Author: Gigi Ngcobo

The rollout of an EdTech pilot programme is often measured by visible signals. Thousands of tablets deployed. Active user dashboards trending upward. “Time-on-app” statistics climbing. Positive press coverage following shortly after. But do these signals tell us whether learning has improved? Across Africa, the EdTech sector has grown rapidly. Yet the continent’s core education indicators remain deeply concerning. In South Africa, one of the continent’s most industrialised economies, the evidence is sobering. The 2023 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found that 81% of Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning in any language, up from 78% in 2016. At…