Around 12% of the global population is functionally illiterate, and the effects go way beyond the inability to read a newspaper article, impacting everything from employability to self-esteem.
It’s a problem that governments, charities and educational organisations around the world have spent huge amounts of effort trying to combat, but with illiteracy rates remaining stagnant since 2000, it’s time for a new approach: educational technology (edtech).
Edtech offers a range of opportunities to improve literacy by widening participation in education, reducing delivery costs, allowing for differentiated and tailored instruction, and even motivating students.
In Tanzania, Ubongo creates multi-platform “edutainment” for learners across the continent, with products ranging from TV shows and radio programmes to educational apps. The company also runs rural screening clubs in communities with no electricity. And it’s about to launch an interactive voice response product for basic mobile phones, where families can call in to listen to musical lessons teaching the alphabet, letter sounds, counting and more.
“Our goal is to bring top quality, localised edutainment to kids on whatever technology they can access,” says CEO Nisha Ligon, “be it a radio, TV, basic mobile, smartphone – or whatever new technology may come our way next.”
Ligon believes technology is critical for improving literacy in Africa. “The majority of families who we work with don’t have any books or child-appropriate reading materials in the household. High reach broadcast technology allows us to reach millions of kids with early learning content to develop pre-literacy skills. We teach letter sounds and phonemic awareness through songs on the radio, and we add letter recognition, print awareness and basic reading on TV.”
Ubongo is one of 16 ventures taking part in Project Literacy Lab (PLL), an initiative bringing together entrepreneurs who are spearheading tech tools to tackle illiteracy. Run as part of the global Project Literacy campaign, the aim of the programme is to advance best practice, raise awareness and mobilise action.
“There is a huge amount happening in this space,” says Emilie Colker, VP of social impact and global campaigns at Pearson, Project Literacy’s founding partner. “We need to be sharing the things that are working and we see ourselves as a group that can do that. We’ve got to find new ways to do things, and that’s really where technology plays a role.”
Other participants in PLL include Eduze, which offers access to digital content for millions across sub-saharan Africa, and Angaza, which provides pay-as-you-go, financially accessible solar lighting to off-grid families across Africa and India. The service allows them to take the first step toward a healthy, effective and affordable education for their children.
But it’s not just developing nations that are benefiting from edtech’s ability to improve literacy. LightSail operates in more than 150 school districts in the US, as well as China, Singapore and parts of Europe.
Their app starts by assessing the student’s reading level the first time they login, before building a customised library of books, and then monitors and assesses the students as they read. When the app algorithms determine a student has mastered their current reading level, the system automatically adapts the library so the choice of books is always in their “zone of proximal development” – in other words, at the right level for their learning ability.
“We use technology to leverage and expand what we already know works in literacy,” says CEO Gideon Stein. “The basic science of literacy, and what has worked for centuries, is constant exposure to lots of great texts. When you combine time spent reading with the assurance that students are always reading the texts that are just right for them, students will develop and grow quickly as readers.”
Stein believes that in order to truly benefit from the potential of edtech, the education sector needs to be open to changing the way things have long been done, which takes discipline, training and effective communication to teachers, students and parents.
Device adoption and internet infrastructure upgrades are another challenge. “In the US, there are 60 million students in K-12 [primary and secondary school],” he says. “Assuming a three year depreciation of the average laptop or tablet, we should be seeing sales of 20m plus devices per year. Right now, that number stands at approximately 10m. There’s still a long way to go.’
In fact, it could be that developing nations will leapfrog the process and adopt edtech faster than the developed world, according to Fabiano Vallesi, who works on research and investment solutions at wealth management firm, Julius Baer.
“Developing countries didn’t go for the landline phone but adopted mobile phones and smartphones directly,” he says. “The same might happen to edtech, with faster adoption rates in emerging countries which are already going up the digital value chain.”
Whoever leads the way, the investment potential for edtech is huge. “The global education market is worth more than $5tn and only a tiny share is currently digitised,” says Vallesi. “Education needs to become more efficient and we see a considerable investment potential in edtech as a great enabler.”
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