By Ernest Nutsugah, GNA
Accra, April 1, GNA – Lead for Africa, a pan-African education and technology company, has launched two new applications to facilitate teaching and learning in schools.
The applications, known as “CountOn” and “WordSeeds,” were designed to help teach numeracy and language literacy, respectively, at the basic level.
Addressing journalists during the launch in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Daniel Dotse, Founder, Lead for Africa and Lead AI, said the tools were developed to address challenges pupils and teachers faced in the classroom.
“We noticed it took a long time for teachers to develop a lesson plan, so we thought we can develop an application that can solve that problem,” he said.
“CountOn combines the generation of lesson plans with the methods to be used to deliver the lesson to students.”
“WordSeeds is designed to teach multiple languages…it was first designed to improve English at the basic school level.”
“…But we thought there are Ghanaian children growing up in diverse cultures who may want to learn other languages so we thought “WordSeeds” can help them learn those languages as well.”
Mr Dotse said the developers would monitor and help improve the applications, available on Google Play Store, as students and teachers used them across Ghana.
“By the third quarter of this year, we should have developed our version two, and that would be based on the feedback we get from the users,” he indicated.
“The tools were developed to make children more productive and help teachers to perform tasks quickly.”
Touching on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mr Dotse stressed the need to expose tutors and pupils to modern technologies that would enhance teaching and learning.
“We should not allow the fear of dependency on AI take us away from the tools and technology systems being developed,” he said.
“It is better to know how AI tools operate and decide not to use the tools, than not knowing how the tool operates at all,” he added, emphasising that AI would not take the job of teachers.
Mr Eric Osiakwan, Chief Executive Officer, Chanzo Capital, a firm that supports startups in fintech, AI and software sectors, commended both applications, and urged techpreneurs to establish companies that solved problems and could compete globally.
“The reality is that your competitor is somewhere in China or Europe so you need to build with that global perspective…You may be Ghanaian or African but you have to think global and act local,” he stated.
Mr Peter Abledu Golden, Public Relations Officer, Greater Accra Regional Administration, lauded the initiative and encouraged users to make clever use of the applications.
The launch brought together representatives from public and private institutions, and stakeholders in the technology and education sector to explore the features of the applications, share insights and foster collaboration aimed at improving access to quality learning outcomes.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe