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Shupavu291 - an e-learning platform that can be accessed offline on basic feature phones through SMS

place Kenya + 3 more

Leveraging readily available technology to unlock the potential of underserved learners in Africa.

In Africa, low income background learners face the triple pressures of lack of adequate teachers, inadequate text-books and scarce revision materials. Shupavu291 provides these learners with 24-hour-a-day access to national curriculum topical lessons, quizzes, revision papers, offline Wikipedia and an ‘Ask a Teacher’ feature enabling them to learn anytime, from anywhere and at their own pace.

HundrED 2024
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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED Global Collection 2024

Web presence

2011

Established

1.22M

Children

3

Countries
Target group
Students lower
Updated
May 2023
Eneza Education is on a mission to make 50 million learners across Africa smarter through the use of ubiquitous mobile technology. This mission is embedded in the belief that everyone should have an equal start in life and that there should be equality of opportunity in education where every learner, irrespective of their social standing, has a fair and equal access to good quality education.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Nearly 1 in 3 children does not complete primary school in Africa. More disturbingly, over 40M children learn so little while in school that they are not much better off than those who never attend school. This situation is fuelled by the current teacher to learner ratio (1:65), textbook to student ratio (1:5) and lack of access to quality revision materials by low income background learners.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Shupavu291 can be accessed offline on basic feature phones. The offline mobile services enables us to reach underserved learners. Learners dial *291# to register and subscribe on the platform. Upon subscription, the learners get access to national curriculum topical lessons by class level, quizzes to clarify their understanding after every lesson, revision papers, offline Wikipedia to search for content of their choice, and an ‘Ask a Teacher’ feature. Questions from learners, by grade level, are matched to teachers with mainstream classroom experience in that subject for real-time responses. This personalised experience brings the teacher to learner ratio to 1:1.

Since starting, we have reached 12M+ learners, who have taken over 79 million SMS lessons and asked more than 14 million questions. According to an internal study, learners on our platform scored 22.7% higher on tests than their peers on average, with about 97% of the learners mentioning improved test scores.

How has it been spreading?

In partnership with Safaricom, a leading MNO in Kenya, we started offering Shupavu291 in Kenya in 2011. Within 2 years, Shupavu291 was Kenya's number one mobile learning platform. This caught the attention of other leading MNOs in Africa with whom we have partnered with to offer Shupavu291 (aligned to national curriculum) in Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.

With these expansions, we reached 4.1M learners in the last 2 years alone. During that time, learners consumed over 15.7M lessons and asked over 8,400 questions on a daily basis.

In the next 2-3 years, we intend to build an 'Ask a Teacher' bot - a complete digital space for questions and answers between learners and an automated response system. We also intend to expand into 2 additional African countries starting with Ethiopia.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Getting the biggest impact at the lowest cost is what we are after and we believe that we can always achieve this by working in synergy. Investing in the right partnerships is our core strength and we are open to working with other organiaations to grow, expand and reach more underserved learners . Should you be interested in partnering with us, please reach us at info@enezaeducation.com.

Impact & scalability

HundrED Academy Reviews

The fact that 97% of learnings sharing improved test scores speaks for itself. This solution uses the curriculum and engages students to learn when they would have otherwise been unable to.

Shupavu291 is incredible. Using an offline friendly technology and SMS messages which are already ingrained into culture as a portal for learning is so scalable. Combined with partnerships with telecom providers and localizing is fantastic.

- Academy member
Academy review results
Impact
Scalability
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Read more about our selection process

Implementation steps

Dial *291#
Get smarter! Send LEARN to 20851 to revise with Shupavu291 if you do not receive an sms (this is relevant to Kenya only. Short codes are unique in every country that we have an operational presence).
Send Name
Welcome to Shupavu291! Let us help you register fast so that you can start learning. Reply with your name. Call us on 0800720291 if you require assistance.
Send Class
Good work! Nice to meet you (nickname) just one more step. Which class would you like to revise from? Eg. reply with 9 for Form 1 (4) Class 4 (5) Class 5 (6) Class 6 (7) Class 7 (8) Class 8 (9) Form 1 (10) Form 2 (11) Form 3 (12)Form 4 (13) I am not a student. Call us on 0800720291 if you require assistance.
Access Lessons
Great job! You have successfully joined Shupavu291. What would you like to do first? (1) Start Learning (2) Redeem a voucher (3) Get Help.
Baseline Assessment Commences
Reply with 1 to start learning.

Spread of the innovation

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