When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
In Africa of today, there have been births of several platforms solving one need or the other. Each of these has distinctive features from the other, but for Afrilearn, it is an educational platform providing accessible, curriculum-aligned, and future-ready education across Africa. In an interview with the Isaac Oladipupo who’s the CEO of the EdTech company, he discussed Afrilearn’s features, metrics, and competitive advantages with TechPolyp’s Team. The conversation covered Afrilearn’s various educational products, challenges in Nigerian education, and potential solutions.
The EdTech startup has distinguished itself by focusing on access and relevance as a response to the gap in the education sector. According to Isaac, many African children lack access to quality education due to financial constraints and outdated curricula. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of democratizing access to world-class education and updating the content to prepare students for the future.
As an educational platform providing world-class, curriculum-aligned, and future-ready education accessible anywhere, the startup targets both rich and poor students in Africa. To establish this, Isaac explained their dual model of free and subscription-based content, emphasizing affordability and accessibility. The CEO of Afrilearn further unveiled plans to expand to Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal, launching school management software that integrates their content library. Moreover, Isaac highlighted their focus on quality education, personalized learning, and sustainability. While at it, he reaffirmed the firm’s commitment to addressing challenges like limited internet access through optimized platforms and future physical learning centres.
Afrilearn’s Unique Edtech Features
For many EdTech platforms, there appears to be a gap in their e-tests and learning. That is a system that ensures focus and prevents malpractices. Isaac confirmed that the Afrilearn platform includes inbuilt systems to prevent cheating during exams. He particularly highlighted characteristics such as monitoring and restrictions to ensure students remain focused.
In Case You Missed It
Moving forward, he highlighted that Afrilearn distinguishes itself by making learning addictive through gamification. This lets students earn coins and rewards for completing lessons and maintaining good study habits. In other words, you can learn and earn simultaneously. Additionally, Isaac emphasized their use of storytelling and animation in video lessons to increase engagement. In the same vein, they also use the technique to improve learning outcomes, setting them apart from other EdTech platforms.
Student Performance Metrics
In a bid to measure the students’ performance metrics, Isaac explained that Afrilearn employs various metrics across their suite of products. These include grade improvements, retention and engagement, exam success rates, time saved for teachers, and parent engagement. Furthermore, he highlighted that 80% of students improve by at least one grade level within three weeks of consistent use. In addition, a school’s pass rate tends to increase from 42% to over 82% in a year.
Isaac also noted that Afrilearn’s school management software automates administrative tasks, saving teachers time and improving school operations. Moving forward, 70% of parents in partner schools reported feeling more connected to their child’s learning through real-time updates, says Isaac Oladipupo.
AI Homework Helper Discussion
The startup, among many other things, solves homework. However, Isaac explained that AskAfri, their AI-powered homework help feature, is responsible for this assistance. The feature is designed to guide users through problem-solving processes rather than providing direct answers, ensuring educational value. TechPolyp sees this tool as a digital teacher that works beyond just assistance-rendition.
The final question addressed the plans for Afrilearn, with Isaac indicating a focus on scaling the platform, having spent the last five years building its foundation.
Afrilearn’s Educational Products Expansion Plan
Isaac discussed Afrilearn’s suite of educational products, including an African app for children’s learning, school management software, Class Notes.ng, and Exemly for exam preparation. He outlined plans to scale these products beyond Nigeria and West Africa. This expansion will focus on strengthening systems and structures to serve users better.
Isaac emphasized Afrilearn’s competitive edge, which lies in its vision of providing world-class education to every African child. In addition, the company’s user-centric approach and the system that designs products for real-life challenges faced by students and educators will be the hallmark of this development.
Unequal Education Opportunities in Nigeria
Isaac identified the biggest challenge in Nigerian education as the uneven distribution of quality education opportunities. He particularly noted that children’s postal codes often determine their future more than their potential. Beyond poor infrastructure, this is another area of uneven opportunities in the system. In reaction, Isaac proposed three solutions: technology that works everywhere with both online and offline access and private-public partnerships between governments, tech companies, and NGOs. Lastly, he recommended teacher empowerment with better training and tools. Isaac also highlighted that Afrilearn’s platform addresses these challenges by providing a gamified, curriculum-covered learning experience. “This particularly offers consistent quality education regardless of location,” he said.
Projection for the Future
It is noteworthy that the expansion of Afrilearn to Ghana, Kenya, and Sierra Leone over the next 12-24 months will further spread the services of the brand to other affected parts of Africa. In addition, the establishment of physical learning centres will shortly provide equal access for students with limited or no internet connectivity. Conclusively, if the brand integrates deeper AI for predictive learning outcomes and implements multilingual support on their platform, these will further strengthen their systems and structures to serve their stakeholders better
