Otega O
TechInAfrica – The COVID-19 is biting hard on every sector, education inclusive. One Ed-tech startup that has noticed the impact and doing everything it can to help is, Accelerated. The startup established in 2016, aims to address the poor education situation across the globe, particularly in Africa. It seeks to improve the quality of how students are being taught in schools across Africa, and has already begun operation at its base, Ethiopia.
The startup, Accelerated, is already gaining grounds in East Africa. It has successfully trained over 2,000 teachers. Over 35,000 students have been impacted massively, too. How the startup goes about its business to achieve positive result is by blending technology, behavioral science and classroom data. With that, it is able to build a teacher-coaching platform unique to the African educational situation.
Another impressive platform launched by Accelerated is Parentsy. Parentsy is a mobile app designed to coach and support Ethiopia parents as they seek to home-school their kids during this COVID-19 period.
According to Ravi Shankar, the CEO of Accelerated, “There are resources for curriculum-based topics out there. But it’s impossible to get resources in Ethiopia and other parts of the African continent that can help parents with the “how to” of home-schooling rather than the “what”.
“We sincerely understand that home-schooling isn’t going to be easy for parents unless they have sound knowledge of the basics. These include how to manage their mental health, including that of their children, set up learning schedules and routines, and even organizing learn space. All these can help make learning more effective. These are the topic areas Accelerated will be dealing with in the coming weeks and months. We believe any educational content taught will not be effective if these areas are not addressed.
Since the launch of Parentsy, the platform has shown positive growth signals. It gets over a thousand views on a daily basis.
