Obami launches mobile education initiative, puts tutors in your pocket

South African social learning platform Obami has recently announced the launch of its new mobile tutoring service, Obami Tutor. The initiative aims to help connect learners to qualified mentors using their mobile phones.

The company believes that private tutoring can help solve South Africa’s education system, which is ranked among the worst in the world. Traditional tutoring can help but it’s incredibly expensive and can become a logistical chore — this is where Obami’s cheaper mobile option comes in handy.

A group of handpicked, crowdsourced teachers underwent a gruelling recruitment and training process to ensure the utmost in tutoring quality. According to the organisation, the selected teachers are equipped to guide learners through interactive worksheets aligned to the South African CAPS curriculum, while providing insightful feedback at every step along the way.

Africa’s e-learning scene is set to boom in the next few years with some estimating e-learning revenues in Africa has reached about US$250-million in 2011 and that this number will double, if not triple, in most countries by 2016. Other initiatives such as Daptio, Sterio.me and Edge Campus’ Qurio are reaffirming this migration from traditional education systems to the net.

Last year, Obami is said to have been the first organisation to digitise three year’s worth of past papers for South Africa’ s Annual National Assessments and National Senior Certificate, allowing learners to revise digitally through a medium that they find engaging.

The platform is currently being used by 400 registered organisations across Africa and has been recognised as one of the continent’s many innovative technologies by the likes of UNESCO, Forbes and CNN.

Obami Tutor is currently free for Maths and English across Grade 7, 8 and 9 during the beta launch phase which runs until the end of the first term.