Private, public and civil society partnerships are key to mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the schooling system

Joining forces to make a difference

The impact of the Covid-19 outbreak has disrupted the rollout of the annual learning programme immensely. The schooling system is making great strides to recover lost time through the intervention of multistakeholder partnerships. Teacha! Magazine measures the impact of two such initiatives.

Spar and Numberwise

While homeschooling his children a couple of years ago, Trevor Lagerwall noticed that his kids struggled with basic numeracy. It didn’t take long before he realised that this might be a broad-based problem. This was the lightbulb moment that inspired him to conceptualise the Numberwise project. Shortly after it was launched, Numberwise

gained a bit of traction with a few schools opting to be early adopters. But it was only when entrepreneur Gavin Horn, who had bought and commercialised Numberwise, won Shark Tank SA – a reality show that pairs entrepreneurs with investors – that Numberwise’s fortunes began to change.

“Through conversations with numerous professors and academics, I realised that countries that struggled with numeracy usually lacked an understanding of the basics,” says Horn. “Numberwise is a basic numeracy app designed for Grade 1 to 7 learners, but it has crossed over to older learners struggling with the subject, including those in adult-based education (ABED) programmes.”

Spar has always been passionate about being involved in the Foundation Phase of schooling. They initially came on board as advertisers on the app until they decided to give their customers free access to the app in the beginning of 2020.

After taking note of the impact of the pandemic on the schooling calendar, Spar decided to give all South Africans discount coupons via social media to access the app for homeschooling whilst learning remotely.

“Spar wanted to extend a helping hand during the outbreak by helping create access to free online education in partnership with Numberwise,” says Horn.

The collaboration between Spar and Numberwise has produced numerous green shoots as it has created an awareness around the importance of mathematics at all levels while simplifying access to this learning resource.

“Numberwise continues to experience steady growth. We initially had over 58 000 active users. Our collaboration with Spar has added an extra 15 000 daily users who can access the facility for free which would have ordinarily cost them R300.00 per annum.”

MTN Foundation and Siyavula Education

The Covid-19 outbreak has not only pushed us to rethink our daily routines; it has also created an environment that fosters a creative approach to dealing with challenges.

unforeseen events, while exposing the digital divide that exists in our society.

Siyavula Education is an organisation that telecommunications companies, technology

has been openly advancing the possibilities presented by edtech, initiating projects that aim to bridge the educational gap caused by the digital divide.

The organisation has formed a partnership with the MTN Foundation to devise a platform that can be deployed by the Department of Basic Education in assisting to ensure a bigger impact and long-term

identified beneficiaries to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the learning calendar.

“The partnership started about four year ago with the creation of a zero-rated digital platform for learners. In January 2020, MTN SA Foundation provided funds to Siyavula to enable learners on the MTN network free access to the mathematics content available on the site,” says Angie Maloka, Senior Manager of Community Programmes at

“In partnership with the Department of Basic Education, the Foundation funded the digitisation of Computer Applied Technology and Information textbooks for grade 10–12 learners. These are available on the Siyavula website as part of their content.”

Prior to the outbreak, the South African educational landscape was already facing

The migration of traditional teaching methods to online teaching models presented a different set of obstacles that required the involvement of inventors and educational organisations to pool resources in search of a level playing field for disadvantaged beneficiaries.

“Our philosophy is to implement all our projects in collaboration with our partners including government and civil society MTN SA Foundation.

sustainability,” says Maloka.

“Through this partnership, learners from all nine provinces (including schools in rural areas and townships) have been able to access the content on the Siyavula website to boost their performance in mathematics,” she concludes.

Visit www.spar.co.za/Numberwise / www. numberwise.com/download/download. php and www.siyavulaeducation.com / www.siyavula.com for more info.

Author: Levi Letsoko Levi Letsoko is an experienced media content writer and a parent based in Johannesburg. He writes for publications such as Brainstorm Magazine, Fast Company and The Voice Of Local Government with a strong focus on tech, entrepreneurship, corporate governance and business leadership. He is equally passionate about coding.

Twitter: @LeviLetsoko