Our approach

Built within the schools that use it

We shape every part of KUBO around the people who use it and the conditions they work in. We work step by step, inside the schools themselves, and that keeps assumptions to a minimum. Nine years in the field, first in The Gambia and more recently in Uganda, shaped how we work, and the lessons we keep coming back to.

How we work

KUBO began in 2017 at The Swallow, our partner school in The Gambia. The school dreamed of computers for its students. What it had was a handful of donated laptops: slow, riddled with viruses, some broken. No ready-made solution fit its reality.

So we improvised, starting from the constraints, power that cuts out, a tight budget, weak internet, little IT support, and thinking creatively within them. A first improvised lab took shape and classes started using it, and it worked. That taught us two things: the problem was real and worth solving, and solving it well would take an integrated approach. So KUBO professionalised step by step: observing how the school really runs, asking where technology genuinely adds value, and building only what can run sustainably, keeping what works and dropping what doesn't.

The offline server and the school platform grew alongside the lab from the start: the server because classrooms needed content without internet, the platform because the administration was drowning in paper. We watched how the school actually ran its registers, scores and reports, and built the software around that. And we shared the journey with the wider ICT4D community along the way: an early experiment, mapping the offline library to the Gambian primary curriculum, was featured on Learning Equality's blog in 2017, and their tools still power the library today. In 2020 we joined the education track of the ICT4D virtual non-conference. Nine years later, that first classroom has grown into schools across two countries, and we want to bring KUBO to every school where it adds value, anywhere in the world. Along the way, a few lessons kept proving themselves.

Our values

Three things we hold ourselves to, in every design choice, every decision, and every way we shape our offerings.

Bold

We don't take "impossible" for an answer. Where a place is written off as too hard, we bring in experts, test ideas in the classroom, and keep raising the bar for what a school can really have within its means.

Inclusive

Ambitious, but never leaving a school or a user behind to get there. KUBO is modular and starts from the hardest conditions, not to stay low-tech but to lower every barrier it can: a first-time user, whether a pupil, a teacher or the school's caretaker, can take part, and cost and upkeep stay low enough for any school to join.

Reaching out

Beyond our own walls: we reach out to partners and like-minded projects, share what we learn, and open up our technology wherever we can.

KUBO is nonprofit, and every contribution helps us keep the price of a lab lower for schools. You can support us through Afrodidact.

Four lessons that guide us

We learned these four over nine years in Gambian and Ugandan classrooms, often the hard way. They may well be true everywhere, but for innovation in demanding conditions they are essential, and we test every decision against them.

#1Listen first

Always assume there's more to it

However well we think we know a place, we assume there's always more we don't yet understand: the country, the local way of working, the habits of each individual school. So we listen and observe first, taking in the context and what a school already has: how reliable its power is, what it can really afford. The obvious answer is almost never the right one.

#2Simple

Keep it as simple as possible, no simpler

Schools told us about the disappointments that came before us: clever, complicated setups that stopped working once their builders left. And fragility shows up in unexpected places, so we walk the full journey with everyone involved and check that every step is recoverable. We keep it simple: locally available parts, proven tools, and only what we truly must import, like the Raspberry Pi. Simple is what lasts.

#3Step by step

Celebrate every win

Grand plans rarely survive reality, so we move step by step and celebrate every win along the way, however small. Each win proves an idea works in the classroom, keeps everyone motivated, and brings new partners on board. Small steps have carried us further than any master plan would have.

#4Sustainable

Make yourself redundant

Changing how a school works is disruptive, and we take that responsibility seriously. So we avoid creating dependency wherever we can. Everything that can be handed over goes to the school, its teachers and technicians, and the ministry. Still, we keep offering support and services, because being able to run it yourself doesn't mean you should have to: independence is always within reach, and leaning on us stays a choice.

Talking through the day-to-day of the school with the people who run it User testing the school platform side by side with the people who will use it

Curious who we are?

KUBO is a small international team, rooted in the schools it serves.

Meet the team →

Where could the next step lead?

We are always open to new schools, partners and places.

Tell us about yours →