How Data Is Empowering An Education System In Crisis

An innovative mobile learning platform is distributing content via a data-driven model.

- Jessica Hubbard

With consistently poor matric results and ongoing conflict at universities around the country, South African education is clearly in crisis. Nowhere is this more evident than in mathematics and science results, with South African learners consistently ranking among the worst in the world.

The 2015/16 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness report placed South Africa almost dead last among 140 countries in terms of its maths and science education – with only Egypt and Paraguay trailing behind it. Similarly, the 2016 International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS), which tests 10-year-olds and 14-year-olds in the two subjects every four years, placed SA near the bottom of a list of 57 countries.

Although educational institutions and policymakers alike have scrambled to find solutions, there has been little in the way of tangible improvements.

But a new generation of tech-savvy entrepreneurs is turning its collective attention towards solving some of the country’s most pressing social challenges, with education being an obvious place to begin.

One such young entrepreneur is Zakheni Ngubo, senior managing partner at digital learning platform Syafunda. A Mandela Washington Fellow and a Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship alumnus, Ngubo established Syafunda to address the consistently poor performances in maths and science in South African schools.

Far from just another online platform or slick app, Syafunda takes its cue from widely sourced data to provide access to digital content through mobile technology.