The Digital School

Lack of access to conducive learning environment and inspiring teacher for primary and secondary school education is driving our children in crazy. Every child in Tanzania needs some kind of private tuition in his/her school life to compensate for the uncovered learning materials. Over 80% of our school kids are seeking private tuitions which of course has coursed more harm to these kids than good. Education is becoming more and more expensive than ever. Over 400,000 candidates who did the last year's form four national examinations in Tanzania, 26% scored zero and only 12% got division one! 

We are building the number 1 Africa school of the 21st century. We connect students with top notched teachers for virtual, video-based one – on – one teaching sessions.  By coordinate secondary schools science teachers across East Africa Community (EAC), we collect videos of practical lessons from top-notch teachers and send them to our panelist for review before they can be uploaded on our app. From the five schools in Musoma Urban district which we did our research, 96% of students perform poorly because they lack a well-equipped laboratory for their practical sessions. Lack of competent science teachers is another major factor for the poor academic performance.

Maconet is providing an e-learning platform that gives secondary school to college students an opportunity to learn science subjects especial practical part of it and equips them with the skills needed not just for answering exams but for life as well. Learners learn and practice at their own pace, first filling in gaps in their understanding and then accelerating their learning. The app will provide online courses/topic and examination preparations.

Daniel is the C.E.O & founder of Maconet School Academy. He is a graduate of the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton in English – Literature with an entrepreneurial experience of 11 years. He is a Mandela Washington Fellowship alumnus of 2021, a program ran by United State government through the Department of State and a 2018 COSTECH best innovator of the year. Daniel has six years of experience working with various communities around Mara region majorly in educational programs. His background includes developing successful teen parents back to school programs by coordinating all the stakeholders involved. Daniel has outstanding interpersonal qualities and a passion for social services, which makes him an excellent negotiator and expert in communicating with clients and other employees. His creativity helps him conduct successful approach demonstration and interest customers. Therefore, Daniel will be running this wheel as the team lead.

We are testing the third and final prototype; we have been able to record video lessons at least all topics of all subjects for form one through form four (Secondary level) and for primary level we are halfway through. We have registered 1,006 paying customers at a cost of US$1 per month. We have not made much effort on marketing because we still have security breaches in our system. We have been hacked several times and we are being slowed down until the issue of security is taken care of.

As a company, we are looking for long term partners in development. We are experiencing security issues with our already developed system because of the kind of programmers we hired. Lack of enough capital gave us no choice but to hire cheap developers. Therefore on the other hand we need funding for this project and on the other, we need expertise from different domains who can help us take this business to the next level. We need technical help more than anything else, more especially app development. Marketing strategy and scaling up of course if given will also be appreciated.

Full-time staff 20, Part-time staff 60, contractors 2

6 years since the inception 

Maconet School Academy is build by people from different diversity, equity and inclusion. With us is not only about the number of percentage of presentation but also the roles taken in decision making. For example, the top five managerial posts, we have two men and three women and from the three women, one is a lesbian. As long as you have the right qualifications and you are fit for the job nothing can stop you from working with the Maconet School Academy.

As a company, we get paid through monthly subscriptions from members. The Maconet infrastructure is about delivering the ideal learning experience before, during, and after the session using a sustainable and friendly membership-based model.

As a company we have had two grants. One, from the ministry of Education of Tanzania through The Commission for Science and Technology under innovation competition and The Tony Elumelu Foundation totaling to US$30,000. The grants were used to develop the second prototype and for the video lessons recording. The little money we make is spent on facilitating video lessons. By 2025, we will have completed all topics for primary level and dedicated all our effort on quality and live classes. By 2028 we will have less teacher by 45% because much of the work will have been done. So we expect to be making good profits that will help us scale up to other countries in East Africa.