On the 27th of May 2016, the team from Simba Education visited the Higherlife Foundation head office in Harare. The Simba Education education team shared their overall vision and plans to impact Early Childhood Education though technology in Zimbabwe and Sub-Saharan Africa. The presentation by Simba Education also included the progress that has been made in terms of technology development, content development and product marketing. The discussion between Simba Education seeks to pave a way for future collaborations between the two organisations on the quest to educate Africa.
Simba Education is a social enterprise whose vision is to see every child in Sub-Saharan Africa get an equal opportunity to quality early childhood education regardless of the circumstances that they are born into. It seeks to empower educators and care givers with the tools necessary to deliver a quality early childhood education by leveraging the use of mobile technology. New research has shown that early education starting from zero to six years is a critical and an unmet need of this century.
Unfortunately, most parents and care providers do not provide adequate early childhood education at this critical stage. Simba Education was therefore formed by a team of concerned young people who were determined to meet this need in Sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Zimbabwe. Simba Education developed a platform which is set to be launched in Harare, Zimbabwe by the end of June.
The platform boasts of the following features:
- Complete school management system
- Step by step instructions for teachers
- Easy to do activities for parents
- Offline capabilities
- Extensive help documentation
- Endless customization possibilities
As an internationally recognised Africa-based social impact organisation which is committed to investing in the future of children through Education, Higherlife Foundation seeks to leverage partnerships with organisations like Simba Education to impact 2 million African scholars by 2020.
Higherlife Foundation which is currently rolling out Ruzivo Smart Learning, an online learning platform for Primary and Secondary students, in collaboration with Econet Wireless seeks to scale its impact in education through technology and the similarities in Simba Education’s online learning platform and Ruzivo Smart Learning have confirmed that education really is going online.
Collaborations between the two organizations will surely change the face and course of education in Zimbabwe, and Africa at large. It will change the sad statistics that have burdened our continent for a long time. Most importantly, it will ensure that children in Africa have access to quality education, a weapon against poverty.
