The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says 91.3% of the world’s learning population have now been impacted by global shutdowns to curb the spread of the C0VID-19 virus as at April 5, 2020. This means over 1.5 billion students in 188 countries are currently out of their classrooms with no timeframe as to when they might return. 

In spite of infrastructure challenges like internet access, data costs and power availability, edtech companies are increasingly stepping in to help learners and teachers continue with their studies while at home as well as parents whose wards and children have completed the term and need to stay occupied now that at-home holiday lessons can no longer continue. 

A goldmine for edtech startups

There are various edtech companies providing a wide range of learning tools for primary, secondary and pre-university students across the continent and everyone will agree that the time is ripe for these startups to grow whether it is in brand awareness or user base. Given the ongoing health crisis, more and more of these organisations are placing social impact ahead of profits at a time when it is most needed.

Last month, when TechCabal spoke to the CEO of Kenya-based eLimu just shortly after schools in Kenya were shut down, the company was yet to see the impact of the lockdown on their product save that users were spending longer hours on the platform. But that has changed.

“Our numbers are not only back to normal, but a little above it, sometimes over 3,000 per day,” Sam Rich said three days ago. 

eLimu concerns itself primarily with developing learning materials and revision questions for the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations to equip government-distributed tablets and are also targeting this app towards parents who own mobile phones. In addition to its revision platform, it also has a literacy app, Hadithi! Hadithi! where learners in their first two years of primary school can develop literacy skills through games and fun activities. 

Users are still spending longer hours on these platforms and to encourage more users to come on, the company is splitting its products into three smaller, bit-sized apps that users can download without memory constraints posed by their devices.

The subscription price of its revisions app (KCPE Exams) which will have over 100 revision papers and targeted at 13-14 year olds has been slashed by 50% to US$2 per month. The price of its literacy apps, Story Story in English and Hadithi Hadithi in Swahili, with lots of stories and exercises for 5-7 years, have been reduced by 30% and will cost US$8 for an entire library of stories. 

In Kenya, the Ministry of Education has partnered with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation to deliver learning content through radio, television, YouTube and Cloud channels. Libya has taken a similar approach. In South Africa, telcos are zero rating learning platforms as well as directing South Africans to other online learning resources. 

How about tertiary institutions?

Majority of edtech companies and current government initiatives to continue learning during the lockdown are targeted at primary, secondary and pre-university school learners primarily. And this is because continuing higher education in the current circumstances is a bit more complicated. You are talking about at least 100 different courses per department across all levels for at least three departments per faculty for at least five to six faculties per university. Creating and distributing content in this instance becomes a different ball game.

Since it was founded in 2002, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is Nigeria’s most successful Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution. Other platforms like EduTech and Edu Platforms are subsequently helping universities take their on-campus programs online. 

While this may be harder for public schools for various reasons—lack of existing frameworks for online learning, digital know-how, infrastructure challenges—private tertiary institutions like the American University of Nigeria (AUN) have already moved classes online. 

In South Africa, the University of Witwatersrand has announced that classes will continue online for its students and the same is applicable to some universities in Egypt. However, there will still be millions of university students across the continent who will be unable to continue learning because the infrastructure, skill and structures are not in place to enable online or distance learning. 

Teach Cabal