Tech in Africa
Eneza Education has expanded into Rwanda, launching its SMS learning platform in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation. The service targets all students whose regular studies have been affected by school closures.
Eneza education was formed in 2013, and provides revision materials to students via phone, however basic. They currently operate in Kenya, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and now Rwanda.
Shupavu, is part of a COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program launched by the Rwanda government that aims to deliver emergency support to first responders, health workers,and students, while strengthening diverse institutions that are at the front line defending against the social and economic ills of the disease.
The SMS platform has the ‘Ask a Teacher’ feature where students can ask their questions to a pool of teachers and receive their responses via SMS. The shortcode for this is 2910 for those using the MTN network. As of the 1st of November, students will have access to lessons and quizzes aligned with the curriculum of Rwanda and conveyed via shortcode. Students in Upper and Lower primary get to enjoy this service till the 31st of July 2021 at no charge. Registration to the service is by ID used when accessing REB e-Learning.
Since the pandemic mandated school closures in mid-March, over 3,161,990 students in Primary and Secondary schools are out of school in Rwanda. The inability of the less privileged to have private study only means that they are missing out when compared to their peers. Eneza Education hopes to correct such imbalances.
In a statement shared on the website, Wambura Kimunyu, who is Eneza Education CEO says, “Our Shupavu platform digitizes the local curriculum and makes it available to any mobile phone, however basic. We have had the privilege of serving millions of learners in Kenya, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire and we look forward to serving millions of Rwandese learners too. We hope learners in Rwanda will find our ‘Ask A Teacher’ platform, which will be linked to REB eLearning, to be a valuable study companion at this time.”
Rica Rwigamba the country head of MasterCard Foundation in Rwanda says, “While many educational technologies rely on an internet connection, Eneza is fairly unique in its focus on enabling learning via SMS with no data or connectivity requirement. This makes it accessible to the majority of households, including the most vulnerable.“
