Meet Insight Africa, Developer of StudyLab eLearning Platform for Secondary Schools

Insight Africa is one of few startups aiming to address learning deficiencies in Nigeria’s educational sector. Founded by Obi Brown in 2015, Insight Africa uses technology to improve the skills of secondary school students in STEM courses (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

“I decided to develop this company called Insight Africa that creates exceptional resources that helps students prepare for a career in science and technology,” Mr Obi says.

Educators who are hesitant to implement innovation usually fear it will add time and effort without bringing about meaningful change. To effectively utilize #edtech, schools must provide the resources and context for #teachers to buy-in. #ELearning https://t.co/0dRQd45zlB

— All Children Reading (@ReadingGCD) June 18, 2018

Its flagship product is the StudyLab service, an application that improves the proficiency of secondary school students in math and science. Originally developed as an offline solution, StudyLab is now accessible online.

The platform is an all in one elearning solutions and provides students with study guides. It also comes with practice questions to get them up to speed with subjects like Math, Physics, Biology and Chemistry.

“We know students spend a little bit of time in the classroom and more time outside practicing concepts,” he says. “We know that the more a student practices, the better he/she is able to understand and embed concepts.”

More students fail 9th than any other grade because struggling middle school students aren't prepared for the rigors of high school, especially in math and ELA. Find out how "double dosing" with the aid of #elearning helps: https://t.co/0YFH4osB99

— Apex Learning (@Apex_Learning) November 16, 2018

The belief is that students who fail a particular topic or subject are not dumb, but just need a little more practice to attain proficiency in that topic.

For every subject, the platform has developed specific study guides to ensure students grasp the maximum knowledge from these topics.

The software package is designed to improve students’ skill sets enough for them to be successful at exams like WAEC, GCE, NECO and JAMB.

So as you go from one problem to another, you are building your competencies in that subject area while learning, closing your knowledge gaps and understanding the wider application of these subjects.

StudyLabs also comes with video solutions explaining the various concepts and steps to answer questions.

Insight Africa is also working on another solution aimed at babies or kids younger than 8. The solution which is inspired by LEGO World is called Geometrocity. This is a learning toy that allows kids to build cities and learn how geometry works.

Funding and Growth Prospects For Insight Africa

So far, funding news about the startup is scanty. However, Insight Africa did scoop the Etisalat Prize for Innovation in 2015 and has also won the British Council Enterprise Award.

In addition, the startup recently participated in the 2018 Seedstars Lagos pitch contest.

However, beyond these, not much is known about the startups funding or even traction.

Nevertheless, Insight Africa is in a pretty interesting growth sector. With the educational sector of Nigeria being heavily underserved, its StudyLabs solution could well and truly become a viable player in that area.

But schools are beginning to have some sort of elearning system developed as part of their school management systems (for those who have one). Getting them to abandon these softwares and switch to the new StudyLab suite will be challenging.