Kigali, Rwanda — Siyavula, an educational technology company headquartered in South Africa, has announced today its partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and the Rwanda Education Board to provide students with access to an online practice platform for Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. The global pandemic has had a severe impact on learning, and this partnership provides secondary education students in Rwanda with an effective tool to maintain and improve their learning. Access to the Siyavula platform will be free to all Rwandan secondary school students for the new 2020-21 school year starting on October 1st, 2020.
The Siyavula online platform makes high-quality learning accessible anywhere, anytime, and with any device. All that is required is access to the internet. Students sign up on the platform and can then choose topics to practise. Any questions are answered immediately, with step-by-step solutions given. Students work at their own pace and are able to track their progress. Since its inception in South Africa in 2012, students have answered almost 50 million questions on the platform.
As part of its online platform launch in Rwanda, Siyavula will be running a #1MillionMaths competition for secondary school students throughout the country. Hundreds of students have already registered on the platform and are eagerly waiting for the competition to start. During the month of October, those students who are active will have the opportunity to win prizes from Monday to Friday.
Dr. Mark Horner, Siyavula’s CEO, explains, “While originally created for South African students, we have aligned our content to the S1-4 Rwandan curriculum to make sure that the platform provides a value addition to existing mechanisms designed to support the learning of the students during this difficult time.” “We’d like to encourage all learners studying Mathematics to join #1MillionMaths this October. Even if you feel like you’ve been left behind this year, use the #1MillionMaths challenge to catch up on your work and master the content. We do know that regular and consistent practice in math and science are key to performing well in these subjects.”
“The #1MillionMaths challenge has run successfully in South Africa for the past four years, and we’re excited to be launching the competition in a new country for the first time. We are looking forward to connecting with Rwandan students and rewarding them for their activity on our platform. There will also be national leaderboards so students can compete against one another across the country,” adds Horner.
“Over the last few months, we’ve witnessed incredible innovation and impact among our Mastercard Foundation Ed-Tech Fellows, including Siyavula, as they’ve worked to ensure learning continuity for all amid this pandemic. We’re excited to see these initiatives scaling to support students across the continent, and receiving support from a wide range of partners, including the Rwanda Education Board. It is a great show of solidarity and resilience,” said Joseph Nsengimana, Director of Mastercard Foundation’s Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT in Rwanda.
About the Mastercard Foundation
The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. It is one of the largest, private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. The Foundation was created by Mastercard in 2006 as an independent organization with its own Board of Directors and management. For more information on the Foundation, please visit: www.mastercardfdn.org
About Siyavula Education
In 2002, Siyavula began as a volunteer project in South Africa, led by physicist Dr. Mark Horner, to produce Grade 10-12 math, physics, and chemistry textbooks that teachers and students could freely print or share digitally. In 2007, we received funding from the Shuttleworth Foundation, which allowed us to produce additional content for Grades 4-9. With help from the Shuttleworth Foundation and PSG Group Ltd, we moved into the digital world in 2012, and began building an integrated learning experience for Mathematics and Physical Sciences in South Africa. We believe that the value and impact of Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry extends far beyond the classroom. Critical and analytical thinking, creativity and exploration, problem-solving and collaboration are the skills needed for innovation, growth, and change. Further, we believe that all children should have access to resources and support to achieve their goals, and that the inequalities in Africa’s education systems can be reduced by leveraging affordable and innovative technology. Siyavula Practice, built by scientists, educational experts, and teachers, aims to make high-quality education accessible to all students. Siyavula’s online Mathematics and Physical Sciences practice platform was initially built for high school students in South Africa. Over the past two years, we have aligned our content to curriculums that make our product relevant to other countries on the African continent. Our platform can be accessed by students, anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Even students with old feature phones can access Siyavula Practice and read our online textbooks.
Please visit our websites for more information on what we do:
South African websites: siyavula.com, siyavulaeducation.com
Rwandan website: rw.siyavula.com, maths.rw
Facebook page: @SiyavulaRwanda
Contacts:
For Siyavula Education
Dr. Mark Horner, CEO, Siyavula Education: mark@siyavula.com
Neels van der Westhuizen, CFO, Siyavula Education: neels@siyavula.com
Deborah Torrington, Marketing, Siyavula Education: deborah@siyavula.com
Chiara Walsh, Project Manager, Siyavula Education: chiara@siyavula.com
For Mastercard Foundation
Nicolas Emane, Mastercard Foundation: nemane@mastercardfdn.org
