CAREER PROFILE : Doreen says Ubungo Kids is the answer

Doreen Kessy is a Chief Operating Officer of Ubongo Media, producers of the Swahili educational cartoon Ubongo Kids. She loves education and making learning fun. With Ubongo Media, she is instrumental in the growth of the organisation, developing partners, and helping Ubongo’s unique content spread throughout the continent.

She speaks to Success about her career addressing education showcasing lessons learn in engaging new technologies to allow children to be active learners, having an impact beyond the material being taught.

What makes a good creator of educational cartoon?

I believe what makes great educational cartoons is continuous formative research and user testing with children during creation of the product. It has to start from early on, from when the script is being written to the development of characters. It’s really important to find out whatchildren like or don’t like, and whether there is an understanding/comprehension of lessons being taught. At Ubongo, we collect feedback and immediately iterate our content to ensure quality.

What are some of the tasks that you are responsible for as a COO at a company that creates educational cartoons?

As COO at a fast growing startup, I wear many hats! I’m involved in general management of company, Business Development activities, HR, fundraising, strategic planning and forecasting, financial management and outreach. I’m also the voice of Ngedere on Ubongo Kids!

Where would you like to see Ubongo in the coming five years?

I’d like to see Ubongo continue to grow and reach million more chilkdren in Africa with more shows. This means finding ways to reach children at the bottom of the pyramid, even those in non-electrified areas.

What are the most enjoyable aspects of your job?

Love working with a diverse team that brings a great variety of skills to the table. I also love it when I receive phone calls from parents and children who love our content. It makes it all worthwhile to know that children now love maths and science because of our edu-cartoons.

What is the toughest job you’ve had?

Working at Ubongo is not an easy task; however, I really enjoy working here.

What’s the toughest feedback someone has ever given you? How did you learn from it?

I’m my own worst critic, so I’d say most of the toughest feedback has come from me. Over time I have learned that it is not always about winning, it’s about improving, becoming a better version of myself.

How did you come up with the idea of Ubongo Kids?

There is an education crisis in Tanzania, and it starts with the youngest learners. Fewer than half of Tanzanian children attend pre-primary school, and many who do attend pre-primary are in daycares without a single trained teacher.

Much of children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development occurs at the ages of five and under, and it is critical that they receive the right stimulation and early learning to promote brain development. This has far reaching impact on their performance at primary and even secondary school .

But unfortunately, millions of Tanzanian children are missing out on the chance for a top quality, pre-primary education in the most critical years of their development.

What if we could leverage existing mass media and mobile technologies to deliver top quality, engaging and interactive digital learning content to young children, and provide support and resources for families across Tanzania to engage in their children’s early education?

We’re creating Akili, an innovative edutainment cartoon and radio series that helps young children develop pre-literacy, numeracy, motor and English language skills through fun learning; and Akili Mobile, a complementary service for basic mobile phones that gives parents and caretakers additional resources and guidance to take an active role in their children’s early education. This interactive, multiplatform edutainment leverages technologies that Tanzanian families already access: 91% of Tanzanians listen to radio weekly (Intermedia, 2012), 42% watch TV weekly (IPSOS, 2013) and 80% of Tanzanian households have at least one mobile phone (Sauti ya Wananchi, 2012). Using these technologies we can reach millions of families across Tanzania with ultra-low-cost learning, at a speed and scale never before possible with traditional educational interventions.

We are building on experience from our current primary school edutainment program Ubongo Kids, which teaches maths through fun, animated stories and catchy original songs. It broadcasts on national TV (in Kiswahili) to families across East Africa, and has live mobile phone interactivity: viewers can answer multiple choice questions via SMS while they watch, then receive feedback and encouragement from their favorite cartoon characters. Ubongo Kids has reached over 1.4 million unique viewers in Tanzania in its first 6-month season (IPSOS, 2014), and led to significant maths learning outcomes for Tanzanian primary school students (see 3.2 Impact). Ubongo Kids is the first cartoon produced in Tanzania, and the first large-scale, local edutainment product. We are now adapting this approach for another area of great need: early childhood education.

What makes Ubongo’s signature approach to schooling innovative?

Ubongo aims to make learning fun again! When I went to school, it was so rigid and there was no fun in it. Ubongo wants to change this. We want to make learning fun and we want lessons to be relevant to children. Currently 24 per cent of Tanzanian parents watch Ubongo Kids with their children and other family members. These parents tell us how Ubongo Kids has transformed learning from a difficult, rigid, and serious activity to something entertaining.