complete secondary education:
- Mentorship and outreach: EMEJA is mentoring and supporting girls as they complete primary education. This is achieved by visiting primary schools, engaging the community (the pupils, their teachers and parents) in roundtable discussions addressing the socio-economic issues that may prevent girls from completing secondary education and focusing on positive actions that the community can implement in tackling these challenges. Each girl in the final year of primary school is paired with an EMEJA mentor. Mentors are local college/university educated young women.
- Tracking and long-term monitoring: To ensure a 100% primary-secondary education transition, each teen girl (EMEJA Mentee) is paired with a lifelong mentor-followed by long term tracking, monitoring & continued mentorship throughout high school- through face-to-face or phone calls every three to four months. Roughly one third of the girls we are currently mentoring are young mothers who have one or two children. As of 2023, we are tracking ~1,000 schoolgirls in high schools.
- Astro-STEM workshops and mentorship: we provide intensive Astronomy-themed workshops targeting Years 1&2 female students in high school. The key objectives are: 1. to change STEM misconceptions & promote early participation of girls in sciences, improve grades, increase number of girls selecting Physics in Year 3 & sitting for the Physics national examination in Year 4; 2. Long term-to develop & create resources for these often underfunded/underdeveloped schools, particularly for the Physics laboratories.
- Computer Literacy: Through this programme, we aim to; i) create computer literacy among these populations by offering introduction to computers hands-on practicals; ii) develop/create computer resources for the target schools.
- EMEJA tuition fee scholarship: Lack of school fees is a key reason for school discontinuation in rural areas and disproportionately affects girls. Therefore, we are working with rural secondary schools and sponsoring a few girls from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who would otherwise fail to enroll for secondary education.
Activities
I. Astro-STEM Workshops & Mentorship: conducted a 2-day (2-3rd June 2023) intensive astronomy themed workshops targeting Years I & II female students in 3 schools; St. Peters and UPEC Girls secondary schools in Kitale and Igikiro Mixed School in Murang’a. Attendance: 185 girls participated in the workshops.
-We engaged the students in well-designed Science practicals in Physics and Geography (which covers Astronomy related subjects such as the solar system, stars and the Universe) and also provided STEM career guidance and mentorship.
-We donated Physics laboratory equipment used in the hands-on Physics practicals: lenses, lens holders, electronic weighing balance, boiling tubes, beakers, candles, white screens, cross wires and a metre rule. These schools/Physics labs were in dire need of lenses and weighing balances.
II. Mentorship & outreach: EMEJA mentors visited 15 primary schools in Kenya and Uganda, and interacted/mentored girls in their final year of primary education (EMEJA Mentees/ 2023 Cohort). We engaged with ~550 primary school girls.
-We highlighted /discussed some of the socio-economic issues affecting these girls and thus hindering their access to education, and how the community can tackle some of these issues.
III. Tracking & long-term monitoring
-Conducted through phone calls, EMEJA mentors tracked 884 EMEJA mentees from 2019 ( in Year IV, last year of secondary school), 2020 ( in Year III) and 2022 ( in Year I).
-Each Mentor phoned and spoke to their assigned girls (Mentees) and/or with the girl’s parents.
-A few dire cases that required our immediate intervention warranted home visits by our mentors (e.g. cases where a girl was not in school due to either teenage pregnancy or lack of tuition fees). ~20% of the total number of girls reached were in and out of school due to a number reasons: run –aways, pregnancies/babies and lack of tuition fees
-We reached ~80% of the girls, the remaining ~20% were unreachable (due to for example, incorrect phone numbers, phones switched off/unreachable, etc).
IV. EMEJA tuition fee scholarship: Between January – November 2023, we sponsored 4 needy students with secondary tuition fees. It is worth noting that without our intervention, these students would not have enrolled in secondary schools due to lack of tuition fees.
V. Computer literacy: delivered the same time as the Astro-STEM workshops. Same target audience and schools. We donated 10 computers ( 5 to Igikiro, 3 to St. Peters-now totalling to 5 computers donate, and 2 to Noigam).
-Offered hands on “introduction to computers” practicals.
Feedback
I. Astro-STEM Workshops and Mentorship +Computer literacy
-Overall, the teachers report an enhanced interest, positive attitude and enthusiasm among the students, and note a remarkable improved score in application questions in Physics.
-The students enjoyed the workshop with 99% indicating that they would like to attend another workshop and would also highly recommend Astro-STEM to their friends in the neighbouring schools.
II. Outreach and Mentorship, tracking and monitoring and tuition fees scholarships : the community (education officers, teacher and parents) are reporting a remarkable increase in the number of girls enrolling for secondary education in the region lately. Also the programme appears to have capped school absenteeism amongst girls, and more girls are keen to attend school unlike before.
Outcomes
I. Astro-STEM Workshops and Mentorship:
-There was a massive improvement in the Physics and Geography grades across the schools:
a) St. Peters Girls
Physics:
-For Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.8/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 4.3/12.
-For Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score =4.0/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 6.2/12.
– For the first time, Physics (and across the entire school) was the best performing subject in this class (Year II).
-Number of girls selecting Physics in the coming Year III (2024) by the Year IIs, increased from 9 in 2022 to 13 in 2023. These girls will sit for the Physics examination in the national examinations at the end of secondary school education.
Geography (covers Astronomy topics):
-For Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.5/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 5.1/12.
-For Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score =3.1/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 5.4/12.
a) UPEC Girls Osorongai:
Physics:
-For Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.9/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 4.7/12.
-For Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM)
-3/25 female students in Year II selected Physics for Year III (2024), up from only 1 student in 2022.
Geography:
-Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 2.8/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score =3.3/12.
-Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM) mean score = 3.2/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.5/12.
-Using the Astro-STEM quizzes provided to the students before and after Astro-STEM, the students showed >80% improvement in the understanding of the topics covered during the workshop.
II. Outreach and Mentorship: It is slightly difficult to quantify the outcome of this programme as it is more of a behavioral change/outcome.
~420 schoolgirls and their parents/teachers introduced to Astronomy and famous Women in Astronomy/Physics/STEM.
-The 420 school girls (KCPE-341 & UCPE-79 candidates, 2023 Cohort) will be paired with personal mentors in January 2024, to be followed by long-term tracking and monitoring and continued mentorship throughout high school (for 4 years) by the mentors.
-The community (education officers, teacher and parents) are reporting a remarkable increase in the number of girls enrolling for secondary education in the region lately. And also the programme appears to have capped school absenteeism amongst girls.
III. Tracking and long term monitoring: largely still in progress.
a) 2019 Cohort – ~200/228 girls in Year IV girls tracked from 2020-2023. Just completed secondary education. The first EMEJA cohort to go through full 4 years of tracking and long-term monitoring throughout high school. We will be providing the percentage of mentors that actually completed secondary school in due course.
b) 2020 Cohort – ~250/276 girls in Year III. Tracked from 2021. Expected completion date is 2024.
c) 2022 Cohort – ~300/380 girls in Year I. Tracked from 2023. Expected completion date is 2026.
IV. EMEJA Tuition fee scholarship: managed to keep 4 students in school.
V. Computer Literacy programme: 17 computers donated to 4 schools to date.
1. ~98% of the students introduced to computers, had never used a computer before.
2. Igikiro Mixed day school, UPEC Girls and St. Peters have now created spaces for computer laboratories and as a result of these computers, are now offering Computer Studies (as part of the curriculum for secondary education) to their students. It is important to highlight that before this computer literacy programme, the schools were not offering this subject to their students due to lack of computers.