Introducing primaEd
When people ask me to tell them the story of primaEd I always start by saying that in a parallel universe I died in 2017. Education saved my life!
I grew up in Highfields, a high-density suburb in Harare and the law of average there was not very graceful. For all I know, I could have fallen off on any of the many craters riddled in my path. Education yanked me from racing match-sticks in the water-filled gutters of Highfield to starting what some have dubbed the greatest disrupt to traditional learning in Zimbabwe.
Education is the main key to economic and social development. The statement is a cliché but one that is based on truth. At primaEd, we believe that a specific kind of education, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), is particularly important to solving the problems faced by Zimbabwe and the developing world.
Zimbabwe faces the typical challenges of sub-optimal education and scarce amenities and this reflects in a declining regional ranking. A part of the challenge is that for any education system to thrive, it has to be curated for and evolve with key factors such as the socioeconomic status of the beneficiaries as a function of procurement and access to amenities and the much less obvious factors such as trending habits in society.
Times are changing. What worked for our parents is not as effective for the current generation. A competent education system adapts and reflects trends. The trend for our time is the use of Internet and Communication Tools (ICT) such as mobile phones, computers, simulation tools (VR & AR), and e-learning.
The trouble is that the investment required for such tools (on the part of the government) is often hindered by budget constraints and competing problems in Health Care. At the base of this challenge are traditional learning institutes such as schools and colleges: In general, the main focus of traditional learning institutes is on the generic operation of education service delivery. The institutes have neither the time nor the resources to constantly develop lean products and services and investigate well-thought-through strategies and modern learning techniques suitable for effective learning.
That is where we get in. At primaEd, we develop and offer, to institutes and individuals, competitively priced solutions to supplement learning. Our products and services address a wide range of aptitude. We curate some of our products for ease of understanding, especially for students in settings of a high teacher-to-student ratio and with subpar expertise; some are curated for accelerated learning. Some are for the autodidactic (the self-taught) and some are optimized for group learning.
We believe that it’s important to work that we are doing and we will continue to work on making Zimbabwe a better place.
