Original Story Published by: Global Voices, www.globalvoices.org
Photo Source: Goodhope Amani, used with permission
(Above) Adam A. Duma, a co-founder of SmartClass, an online learning platform, shows the mobile view of Smartclass during an interview.
The Tanzanian government has announced free education for primary through secondary school, but a quality education remains an intense debate in Tanzanian society.
Tech innovators in Tanzania are hoping to improve the quality of education through technology, seizing on the fact that about 45 percent of Tanzanians are now online, and that number is growing.
In January 2019, tech innovator, Adam A. Duma, launched Smartclass, an educational online platform that connects private, qualified tutors with students and other people interested in attaining all sorts of knowledge. Duma, the platform's co-founder, says the platform was the result of the intensive research that found that most parents struggle to get qualified tutors to teach their children various subjects — especially primary and secondary subjects.
“Smart class is an online platform which connects the best, trusted, qualified tutors to different students to different fields. Students from normal schools, students from entrepreneurship, students from the health sector, agriculture and more than 300 fields.” – Adam A. Duma.
The platform, under incubation at the University of Dar es Salaam, provides an opportunity for qualified tutors to sell their skills for a minimum of 3,000 Tanzanian Shillings (1.30 United States Dollars) per hour. It has already attracted 5,000 tutors and 7,000 students since it started operating.
To ensure the authenticity and qualifications of a tutor, the platform connects to other educational institutions to help to verify their information.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology helps to measure the qualifications of the tutors since we cannot verify certificates of every tutor physically. We have a database connected with The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA), and University of Dar es Salaam, so this AI helps to verify the information. We are working to connect many institutions to accommodate many people,” Duma says.
To read the full article, visit www.globalvoices.org.
Related
