SUSI Alumni Win Capstone Award to Provide Free Education for Everyone
“EdSpot – free education for everyone” is a non-profit project which aims to continuously offer qualitative educational and training courses for primary school second-level subjects through the www.edspot.org platform. The idea behind this project is due to Kosovo’s poor academic performance in Pisa tests over the years. The main goal of the EdSpot project is to increase access to educational courses, through its practical and qualitative platform featuring professional tutors to encourage and improve the overall academic performance of primary school pupils. In the near future, EdSpot aims to offer additional courses for development of soft skills and to organize different knowledge competitions for its target group – primary school students.
The courses follow the school text books chapter-by-chapter and are divided into school periods to allow learners to easily follow and learn in parallel with the school curricula. These courses are short and effective videos explained by qualified teachers in their respective fields. Since Kosovo’s internet penetration is so high (95%), the EdSpot team believes all pupils throughout Kosovo including those in remote locations will have access to high quality education and thus achieve better results on future tests. Currently the platform is only available in Albanian, but will soon be translated into the other languages spoken by all of Kosovo’s communities.
The project was founded and designed by Fjolla Dumoshi and Agon Topxhiu in January of 2020 and has recently been launched online in March of 2020. This project won the SUSI Alumni Capstone Award, supported by Washington D.C. based Non-profit FHI60 in collaboration with the U.S. State Department. Ms. Dumoshi is a “Study of the U.S. Institutes for Student Leaders from Europe” Alumni at the Institute of Media and Journalism at Washington State University in United States of America in 2019. After completion of her program in 2019, FHI60 in partnership with U.S. State Department made a call for project proposals for the SUSI Alumni. The purpose of the SUSI Alumni Capstone Awards is to support SUSI alumni in using the skills they developed through their Institutes to make a difference in their own communities. Projects should address a specific need in a community and be designed to make an impact. EdSpot more than fits these requirements.
The project was intended to be launched the middle of April, but given the circumstances with the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent school closures, the project has already been launched with the purpose of contributing to and offering additional alternatives and resources for online learning. It now also aims to promote the continuation of home learning even in these extraordinary circumstances. EdSpot has around 70 free online Mathematics lessons available for 6th grade students in primary school. Now, EdSpot is diligently working to create additional courses and materials for pupils which will be uploaded on the platform soon. Keep checking back for more updates on this outstanding project for Kosovo’s future! And parents, this is a great tool to keep your children busy during these days of self isolation.
