Google has recently granted $1.5 million to the non-profit arm of Siyavula Education to provide free access to its maths practice service for 150 000 South African students, and a further 150 000 in Nigeria.
The grant is part of a $50 million Google’s commitment to address global learning gaps.
As part of the initiative, Siyavula has now started this process by announcing its #1MillionMaths Challenge to kickstart learner preparation for year-end exams.
Siyavula is inviting South African learners to complete 1-million maths questions on its digital learning platform in the month of October. For the #1MillionMaths Challenge, Siyavula will provide free access to its premium online maths practice service for all Grade 8-12 learners in the country.
“Both Google and Siyavula harness technology to make information and education more accessible,” says Nick Cain, Google.org’s Program Manager for Education. “We want to demonstrate how powerful this can be by providing learners with access to this tool during their preparation for exams.”
“Siyavula has launched the #1MillionMaths Challenge to show the reach and scale that technology enables, as well as the incredible impact that practice can have when learning maths,” says Mark Horner, CEO of Siyavula. “We’ve designed our software to adapt to each learner’s level so they practise smarter, not just harder.”
Grade 12 learners preparing for exams will be able to practice self-marking exam questions for Mathematics Paper 1 and Paper 2. In addition to learning and preparing for exams, learners will receive various prizes and rewards from Siyavula, such as data, mobile phones and Google Play vouchers during October.
150 000 learners from low-fee public schools who participate in this challenge will be eligible to receive a Google.org-sponsored scholarship that grants them access to Siyavula maths practice for all of 2018.
To join the #1MillionMaths challenge, prepare for exams and stand a chance to receive one of the 150 000 Google-sponsored subscriptions for 2018, learners can visit the Siyavula website at www.siyavula.com, register for a trial account and redeem the following access code: siyavula-one-million-maths. This code will grant them premium access until the 15th of December and allow them to participate in the challenge.
Prizes, leaderboards and more information will be announced on the Siyavula Facebook page throughout the month of October. Learners can join the Siyavula Facebook page to monitor progress and stay up to date.
