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Africa Teen Geeks continues to equalise access to quality education


Johannesburg, 06 Jan 2021

The year 2020 has been a very challenging year for all industries, and the education sector was not exonerated from the devastating impact of the global pandemic – COVID-19. Since the declaration of a National Disaster in March 2020, the need for a new way of teaching and learning became eminent, with technology being the critical requirement and enabler of teaching and learning in an environment that discourages physical contact.

In support of President Cyril Ramaphosa in ensuring the principles of social distancing and the lockdown regulations are adhered to in order to avert the negative public health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, MsZora, an artificial intelligence based educational platform, which is a product of Africa Teen Geeks, offered remote learning classes live from March 2020 across all grades to ensure learning and teaching continuity in the midst of the pandemic.

Africa Teen Geeks' mission of “equalising access to quality education” has grown in the face of the COVID-19 crisis and we have quickly expanded our work to aid African children affected by school closures". The contribution and achievement of the programme are as follows:

  • Over 500 000 stakeholders reached through Zoom live lessons.
  • Over 470 000 views on our YouTube channel.
  • Completed coding and robotics curriculum in partnership with the Department of Basic Education.
  • Created 6 000 video lessons for Grades R to 12.
  • Created the first African block-based coding platform MsZora-Block and created tutorials for both learners and teachers with an objective of ensuring that every African school can teach coding from foundation phase in their mother tongue.
  • Our CEO, Lindiwe Matlali, was named the Schwab Foundation 2020 Social Innovator of the Year by the World Economic Forum.

With the second wave of the pandemic, which has proven to be more severe than the initial one, the reintroduction of lockdown alert level three by the president on 28 December is suggesting that remote learning and teaching will remain the order of the day even in 2021. ATG amplified its programme, which enables remote learning and teaching. In partnership with Apodytes and Unicef South Africa, we are further running free holiday coding and robotics classes from 4-22 January 2021. Classes will be conducted virtually in Zoom, our own MsZora platform and our YouTube channel.

Since its inception, Africa Teen Geeks has grown to become the largest computer science non-profit organisation in Africa. Through its strategic partnerships with the University of South Africa and the Department of Basic Education, our organisation has the key ingredients to be an influential organisation with strong social impact.

We hereby express our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to all our partners and supporters for their concerted efforts and contribution in achieving the above objectives.

For more information, contact: info@africateengeeks.co.za

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