Africa’s Free Education Portal, Afrilearn is Set to Provide Access to Educational Content for Africans Anywhere
According to Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu “Over 60 million Nigerians, 30% of the population, cannot read or write. Over 83% of candidates failed the 2018 WASSCE. Currently, over 20.5 million youths are out of school – the world’s highest number, while Africa has 263 million youths out of school according to the new data from the UNESCO institute characteristics (UIS).”
Due to a strong belief in a free, world-class education for Africans, Nigeria-based Isaac Oladipupo founded Afrilearn to make excellent educational content available for Africans that can be accessed from anywhere across the globe.
Afrilearn plans to offer practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace anywhere and anytime. They tackle WAEC, JAMB, NECO, Professional exams and African University Curriculum among others and are also partnering with various organizations and institutions across Africa to offer more specialized content.
Isaac stated the problem as follows “As at 2019, there are about 150 private and public universities in Nigeria with a capacity to carry 60,000 students. For a country with 180 million people, 62% under 24, that is no where near enough. In 2011 May/June WASSCE, of the 1,672,224 candidates that wrote the examinations, only 649,159 passed Mathematics and English Language. Ever since, over 70% Nigerian students have consistently failed University entry examinations.”
He believes that making quality education available beyond classrooms is the best investment Africa can make for sustainable development right now. Also, that Africa’s future success depends on its ability to hone the skills of its ever-growing youth population. He believes this because through prediction, By 2035, Africa is estimated have the largest workforce in the world.
“Investing in young people’s education is the best way to make the most of this opportunity. Beyond enhancing quality of life, access to education will empower young Africans with required tools to create innovative solutions to the continent’s greatest problem” Isaac said.
He continued by speaking on the importance of Afrilearn “With Afrilearn, young Africans will now have the opportunity to access quality education from primary to professional levels, including short lessons in the form of YouTube videos, all for free except the university part which will be subscription based. Afrilearn leverages locally appropriate, systems level strategies to improve learning and transform Africa.”
According to the innovator, the startup is set to launch in October 2019.
