EdTech Solutions for Africa

Hosted by the Harvard University Center for African Studies Africa Office, the webinar will explore technology-based solutions that can address key education challenges in African societies from basic education to college/tertiary education, and to job readiness. The session will feature education experts and technology innovation leaders in Africa seeking to prepare African youth to take their place in the world as not only consumers and users of new technologies but also creators of technologies that address Africa’s economic challenges.

REGISTER TO ATTEND: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8klHnjqATg6IfJfDi9UY3w

Presenters: 

Stacey Brewer
Bio: For most people, the amount of money South Africa spends on education every year, with very little impact, doesn’t cross their minds. Stacey Brewer isn’t most people. When she found out exactly what education costs the country, she went out and co-founded an independent private school network that’s changing young people’s lives.

As part of her MBA studies, she correlated how much the country spends on education against where it ranks on various global indicators, and the results left her shaken. She promptly completed her thesis on a sustainable financial model for low fee private schools – and the very next year, co-founded SPARK Schools, an independent private school network which provides high quality education at a price point that is comparable to what government currently spends per learner.

SPARK opened its doors in January 2013, with 160 learners and 20 staff. Barely a decade later, it has 14,000 learners in 20 schools across South Africa, who outperform their peers by at least one grade level. SPARK’s innovative personalised learning model, enabled through a blended learning approach, globally competitive curriculum and focus on core values and social-emotional learning has seen the network rapidly emerge as a leading player in the South African education sector. 

Ms Brewer’s driving force remains her single-minded conviction that providing affordable, quality education can change lives. SPARK is deliberately positioned at the lower end of the cost curve in private education as it seeks to create a more inclusive education landscape and disrupt the accepted norm that private schools are only for an elite few. The potential is huge: there are more than 13 million school-going children in South Africa, and not enough middle- to low-cost schools to serve them.

She’s the epitome of the modern, purpose-driven CEO. She believes that success is not purely about financial rewards, but rather about making a real, sustainable impact. As such, she strives to improve the state of education in South Africa to shape society and lead a transformation in education to families that are underserved.

Ms Brewer completed a Bachelor of Science in Human Kinetics, Ergonomics and Organisational Psychology at Rhodes University, before obtaining her MBA in Entrepreneurship (cum laude) from the Gordon Institute of Business Science. She’s been recognised with numerous accolades and association memberships over the years, including being named as an Endeavor Entrepreneur, the Mail and Guardian Top 200 South Africans in 2014, a Tutu and Mandela Washington Fellow 2015. Most recently, she joined the Global Schools Forum Board, which focuses on how non-state providers can drive education in developing markets.

Rapelang Rabana
Bio: Featured on the cover of ForbesAfrica magazine before the age of 30, named Entrepreneur for the World by the World Entrepreneurship Forum and selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum - Rapelang is an internationally lauded technology entrepreneur.

From her first startup straight out of university, Yeigo, to Chief Digital Officer at South Africa’s largest IT company, Rapelang is a true digital native. Rapelang is the co-CEO of Imagine Worldwide, which operates across 7 African countries, providing tablet-based learning programs to develop literacy and numeracy skills in millions of young children. Rapelang is also the Founder of Rekindle Learning, an edtech company that enables organizations to easily codify and share institutional know-how amongst their teams to drive business performance.

As a Founding Partner at FFWD (fast forward) Innovation, Rapelang is experienced in accelerating the innovation agenda in large companies to extract business value. In 2021 she co-founded the VC fund Grindstone Ventures, as well as Norrsken Impact Accelerator, part of one of the world’s largest impact funds, all to support and fund high-impact entrepreneurs.

Paul Atherton
Bio: Paul Atherton is the founder of Fab Inc. and Fab Data, two social enterprises that combine advisory services and the development of open-source data and technology systems for education in low income countries.

Building off Fab's work on developing AI tools – such as theTeacherAI in Sierra Leone, which provide CPD support to teachers, Paul co-founded the "AI-for-Education.org" initiative. This platform aims to prevent LMIC countries from being left behind as AI advances in education. This initiative fosters collaboration among innovators across LMICs and global experts, while also creating open-source components to reduce barriers to entry and provide quality assurance.

Fab also works on climate-related matters, with a focus on safeguarding school systems against heat and floods, and ensuring climate change is factored into education planning.

Paul served on the Board of On Call Africa for eight years, a health NGO in Zambia, contributing to its growth into a sustainable charity while maintaining a focus on long-term capacity partnerships with the Government.

Paul holds a PhD in the Economics of Education and worked as a postdoc and lecturer at the Institute of Education in London. Prior to founding Fab, Paul managed DFID's education investments (£62.5m) in Rwanda. Previous roles within DFID HQ involved designing metrics for value for money in education and establishing monitoring and evaluation as well as payment by results mechanisms for the £355m Girls' Education Challenge programme, the world's largest girls' education programme.

Follow our AI work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-for-education/

Atonie Chigeda
Bio: Antonie Chigeda (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Malawi’s School of Education and currently serving as the Executive Director at Imagine Worldwide (Malawi). Experienced in education research with key interests in improving student learning outcomes, democratic school governance, teacher education and development in developing countries, improving school quality and values education. Over the years he has engaged in research on Edtech in accelerating learning outcomes particularly in foundation literacy and numeracy in low resourced contexts. Currently he is leading an effort supporting the Government of Malawi in a national-wide scale-out of the use of tablets and specialized apps to improve children learning outcomes in foundation literacy and numeracy in public primary schools in Malawi. He is a graduate of the School of Asian and African Area Studies at Kyoto University in Japan.

Ba earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, then pursued a master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He joined SEAS in 2015, and was named Director of Undergraduate Studies in Bioengineering in 2020. He is a 2016 Fellow in Neuroscience of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and 2021 recipient of the Roslyn Abramson Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching by the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.