Towards the end of National Women’s Month, in August 2025, South Africa witnessed a watershed moment in education technology: the unveiling of Iris, the country’s first AI-tutor robot, in Durban.

The unveiling marked the arrival of an educational innovation that can teach multiple subjects from Grade R to tertiary level, articulating responses in all 11 official languages. Unlike text-based AI tools, Iris employs voice interaction, backed by multilingual software and a keyboard interface designed.

Iris is the brainchild of Thando Gumede, a former educator and founder of BSG Technologies, who has won several global awards and was crowned Miss Tech Universe 2024–2025 in Thailand. Gumede conceived the idea amid classroom challenges teaching mathematics and physical science.

Her ambition is to introduce IRIS to every classroom in South Africa by the end of October 2025, and she has called for support from the private sector to help fund its roll-out. ‘Iris does not belong to me. It belongs to every one of us in South Africa,’ she said.

While AI robots such as Iris attract headlines and capture the imagination as a symbol of what’s possible, an arguably more practical approach is to use technology that already rests in the palm of many African youths’ hands. A recent study published in the Journal of Global Health found that 84% of youth from the ages of 15 to 24 in Eswatini, 83% in Botswana, 76% in Lesotho, 61% in Zimbabwe, 47% in Mozambique, 46% in Zambia and 32% in Malawi were mobile phone owners.

Across the continent, a wave of education apps is emerging to fill gaps that schools alone cannot close – bringing lessons, practice tools and even tutoring directly to children, often in places where teachers and resources remain scarce.

One of the most notable to emerge recently is Novar, created by self-taught developers Mkhongelo Shibambu and Malunghelo Mathonsi, who grew up together in the rural village of Gumbani in Limpopo, South Africa. With no formal training and only ZAR700, they built a second-hand computer and learnt to code using YouTube tutorials, and after much trial and error and persistence, launched their e-learning app offering a learning hub, digital courses, access to a learner community and even an AI tutor.

The app amassed more than 50 000 downloads within months of its launch, affirming its appeal in under-resourced communities. Its reach was amplified after a TikTok content creator went viral, catalysing additional support and recognition. Today, they are being supported by Standard Bank, IBM and Liberty with resources and funding upwards of R1 million to develop the app’s offering and reach.

ExamSlayers is another app with a single focus: getting learners exam-ready. It does this by providing access to past exam papers, study notes and tutoring services. Users can download revision materials for free and get personalised one-on-one sessions with high-performing university-level tutors (for a fee).

Then there’s Via Afrika’s Test-Urself app, which sits within a larger digital pedagogy ecosystem developed by its publishers. ‘The perfect study buddy’, this app tests learners’ knowledge and skills in all school subjects with a set of free questions, with more specific tests available as in-app purchases.

‘We’ve had more than 10 000 downloads and enjoy a 4.1 rating on the Playstore,’ says Micheal Goodman, group knowledge manager at Via Afrika. ‘In terms of impact […] teachers have shared the success they have had using it. One teacher in Mpumalanga actually used it as a formative assessment tool as his learners prepared for final exams.’

Via Afrika has the distinction of being the first educational publisher to make e-books available to schools in South Africa in 2011, with the first implementation of the national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement, a policy used in South African schools from Grade R to 12. ‘We then added four apps to this: Test-Urself; Living Pages, an augmented reality app that showed videos based on the images in a textbook [2014]; Bragstones, a creative app [2014]; and Tabtor Maths [2016]. Our e-books now have about 7.5% of the schools’ market across publishers. Test-Urself is the only remaining app. We have also launched an online teacher training academy for development of digital pedagogy.’

Stellenbosch-based non-profit the Reach Trust is an organisation whose sole focus is to improve education and employment outcomes using mobile technology. Finding Thabo is an interactive game that supports foundational early childhood development by using an already-ubiquitous platform: Facebook. Using the Messenger function, the play-based game uses images and prompts to ‘stimulate key parts of the brain, building foundations for lifelong learning’ and ‘[it] also encourages and empowers parents and caregivers to engage with their children in a meaningful way, paving the way for a parent-child (or caregiver-child) relationship that can nurture the physical, emotional and social development of the child’. The Reach Trust’s MathsUp app guides users through 10 weeks of maths per term.

Of course, we haven’t yet touched on the private-sector contributions from corporates such as MTN and Vodacom, which both offer comprehensive digital education resources.

Vodacom e-Learning offers – via an app or desktop site – free, easy-to-follow video lessons developed by expert teachers for Grades R to 12 (with free data for Vodacom network users), as well as revision questions and progress evaluations.

Similarly, MTN’s Online School (app and desktop) targets learners from Grade 10 to 12 with learning tools, also offering free data to MTN network users.

Even with myriad free digital resources available, it’s difficult to collect data – beyond the number of downloads – that might give an indication of their impact on education outcomes. This challenge in measuring digital impact reflects a broader reality across the continent.

In many ways, African governments are advancing steadily in their efforts to expand both the quality and accessibility of education.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, by 2030, the continent’s working-age population is projected to reach 600 million, driven by a generation that is more educated than ever before and increasingly shaping global labour markets. Yet this progress is still extremely limited, and the reality remains stark: while completion rates at primary, lower and upper secondary are increasing, they are doing so at a snail’s pace – less than 1% a year in North and sub-Saharan Africa.

A recent report on the Continental Education Strategy for Africa found that although 75 million more African children are enrolled in school today compared to 2015, the number of out-of-school children has increased to more than 100 million during the same period. ‘Even more alarming is the lack of improvement in the quality of education, whether measured in terms of basic infrastructure or learning outcomes. The average school student in Africa today is about as likely to have a qualified teacher and have access to basic facilities such as water and electricity as their peers from 10 years ago.’

Africa stands at a digital crossroads in education. Technology is, obviously, vital – but insufficient alone. The teachers, infrastructure and systems that support them must also evolve. For now, though, mobile apps remain the most efficient way to reach youth.

By Robyn Maclarty
Images: Gallo/Getty Images