Finalist category: Comic Relief Tech4Good for Africa Award
#T4Ggreenshoots
Finalist, Tech4Good for Africa Award, 2017
Promoting equality through learning analytics
“56% of the children in South Africa live below the poverty line. Education is one of the most powerful weapons available to break the poverty cycle for these children,” said Jo Besford from Green Shoots, an education organisation dedicated to supporting primary schools deliver quality education-especially Maths.
In January 2016, it started its Integrated Maths Programme, funded by Comic Relief UK . The aim of this project is to implement Technology Assisted Learning which improves the quality of Maths Education.
Green Shoots is collecting individual learner data and has using it to build people-focused solutions that significantly improving Maths teaching and learning.
They have already seen improvements where they are working. Math results have increased by 27.6% compared the provincial increase of just 16.7%.
“One rural school- whose learners mainly come from farms had a 5.4 % pass rate in 2013, by 2016 that had increased to 41.3%. This works!” said Jo Besford.
One of the children they worked with said, “I improve in my work and I make my family very happy. I almost failed in first term but now I have improved in the third term. I am very grateful for this. That’s why I am looking forward to Math’s every week.”
But access to quality Maths education is only the first step – learners need to be guided- supported and encouraged throughout their learning journey.
The programme uses technology to anaylise data and to provide credible, real-time, on-going feedback from the class-room. Only then can they spot and address the best way of dealing with major learning barriers and teaching blockages.
Green Shoots powerful impact is seen in the growth of confidence, engagement, self-belief and work from learners in some of the most challenging communities. Technology is being used to unlock the potential of some of the most underserved children in society.
The replicability and scalability of this innovation is enormous. They are looking for more partners to help them have an even bigger impact on Math’s education.
