You only need to spend a few minutes speaking to Billington Murenga to understand just how much computers have changed his life. Now, the Malawian teacher hopes that all the students in his country can get the opportunities that connection provides.  Next Generation Africa and their Xulendo project are key in delivering that future.

Billington, known as Bills, is a teacher at Chaminade School in Karonga, Malawi.  About 100 kilometres from where he lives in Nkhonji, the 39-year-old has spent seven years teaching geography, economics, and computer studies to some 550 students.  At his school, thanks to the room of 20 computers, all of those children will get the chance to learn basic computer skills before they graduate.

As a teacher, the prospect of teaching without computers seems almost alien to Bills: “I wonder how people manage to teach effectively without digital (technologies)”, he effused in our chat.  He points out that the technology itself isn’t even the most important thing.  Instead, it is the habits that it encourages in students.

“Participation of learners (with computers) is three times better,” says Bills. He points out that it encourages and enables self-research from the students by interesting them far more than outdated books.

That’s where Xulendo comes in. Next Generation Africa has built an offline library of content specifically tailored to the Malawian curriculum. This means that in an environment where paper textbooks can be hard to come by, students can access learning resources at any time, even without a stable internet connection.

Even in connectivity black-spots, the Xulendo programme lets pupils access graphical representations of experiemnts they’ve discussed in class, Wikipedia articles, local school textbooks, and more.

For Bills and teachers like him, this is a gamechanger.  “A good teacher should always teach himself each and every day”, he says.  “Geography is constantly changing and the internet is the only way to stay updated … the books in the library are 10-15 years old.  They will tell you the same thing today and tomorrow.”

The El Niño cyclone that recently struck the South of Malawi serves as a perfect example of the benefits of the technology. Instead of waiting for information to filter through, Bills was able to teach his children about how the disaster had affected people and how the government had responded in real-time.

As well as providing the technology itself, Next Generation Africa makes sure that teachers are properly educated themselves.  The charity holds intensive digital literacy workshops for educators before moving onto the pupils.  Every project is specifically tailored to the local community to ensure true social integration.

The same wasn’t true for Bills. When he was younger, he travelled 20 kilometres every day to attend Kasinde Day Primary School in Chitipa.  It wasn’t until he reached university to study home economics and geography that he made use of his roommate’s computer for the first time.

It was there that his appreciation and love for computers flourished. Although he never formally trained in computer science, he quickly learned basic programmes such as Microsoft Office and picked up more advanced skills.

Bills passion for teaching also came about fortuitously. Originally, he had wanted to become a journalist or social scientist but his grades were so good that he changed direction.  It was that direction change that helped him discover his passion for educating.

Straight after leaving university in 2014, Bills was placed in Chitipa Secondary School to teach computer science.  The Xulendo project there provided a computer room with 20 devices that allowed him to teach himself, and then the students, the skills needed in a modern world.

Bills has four children with the eldest now at university. At home, they have learned to use technology and the internet with own computer and expensive USB tethering connection. 

For the rest of Malawi though, he is clear on his dream: “All schools should have enough equipment and internet (so they can) learn and access the information that they need each and every day. … Our curriculum is ten years behind (other countries) … Our students are learning from behind”.

With the help of Next Generation Africa, Bills hopes that might change and that his dream might soon be realised.