Ethiopian ed-tech startup Accelerated has launched a coaching program for parents on Telegram to help them adapt to the new reality of home-schooling.
Founded in 2016, Accelerated was established to address poor education outcomes by improving the quality of teaching in Africa, starting in Ethiopia.
The startup blends behavioural sciences, technology and classroom data in order to build a unique teacher-coaching platform for the African context, and has so far trained over 2,000 teachers and impacted over 35,000 students in East Africa.
With children now stuck at home during the COVID-19 crisis and parents forced to become teachers themselves, Accelerated has launched Parentsy, a mobile-based coaching programme to support parents in Ethiopia who are home-schooling their children.
“While there are resources available for curriculum-based topics – there are hardly any resources available in Ethiopia or elsewhere to help parents with the “how” of home-schooling rather than the “what”,” said Accelerated chief executive officer (CEO) Ravi Shankar.
“We understand that parents need significant support in managing their mental health and that of their children, setting up learning routines and schedules, and even organising space for an effective learning environment. These are the topics and areas we would like to cover in the coming weeks and months. Without this “enabling environment” any educational content will not be very effective.”
In the two weeks since its launch, Parentsy has already seen rapid growth and strong parent engagement, with over 1,200 views per day.
