TMCnet News
New Tech to Bolster Mathematics and Science Learning(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MICROSOFT in partnership with the Ministry of Communications, Science, Technology and Tigo Tanzania, have officially launched an innovative mobile education service called Nokia Mobile Mathematics. Nokia Mobile Mathematics is a service that enables learners across Tanzania to access quality mathematics content in an engaging and interactive manner directly from their mobile phones, completely free. Deputy Permanent Secretary to the ministry of Communication, Science and Technology, Mr John Mngodo urged learners to use the opportunity and take advantage of it, raise interest and ambitions in Mathematics and science subjects. "My message to teachers is, while you lead the learners to follow through their career and encourage them to use ICT as an enabler in the learning process," he said in Dar es Salaam at the launch of Nokia Mobile Mathematics in Tanzania for the first time in history. He noted that the government will make sure it leverages the project to be sustainable and scalable for responding to educational demand and effective public-private partnership in order to support rapid national wide development of learning solutions with low maintenance costs. Mr Mngodo said since this is the first Mathematics service to be introduced to Tanzanians schools it gives possibility for learners to get additional help for their studies outside classroom and outside school through a mobile device. "In many developing countries, the lack of engaging learning opportunities leads to high drop outs and failure rates in schools, especially in high school grades. According to the East Africa Communications Manager Mobile Devices Microsoft, Ms Lilian Nganda, the mobile mathematics offers high quality learning opportunities and reliable interactive learning features for teachers and learners, thus increasing access to high quality education. Mobile Mathematics was first launched in South Africa for grade 10 - 12 learners. The content has now been localised by the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) and will be rolled out in select schools for form I to IV students, as well as other users nationwide. It is Tigo's desire to contribute to improving education and knowledge transfer by enabling students all over the country to improve their maths for free," commented Tigo General Manager, Diego Gutierrez. Research data collected from South Africa indicates that learners' competence levels improved by 14 per cent compared to learners who were not using Mobile Mathematics. Additional statistics point out that 53 per cent of students became more active users of the service, with 82 per cent of the usage happening outside school hours. The Mobile Mathematics service is available at https://momaths.nokia.com/tz Copyright Tanzania Daily News. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |