Namibia EduQuiz

The Namibian secondary education system has over the 30 last year been characterized by poor education and examination outcomes:

Only between 50 to 60% of the learners leaving grade 9 (lower secondary) qualify for placement in senior secondary.

Only about 30% of the learners leaving secondary school qualify for university entrance.

Our solution is to develop an Sms-Based Exam Preparation Quiz that is based on the Namibian school curriculum content and past examination question papers. The platform will also provide guide answers.

In addition to this we are also building a supporting Web Platform for Teaching & Instruction. This platform will contain video, audio, and other  training materials listed and arranged according to the topics in the syllabi. 

Our platform will be Gamified – There will be Competitions, Prices, Leaderboards and other game elements to improve learner engagement by helping learners derive fun from their learning.

The Quiz will be primarily delivered over SmS via the 2 local mobile provider's networks in order to serve the majority of learners who do not have constant internet access

We aim to make the solution affordable so that every learner, even in remote areas can afford to use the platform for their "edutainment".

Working with several teachers and subject experts for each subject, we are aiming to have between 500 - 1000+ Quizz Questions & Answers Per Subject.

A mobile app version of the solution will also be developed at a later stage once all the content has been compiled.

The solution is based on taking the best practices employed at the best performing schools in Namibia, and incorporating some of the insights into this technology based solution.

The solution is designed to serve all secondary school learners in Namibian schools. Grades 8 - 12.

The solutions aims to make use of SMS-networks, in order to reach the majority of learners in Namibia who do not have constant access to internet.

A mobile app version will also be deployed to be used by learners who do not have internet access challenges.

The solutions aims at making impact in the following ways:

1) Making Learning Fun & Engaging (Gamified)

2) Using a Tool that is Constantly in Learners Hands – Mobile Phone

3) Leverage existing resources (mobile networks, school syllabi, past examination papers)

4) Aimed at Improving Direct Exam Outcomes - Grade 9, 11, 12 External / national exams

5) Utilizing Evidence-Based Instructional Techniques for the supporting web platform

The 3 key developers are all from or currently in the teaching profession. The team leader, is a former teacher and ICT lecturer who is now an ICT consultant working on various digital solutions for education and other sectors in Namibia. 

The other team members are currently both teachers working in different secondary schools. They have constant access to fellow teachers and learners and are able to appreciate their challenges and get their inputs for the design and implementation of the solution.

We hope to receive technical, financial and business model refinement support from the Solver network.

Our solutions is using technology to duplicate best-practices from the top performing schools for the benefit of all the other learners who are not all at those best schools.

It is innovative in that it allows the ubiquitous tool of entertainment (mobile phone) to be leveraged for educational purposes.

It tries to eliminate inequalities by giving access no only to those who are fortunate to have constant internet access but also to those who can only utilize the mobile telecommunication networks (via SMS-based delivery).

Goals: 

2022-23

- Prototype Complete (May2022)

- Pilot Project - 3 schools; up to 2800 learners (June - November2022); 

- Pilot on MTC Network only

- Monitoring & Evaluation; Improvements: 2023

2023 - 2026

- Growth & Scale: Reach 100 000+ Namibian learners & teachers

- Roll out on TN Mobile & Paratus Networks

- Measure & Quality Impact on Namibia High School Education Results

The 3 Pilot Schools (Concordia, Centaurus and Jan Mohr) will provide the test case this year. The Pilot Project will be carried out at these schools from June 2022 to November 2022.

There will be final national exams towards the end of the year.

We will have a great chance to evaluate the impact of our EduQuiz platform when we compare the performance of the schools from last years examination outcomes. Depending on how thoroughly the Piloting and Evaluation is done we may be able to tell confidently how impactful our solution has been.

Over the past 30 years the education outcomes have consistently been relatively poor in Namibia. With the onset of COVID-19 over the past 2 years, the outcomes have even worsened.

Our educational leaders have, over the past few years, pleaded with and encouraged technologists, entrepreneurs, educationists to forward solutions and proposals to help improve our national outcomes. 

Several projects have been initiated over the past few years. But the minister of education earlier this year plainly admitted that there is so much more to be done.

We believe that our solution has some potential to contribute significantly to improving our nation's situation.

We are looking forward to releasing the solution on the market so that we can start to evaluate the short term impacts and to research and add other features to the solution that may be necessary.

Technologies:

SMS Technology

Web Technology

Mobile App Technology

A ChatBot will be developed at a later stage, once the initial core features are in place

Our team is fairly diverse including: 2 Men & 4 Women. The team members are from 4 tribes in Namibia (Vambo, Herero, Damara and Themba)

Our business provides a technology-based education service. Our aim is aligned to our Ministry of Education's mandate. We have received a letter of support from the Ministry and we will engage further with them at the Pilot Phase.

We aim to help learners not only to improve their outcomes but also to have fun while doing it.

We will negotiate a revenue sharing arrangement with the network providers, over whose network the EduQuiz content will be delivered. Partnering with the mobile network providers is quite an established business model in Namibia, but to date, this has not been explored for educational solutions.

1) Personal Contributions and Members Investment

2) Business Plan, Pitching & Incubation Competitions

3) Grant Funding Applications

3) Partnership Negotiation with Mobile Network Providers or Ministry or other partners

1) Team Members have been contributing to the project since June last year to fund some of the administrative and other minor costs of the project.

2) We have entered our solutions in 2 pitching competitions in 2021. We were selected as winners for a 8-month incubation period at the Innovation Centre of the University of Namibia. Along with this also came a small cash award, which was could add to the transport expenses for interns that are part of the development team.

3) Telecom Namibia in partnership with the University of Namibia are facilitating the incubation process and have provide working space and internet facilities for the team. If and when the prototype proves to be commercially viable, we may enter into some further negotiations with these entities.

4) We are entering our solutions into international Challenges such as MIT Solve with the hope of attracting further support and hopefully funding for our further development efforts.