Imagine Worldwide, an organisation set up to tackle, literacy and numeracy crisis for millions of children in Sub-Saharan Africa has won the inaugural Global EdTech Prize in the Non-Profits category.
According to the organisers, the Global EdTech Prize founded by T4 Education with the support of Owl Ventures and Digital Promise, recognises those trailblazing solutions that are driving change and grappling with the most crucial challenges in today’s classrooms.
Making the announcement at the World Schools Summit at Yasmina British Academy, Abu Dhabi, UAE, recently, the organisers observed that Imagine Worldwide’s learning solution is designed to work in the most challenging environments and operates without internet connectivity and does not require grid-power or highly-skilled teachers.
A child who has never seen technology and is illiterate can start their literacy and numeracy journey by listening to their own teacher avatar, via headphones, guiding them in the national language of instruction, from how to use tablets to basic literacy concepts and ultimately to fluency.
The Global EdTech Prize is awarded annually in three categories: Non-Profits, Start-Ups, and Majors. The Top 10 finalists for each of the three categories were invited to the World Schools Summit – hosted by T4 Education, Aldar Education and the Emirates Foundation and supported by CIFF, Google, Microsoft, and HP – where they showcased their work before an Expert Panel comprising leading figures in the technology and education sectors including investors and policymakers from around the world.
Vikas Pota, founder of T4 Education and the Global EdTech Prize, commended Imagine Worldwide Tablet-Based Foundational Learning Programme from Imagine Worldwide in Africa for winning the inaugural Global EdTech Prize and to the Global Community of Practice from Team4Tech Foundation for making the Final 3.
According to Pota, the work of Imagine Worldwide is a crucial contribution to the cause of improving education, and everything that can achieve for all of humanity.
“We established the Global EdTech Prize to help scale the innovations that are making a real difference to the most intractable educational challenges, from enhancing literacy development to building lifelong skills, supporting social mobility, and closing learning gaps. And we ensured it is judged by educators themselves, because they know what works best in their classrooms. I hope this award will now allow you to spread your impact across the world,” Pota said.
Amit A. Patel, Co-founder and managing partner of Owl Ventures, said that by harnessing technology in the service of education, the work of Imagine Worldwide deserves recognition worldwide.
“I hope that through this prestigious award, policymakers, educators, and changemakers alike see the impact of your innovation and help scale the transformation we need,” Patel added.
Aside from Imagine Worldwide, other winners at the event include: Brisk from Brisk Teaching in the USA, winner in the Start-Ups category; Matific Maths Game from Matific in Australia in the Majors category.
The Expert Panel then narrowed down the Final 3 per category, who went on to present their products and tools before educators at the World Schools Summit. Educators voted by secret ballot to determine the winner of each category, with the winners announced live on stage at the culmination of the summit.
Meanwhile, the Global Community of Practice from Team4Tech Foundation, which operates in many African countries, made the Final 3 for the Global EdTech Prize in the Non-Profits category.
Team4Tech Foundation is a global impact accelerator for education-focused NGOs, providing them with technology-supported, evidence-based practices to advance education for employability.
It currently supports 1,000+ NGOs from more than 100 countries in a free online community of practice, with courses, learning cohorts, toolkits, webinars and pro bono consulting from skilled volunteers, so that they can build employability skills with their 43M+ learners. Its content and tools are developed by expert educators and localised by its regional hub leads in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, to ensure that they are responding to local needs.
