Father-and-son team Dereck and Adrian Marnewick developed an app to help students study, but when they learned of the lockdown, they created something new in aid of free learning.
South Africa (15 April 2020) – WorksheetCloud, a Cape Town-based ed-tech startup, made history for the second time by reaching over half a million learners with free online school lessons.
Within two days of launching its online teaching and learning concept, WorksheetCloud Online Lessons broadcast live-streamed lessons to 40,000 learners across South Africa. Now only ten days later, more than 500,000 learners have viewed the online lessons provided by WorksheetCloud at no charge to parents.
WorksheetCloud, founded by father-and-son team Dereck and Adrian Marnewick, originally developed an exam study app that helps learners revise for school tests and exams. When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the national lockdown that has seen schools closed since March, the company temporarily changed direction to build and launch online classrooms that are freely accessible to any learner with an internet-enabled device.
“The response has been amazing and our website crashed a number of times in the first few days due to the increased traffic to the site,” says CEO Adrian Marnewick. “We’ve had feedback from over 5,000 parents writing in to tell us how grateful they are for our educational support during the lockdown.”
The site offers lessons and downloadable homework activities for Grades 3 to 7, with Grades 8 and 9 launching this week. This helps children keep learning during the lockdown while giving parents a few hours of rest.
Parents and learners can access the site for free at www.worksheetcloud.com/live
WorksheetCloud Online Lessons is expected to broadcast on-demand video lessons to over 1 million learners by the end of April.
The project is funded by WorksheetCloud along with sponsorship from MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet and Xneelo.
by 