South Africa’s university graduation rate of 15% is one of the lowest in the world. Higher education also reflects broader inequalities, with the graduation rate for white students more than double that of black students. Most studies have focused on how black students are generally under-represented at universities, a demographic reality that promises to reproduce racial inequalities well into the future. Other studies have focused on how broader steps to tackle poverty and inequality are needed to address these disparities in higher education.
Our belief is that a fish does not only rot from the head but from the base as well. The base of education is primary and secondary education. Most university drop-outs are in the faculties of engineering and commerce. These two faculties have one common denominator and that is a heavy reliance on maths and science. One factor endemic in both maths and science is the strong presence of English and the difficulty to translate topics such as photosynthesis and trigonometry to vernacular languages.
As a result of maths and science being so foreign to the local colloquial and lexicon and yet so local for career paths, university choices as well as economic skills demand that there is a need to focus on these subjects from a primary level.
But what makes a student more familiar with these topics? Our analysis is that a strong primary and secondary formation grounded on the bed-rock of tutoring and open, accessible engagement with education material, dove-tailed with the ability to know what to focus on in order to meet the requirements of a career choice.
But how do you do this when the ecosystem of a student from Mahlabatini or Mafikeng is laden with social maladies? Well you jump onto the biggest bandwagon let alone phenomenon since electricity and that is – the mobile phone, and its beloved daughter, the internet with its close cousin, an application called FUNDA.
FUNDA is an educational ecosystem accessible anywhere as long as you have a cell-phone, and if you are more privileged to have a computer or a table then the better the experience. On FUNDA students, teachers and parents can interact in the educational ecosystem. Students can access textbooks and supplementary material in the form of past papers and solutions – all customizable for their cell-phone, tutors, educational videos and career guidance through direct links to the various universities.
Teachers can post videos and through flip learning, can send them to students. Even SABC learning and mindset videos are available for access whenever the student wants. Parents can track and monitor a student’s academic progress and also communicate to teachers about it. Motivation has been cited as a reason why students drop-out. Well, through deep game theory application of co-ordination effects i.e. peer pressure, student’s can benefit from collaborative learning.
What if the student is too poor to buy a book, pay a virtual tutor or let alone get airtime to buy data for their phone? Well the student can get FUNDA credits through our virtual currency by filling in marketing surveys, signing up for newsletters or other virtual options and accruing points which they can barter for textbooks or airtime to buy data to access the application or even buy some of our curricula textbooks.
Our digital education initiatives have given us a powerful perspective on what we aim to achieve for African students. From mobile Bluetooth applications to the iPad, we have worked on a variety of technologies to provide students with easy access to educational materials. We focus on creating social learning environments to improve academic performance. Our award-winning project ‘Funda’ is aimed at making digital textbooks easily available to African students which we hope to launch later this year. Our vision is to propel the South African education system into a successful future, with a 21st century learning experience.