Jamaican innovator Gordon Swaby is ready to take his Web-based e-learning app to Trinidad and Tobago after it has already led students in Jamaica to great academic success.
The app is called Edufocal and it gives students a less structured but still effective way to study so that learning can seem more fun.
Edufocal has already been a major success with Jamaican students at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) levels.
Swaby believes that the app has already been responsible for many students excelling on their Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).
The test is Jamaica’s national high school entrance examination and a major milestone for students in grade school.
“Four out of five GSAT students were placed in their school of choice and all scored in the 90s,” Swaby told The Guardian. “Our top five CSEC students also received all their passes.”
More than 3,500 students have already used the virtual program and now Swaby is taking it to Trinidad and Tobago.
Swaby was recently in Trinidad and Tobago as a Jamaican delegate for the eighth Americas Competitiveness Forum in Port-of-Spain, The Guardian reported.
The program costs $15 a month per student or $42 for a three-month subscription.
While the virtual program is not free, it certainly seems to be quite effective and even allows students and parents to track their progress online.
“Students and parents can track their progress on Edufocal,” Swaby told The Guardian. “You can see the areas that you are lacking in, you can see the areas that you are progressing in. How much time you are spending on the program and the areas that you are spending the time on.”
It’s hard to believe that there is an app that can truly be effective while also making education fun, but if anyone were to accomplish such a feat it would be Swaby.
When he was only 15, Swaby created one of the largest gaming sites in the English-speaking Caribbean and was recognized as the top student entrepreneur by the University of Technology in 2012.
He was also a Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ) 50 under 50 awardee, according to The Guardian.