onebillion announced as winner in $ 15 million Global Learning XPrize competition 2019
17 May 2019 – iSchoolAfrica, an education initiative that reaches schools across South Africa in rural and township settings, is the official implementation partner of onebillion in South Africa. onebillion’s international team of experts have built educational software for children in and out of school, and together with VSO and partner organisations around the globe, the organisation works to bring this software directly into the hands of the child.
This year, at the annual Global Learning XPRIZE awards, the $ 15 million competition winners were announced last night in Los Angeles. onebillion in the UK, and Kitkit School in South Korea, were recognised for developing effective, scalable learning software for children around the world. The $ 15 million Global Learning XPRIZE challenges teams from around the world to develop open-source, scalable software that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within 15 months. The Global Learning XPRIZE seeks to provide universal access to quality learning through open and accessible data, localizable software, durable and available hardware and successful delivery to any context.
The iSchoolAfrica programme brings this the award-winning global learning software to under-resourced rural and township schools across the country. In fact, not only has the onebillion Numeracy software helped children in the iSchoolAfrica programme cement basic Numeracy concepts, but most of all, these learners have started to love Maths, while their English vocabulary has also increased, and school absenteeism has decreased.
Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE commented, “Learning how to read, write and demonstrate basic math are essential building blocks for those who want to live free from poverty and its limitations, and we believe that this competition clearly demonstrated the accelerated learning made possible through the educational applications developed by our teams, and ultimately hope that this movement spurs a revolution in education, worldwide.”
Michelle Lissoos, Director at iSchoolAfrica, added, “With this easy to use software, learners proceed at their own pace and get immediate feedback. The software has helped over 13,000 foundation phase learners in 45 of our iSchoolAfrica schools to cement their basic Numeracy concepts. The impact is measurable, and each child’s progress is tracked.”
Chante Pieterse, Grade 2 teacher at Westerlig Primary School and in the iSchoolAfrica programme, concluded, “Using the onebillion app has assisted my weaker learners with their Numeracy ability. Before they were shy and hesitant in the classroom, but now they have confidence and want to share what they have learned. The one-to-one learning helps them to learn at their own pace and they don’t feel anxious about their own progress anymore.”
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