Foundational Learning · Flagship Programme
A community-based foundational learning programme that uses low-cost mobile technology to improve literacy and numeracy for children, reaching learners where formal systems fall short.
Programme at a glance
Programme overview
ConnectEd is Kulea Hive's foundational-learning programme. It exists because getting children into classrooms has not been enough to get them learning. It reaches the learner where the system is weakest: at home and in the community.
A low-tech, phone-based tutoring programme delivering Teaching at the Right Level over ordinary mobile phones, with no internet, smartphones or apps required. It pairs weekly SMS numeracy exercises with short, level-matched tutoring calls.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank and UNESCO estimate that most children cannot read a simple text by age 10. In Freetown's underserved communities, overcrowded classes and overstretched teachers leave no room for the individual support a struggling child needs.
In the organisational Theory of Change, ConnectEd strengthens the relationships closest to the learner, between learners, homes and schools. It is the delivery arm that turns institutional philosophy into classroom-level action.
Learners in the Term 1 pilot
Targeted-instruction cycle
Average learning gains (six-country RCTs)
Learners reached by 2030
Learning-gain figures are drawn from randomised trials reported by Angrist, Bergman and Matsheng (2022) and Angrist et al. (2023). Learner and scale figures are Kulea Hive programme targets.
The challenge
Sierra Leone has made real gains in getting children into classrooms. Enrolment has not translated into learning, and the deficit is sharpest in foundational numeracy.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa the World Bank and UNESCO estimate that roughly 89 per cent of children cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10 (World Bank and UNESCO, 2022). On the harmonized learning scale a Sierra Leonean pupil scores just 316, only marginally above the 300-point minimum (World Bank Human Capital Index).
Two of Freetown's most densely populated informal settlements, where poverty, recurrent flooding and low caregiver literacy make sustained help with schoolwork difficult. The municipal school in Kroo Bay recorded a 0 per cent pass rate in the National Primary School Examination (Kulea Hive field data).
Of twelve core organisations delivering foundational literacy and numeracy on the frontline, seven (58.3 per cent) are wholly foreign-founded and foreign-led, and only two (16.7 per cent) are both founded and led by Sierra Leoneans (Sierra Leone FLN and ECE ecosystem ownership analysis, 2026). Kulea Hive exists to help rebalance that picture.
Independent research sets the boundary. A randomised controlled trial of 4,399 pupils in Sierra Leone by Crawfurd et al. (2023) found that phone tutoring tied to a uniform national radio lesson, rather than week-on-week level-targeting, produced no measurable effect on numeracy or literacy. The lesson Kulea Hive applies is unambiguous: it is the targeting, not the phone contact, that drives learning, and the checkpoint-and-retarget loop is the non-negotiable core of the pilot.
Crawfurd, L., Evans, D. K., Hares, S. and Sandefur, J. (2023) "Live tutoring calls did not improve learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone", Journal of Development Economics, 164, 103114.
ConnectEd Theory of Change
ConnectEd has its own implementation-level theory of change: a connected causal chain from inputs to national contribution. It is distinct from the organisational Theory of Change, and shows how it feeds it.
Trace every node in the interactive Theory of Change Explorer.
Co-creation, not imposition
ConnectEd is built with the people and institutions of the system it serves. Each one shapes the design, and each one shares in the result.
Kulea Hive · ConnectEd
Designed and owned together
Mandate, school access, and the governance data it needs.
Learner selection, classroom reality, and daily buy-in.
Teacher standards, content and syllabus fit.
Home-learning insight, trust, and what works at home.
Each relationship runs both ways: every partner shapes the design, and every partner shares in the result.
How it runs
The improvement loop
Partner with ConnectEd
ConnectEd offers a practical, low-cost, evidence-driven route to foundational learning for some of Freetown's most underserved children, led from within the community it serves.
Conversations are under way, with partnership formalisation planned ahead of the 2026/27 academic year.
ConnectEd is designed to align with the priorities, evidence and strategic objectives of these institutions. This reflects strategic alignment, not formal partnership.
