Instant Network Schools — Offline Adaptive Classrooms for Refugee Students in Ajuong Thok, South Sudan

South Sudan's Ajuong Thok and Pamir refugee camps in Ruweng Administrative Area host tens of thousands of South Sudanese and Somali refugees with limited grid electricity or internet access.

In 2013 the Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR selected Ajuong Thok as one of two original assessment sites, alongside Dadaab in Kenya, that shaped the global 'Instant Network Schools' model, aiming to bring solar-powered, offline adaptive classrooms to refugee students.

Instant Network Schools centres run on the open-source Kolibri platform, delivering an offline digital library and structured lesson sequences from a local server with no internet connection required once content is loaded. Students use shared, solar-powered tablets to work through literacy, numeracy and ICT modules, with a specialised ICT-skills track examined and certified locally; the programme is implemented with the Lutheran World Federation.

South Sudan now has four INS centres, expanded from an original two-centre pilot at Ajuong Thok (one primary, one secondary school); 98.6% of enrolled students completed the specialised ICT course, and UNHCR's 2024 South Sudan Annual Results Report records ten DAFI tertiary scholars entering the workforce through the connected-learning pathway that INS feeds into.

Evidence here is stronger on access and completion than on measured learning gains: no randomised or controlled study of literacy or numeracy outcomes specific to South Sudan was found, and reported figures are largely self-published by the implementing partners (UNHCR, Vodafone Foundation) rather than independently audited.