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Shepherd Chimururi Youth Interactive Correspondent
The drive to successfully digitalise education using home grown content adopted directly from the Competence Based Curriculum is gaining momentum.
Pupils are loving it while teachers and parents are supporting it.
It becomes even sweeter when the solution is a suitable offline mobile application pregnant with notes, textbooks and can auto mark assignments.
That is STUDSYS for you, the latest tech property in education circles right now.
STUDSYS which is an acronym for studying system, covers all educational levels from ECD up to form six.
It was conceptualised by Gotronics Africa, a tech start up co-founded in 2017 by two visionaries Takudzwa Gotora and Tafadzwa Andrigu.
STUDSYS was developed in partnership with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education as along term ICT strategy of helping to reach more pupils than any other existing solution thus corresponding with the ministry’s mandate of implementing the Sustainable Development Goal 4(SDG4) which is “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life long learning opportunities for all.”
The software whose trial version can be downloaded at Google Playstore is of international standards designed to leverage on technology to provide for accelerated learning and to act as a confidence builder among young learners.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education assessed and adopted the use of this system in public schools in all provinces as an aide to learning and towards the building of globally competitive students through our local systems.
The strategy is already paying dividends as students in both urban and rural areas have been able to access the application thus promoting the provision of quality and inclusive education to all.
The programme that started last year had its first roll out in Harare and Mashonaland provinces, is already running in dozens of primary and secondary schools namely Kanyemba Secondary, Nyachuru Secondary, Gweshe Secondary, Nzvimbo Secondary, Mufakose Mhuriimwe Secondary, Holy Rosary Primary, Mvurwi Primary, Rusununguko Primary, Tsungubvi Primary, Bare Primary, Taalnet Group of Schools, Musarara Primary School and all 6 Kuwadzana council primary schools, among others.
In an interview with Youth Interactive, Ruth Mushangwe, a grade 7 pupil at Kuwadzana 5 Primary School expressed joy at the opportunity of using the app.
“During the holiday the app was sending me work everyday.
“I did all the assignments and I loved the fact that they all got marked.
The other advantage of the app is that it has some notes I was not given at school and some textbooks that I did not have,” she said.
Tafadwa Kaseke, a form 3 student at Mufakose High 1, loves the increased interaction with the students that promotes personalized learning.
“The app is friendly and I can study at my own pace.
It is reliable and dependable with no hitches and the content meets syllabus expectations unlike other content we get from the internet.
During the holiday it helped me catch up in biology and business studies but then my voucher expired.
“I am appealing to authorities to install it for free 100 percent % for underprivileged students who can not afford,” he said.
The offline content and textbook library which are the main features of the application that has both the mobile and PC versions, is giving students like Munashe Marowa a Form one at Excel Academy Group of Schools a big advantage.
The STUDSYS application is helping me a lot. I started using it during the August holiday.
The notes and exercises I got from is are the same with what we are doing in class right now.
This means I am able to stay ahead through the app.” he said.
Predictably, dozens of schools have already lined up to get installation which is done physically by hired local youth as a way of creating employment for local youths.
Online Reporter