The Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) has announced the first cohort of 12 EdTech Fellows that will benefit from the Centre’s support to expand their operations and improve secondary teaching and learning across Africa. The Fellows, including Nigeria’s HITCH, were selected after a continent-wide Request for Proposals in late 2019.
Applicants were invited to submit proposals that either enhanced accessibility and affordability of professional development for in-service teachers; or delivered enriched learning content that improves quality, relevance, and accessibility to both in-school and out-of-school secondary school learners.
HITCH, one of the selected edtech startups, is an educational video platform for African schools, which started in Nigeria. It provides under-served schools with a video platform with intelligently-curated educational content. It is building an educational and vocational video library which is fed into its system and matched against textbooks and curriculums, resulting in world-class educational and vocational content matched to local textbooks and curriculums.
The company tracks analytics to understand video effectiveness, which is fed back into its machine-learning algorithm for further improvements. HITCH provides a battery-powered hotspot that stores its web app and content locally, which ensures that it is available during power and internet outages. The platform also embeds inspiring case studies into core and ancillary videos, which provide contextual insights and professional, vocational, and entrepreneurial pathways for students and teachers.
Other selected edtech fellows include O’Genius Priority, Rwanda; AkooBooks Audio, Ghana; Eneza Education, Ghana; iCog Labs, Ethiopia; M-Shule, Kenya; Siyavula Education, South Africa; The Dr. C.L. Smith Foundation, South Africa; Kytabu Co., Kenya; Litemore, Kenya; and Instill Education, South Africa.
According to Joseph Nsengimana, Head of the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT, “We’re very proud and excited to have this first group of leading African innovators in EdTech with us. These companies are working to expand the use of ICT to address some of the most pressing issues facing education in Africa today. We will give them access to the customized mentoring and financial support they need over the next year so that they can test, refine, and validate their products. With that, they can grow their businesses and help to improve learning outcomes throughout Africa.”
The selected edtech startups will receive a comprehensive package over the next year that includes customized mentorship, financial support, the opportunity to test, validate and scale their business, and a $40, 000 grant to aid in the development of their solutions.