A start-up tech firm based in Kano, northwestern Nigeria has launched an educational app that gives children in primary school access to over 1,400 high-quality explainer videos on several topics.
The app, known as Yoda Box Player developed by Yoda Box Educational Resources gives the user access to varieties of topics in science, social studies, phonics, grammar and composition.
Co-founder of Yoda Box Educational Resources (Yoda Box), Anas Yazid who spoke on the app said it was specially designed to make learning at home comfortable and easy, catering for different types of learners at different learning stages.
Northern Nigeria is reputed to have the lowest literacy level in Nigeria. This has been made worse by prolonged period of violence wreaked on the region by terrorists and bandits who have continually targeted schools, taking students hostage.
Yazid said the app was inspired by the desire to bridge the learning gap faced by students especially at nursery, primary and secondary levels.
Explaining how the app works during its launch, he said, “Yoda Box is an offline tutoring assistant preloaded with resources to help children’s educational pursuits. You do not need to be online to access Yoda Box; once you subscribe, it is always available. You can have it on your mobile phone or computer for your children.”
The app was created by Yazid, a tech entrepreneur; Bilkisu Salem, an educationist and Abdulkadir Nuhu, a filmmaker. Yoda Box launches self-paced home learning app that works without the Internet
“At Yoda Box, our mission is to combine technology and local resources to create solutions that remove barriers to accessing quality knowledge in Nigeria,” the firm’s co-founder said.
According to him, although the “old-fashioned” pencil-and-paper methods of learning are still much needed in the classroom, technology has introduced lots of great tools to help students learn more efficiently and have fun while doing it.
