UpbeatTutors on WhatsApp, lessons by text: six African innovators are putting a teacher in every pocket
The students are already on WhatsApp — so that's where the tutoring went. Six African education innovators are using AI on the platforms families already have: FoondaMate, from South African entrepreneur Dacod Magagula, answers study questions over WhatsApp and Messenger; Rori, a WhatsApp maths tutor from Rising Academies, was tested with about 1,000 students in 11 Ghanaian schools, and children who practised twice a week alongside class learned measurably more maths than their peers; in Nigeria, Ahmed Ogundimu's NGScholars helps students navigate admissions and scholarships; and Kenya's M-Shule, from Claire Mongeau, delivers adaptive lessons by plain SMS — no smartphone, no data plan, no problem. The pattern is the point: none of it waits for better infrastructure. It teaches on the phone that's already in the child's hand.
SDG 4 · Quality education — Mechanism: tech innovation