Lockdown brings learning innovation

Thousands of pupil suffered under the lockdown due to schools closing and them having to learn from home.
But the Covid-19 pandemic has seen many South Africans doing their best to help, including two engineering graduates who launched an online platform to tutor children in grades 10 to 12.
Bongani Khumalo and Thapelo Sadike, who founded Tutars Online SA, said that their passion for helping learners gave them a greater purpose.
The two used to help pupils during their spare time, so they decided that online classes were the best solution going forward.
“Learners are struggling with their studies and this has a bad impact on their future, so we wanted to use our knowledge to help learners and make it easy for them to pass while enjoying our studies,” he said.
Khumalo said that Tutars Online SA provided online tutorials and has apps for various subjects.
“We have recently developed three Mathematics apps for these learners, and these apps offer them free access to notes, previous question papers, quiz questions that are related to exam questions and an option to request online tutorials,” he said.
“The app is free to use and is very helpful… online tutorials go at a rate of R100 for a 90-minute session. All these packages are accessible on a smartphone, and there is no need for learners to buy or download previous question papers or travel for tutoring sessions.”
Since launching, Khumalo who studied industrial engineering and Sadike who studied software engineering, have been joined by Marvin Ndonyane, who teaches accounting.
“The team consists of young graduates that have been excelling academically from a young age, so our knowledge and study tips are tried and tested,” he said.
“The app is very special. We do not just create apps and give them to learners and expect them to ace their studies. We also provide guidance through online tutorials. Our app bridges the gap between questions that are in the exam paper and those that are in textbooks. It is a tool that every learner needs,” he told Vutivi News.
Khumalo said the use of apps was also essential to help pupils get used to the digital space.
“We are introducing learners to online tutorials at a young age so that they might have a chance to adapt to 4IR (4^th Industrial Revolution) at an early stage,” he said.
“Anyone who is willing to invest in himself and never give up when faced with temporary defeat can be an entrepreneur.”