Looma Education Corporation
Preparing Students for the Modern World
Location: Nepal
Sponsors: David Sowerwine
Looma Education Corporation: A first-time grantee in 2024
LTC was founded by an innovative and resourceful team comprised of U.S.-based tech entrepreneurs with deep experience in Nepal and international development.
LTC seeks to provide quality education to Nepal’s nearly seven million school-age children where rote learning has been the standard. Most
parents lack the skills needed to help their children with school and career planning. The resources such as computers, Internet, textbooks, school library, a good teacher/student ratio, well-trained teachers, and informed parental support aren’t available.
Looma Education Corporation (LEC) is overcoming this enormous logistical, financial, and cultural challenge with Looma, an affordable, interactive audio-visual education system “in a box”. It provides content and teacher support to the entire classroom—offline. Looma combines a computer, A/V projector, webcam, and easy interface with the national curriculum and a massive library of media files, teacher tools, learning
games, and educational videos.
For more information, see: looma.education
GRANT SUMMARY AND PURPOSE
2024: A $40,000 grant will be used to train teachers in best practices and teaching techniques as they change modes of teaching students from rote- to active-learning. Looma will be successful and provide access to educational opportunities affordably and effectively if it is in the hands of trained teachers. LEC will establish a six-person Looma Teacher Corps (LTC) to develop this training in Looma’s 60+ pilot schools. LTC will test ways to help teachers adopt and benefit from active-learning techniques. As these practices are refined and spread by LTC to other schools, the process of scaling Looma will result in better and faster adoption of Looma throughout Nepal.
GOAL
LEC seeks a sustainable and long-lasting impact on education in Nepal. The initial target is to show effective use of Looma in improving the quality of education for students in these pilot schools during the first trial year. Following successful proof of concept, LEC will scale the use of Looma and active learning skills in additional schools, continue to improve Looma’s educational effectiveness, and eventually provide quality education for children even in the most remote areas of Nepal.