Is Conventional African Education Dead? :SciAfrica Launches Digital Learning Experience for Students
Posted by Ahmed Iyanda | 4 months ago | 520 times
For too long, students across Africa have faced significant challenges in accessing quality education due to linguistic barriers. With many science subjects traditionally taught in colonial languages, such as English or French, millions of African students find themselves at a disadvantage, struggling to grasp complex concepts due to language barriers.
Recognizing this urgent need for change, SciAfrika was developed to make education comprehensive in native languages.
The Chief Executive Officer of Sci Africa, CEO, Mohammad Jamiu Shuaib, said his first-hand experience of how crucial native language is to comprehension when he was a teacher.
“It is not about how good you are as a teacher or how amazing your teaching and classroom skills are. The first thing needed is communication and comprehension. I saw how serious and absorbed students were with teachers using their native language for all sorts of subjects in classrooms. This encounter and others inspired the founding of SciAfrika.”
SciAfrika, a wordplay of Science-Africa, focused on science subjects and was launched in Yoruba. Subjects include Mathematics, Biology, Physics and Chemistry, with plans to expand to more indigenous languages and subjects.
On this, the Chief Marketing Officer, Jibril Salaudeen, mentions that “we have taught hundreds of kids for months. There is a need for more languages to be included, but we decided to start at home, where it hit the most. And Yoruba was the language people were most eager to learn in.”
The platform boasts an interactive app portal that parents and students can download and use with or without an internet connection. This was a necessary functionality to reduce the access barrier and make the platform cheaper for students in communities that need it the most.
The Chief Technical Officer, Joshua Oyeleke, said, “ease of use and accessibility were the core factors we looked at when building the platform. We wanted the app to be accessible to everyone, and we understand the challenges faced by a good population of Nigerians who need SciAfrika the most.”
SciAfrika is bridging the gap between international educational standards for Africa and fighting a significant problem – comprehension due to the language barrier. It hopes to empower millions of students in the continent and to close the gender disparity in STEM.
For more information about SciAfrika and how to take advantage of the learning resources for your kids and students, visit HERE to enroll.
