African ed-tech incubator and accelerator Injini will host the fifth edition of South African EdTech Week in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, with the event moving to Gauteng for the first time.
Founded in 2017, Injini, which is a member of the UVU Africa Group, is a registered non-profit company that exists for the sole purpose of improving educational outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its programmes and research via the Injini Think Tank contribute towards its mission to increase the quality, accessibility, and relevance of education in the region. It announced its latest cohort earlier this year. The two-day South African EdTech Week event takes place at Focus Rooms in Sandton, Johannesburg, on October 12-13, under the theme “Reclaiming the Classroom: EdTech as a Tool for Teacher Empowerment”.
Organisers say this year’s edition moves past familiar debates about devices and connectivity. Instead, it focuses on a persistent gap – digital tools are increasingly present in African schools but rarely part of daily teaching. When technology arrives as an administrative add-on or a top-down mandate, it can add to the workload of teachers who are already stretched.“It’s not because teachers don’t want to learn,” said Nonku Nyathi, partnerships and ecosystem head at Injini.
“It’s because few people have figured out how to demonstrate that these tools actually make teaching easier or save time.”A highlight of the first day will be a showcase of the 10 startups in the fourth cohort of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, run by Injini. The ventures focus on accessibility and inclusion. Their solutions range from AI-powered tools that cut teacher marking time by up to 80 per cent to offline coding games and assistive platforms for learners with special educational needs.
“Technology can only transform learning when it is designed with educators, strengthens their agency, and responds to the realities of the classroom,” said Wariko Waita, director of the Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning at the Mastercard Foundation.