In recent years, South Africa's higher education system has experienced turbulent times. Covid-19 has forced a dramatic shift from on-campus to online learning. Some students lacked the necessary equipment or connectivity, and their home environment was not conducive to learning. There is a gap in education, and Edukite is trying to close it.
The Northern Cape Department of Education has partnered with Edukite to provide 13,000 licenses of its innovative learning app to matriculants. It coincided with the handover of 13 000 Android tablets to matriculants by the Northern Cape Department of Education on February 27.
Speaking about the initiative, Vineet Ladia, founder and director of Edukite South Africa, explains that the Edukite Learning App is designed to be the ultimate learning tool for South African school learners, covering different subjects across grades.
Edukite was launched in 2006 and has reached 1,100+ schools since then, providing teachers and learners with a tailored syllabus aligned with the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). Since Edukite's solution was previously implemented in eight of the nine provinces through donor-funded projects, it has recorded notable success in the Free State, where 88.5% of matriculants passed their exams in 2022.
Edukite’s partnership with the Northern Cape Department of Education began in 2016 when teachers were given the Edukite curriculum software on a laptop as a teaching tool in their classrooms. This next phase will see the rollout of the Edukite Learning App on tablet devices to the learners themselves, who will now be able to access the innovative learning material both in the classroom and at home - with no internet needed.
“With internet connectivity not available to all learners, many having data constraints, and often living in rural communities, the curriculum is stored off-line on the devices, allowing learners to access the content at any time or in any place. This also provides a solution to the load shedding crisis where learning is not negatively impacted by slow or intermittent internet access,” explains Ladia.
While the app is most often offered with a three or five-year usage license, as a special partnership with the Northern Cape Department of Education, the learners presented with the tablets will be offered perpetual license to the app that can be used for life, without the need to pay recurring license fees.
“By providing learners with the technological tools to be the best that they can be, we look forward to seeing the matriculant pass rate and the number of quality passes in the province increase over the coming years, and we believe that this is a significant milestone in achieving an accessible and technology-driven education system for all South African youth,” concludes Ladia.
Education