Education boon for African students
Elernity, the education subsidiary of NetDragon Websoft Inc, has signed an education initiative with the Nigerian government, as part of its broader efforts to help students from across Africa access high-quality education through its cutting-edge technologies.
Under the Initiative of Digital Education in Africa or IDEA, NetDragon will help Nigeria to build an education system covering primary education, lifelong learning and education in the future.
The company will leverage its technological competitiveness and introduce some cutting-edge technologies including virtual reality and augmented reality to offer African kids an immersive learning process.
The move came as data from UNESCO showed that Nigeria has more than 10 million children out of school, making it one of the highest in the world.
“There is a global education resource imbalance, not only in terms of investment in hardware but also soft resources allocation,” said Liu Dejian, founder and chairman of the board at NetDragon.
“The IDEA concept aims to allow students across Africa to benefit from the wisdom of a Chinese internet company and to provide technology-enhanced education to more children,” he added.
Elernity, founded in 2010, was established to help NetDragon tap into the education sector and transform the parent from a games-only player to a games-and-education firm.
Over the past years, Elernity has developed and launched a string of integrated education- al devices including smart boards, panels, and feedback and evaluation systems. These mainly help teachers to educate and interact with students more efficiently.
Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon, said that the program also aims to meet the United Nation’s Sustainability and Development Goals, to “promote inclusive, quality education and lifelong learning for all”.
This is in accordance with the company’s goal “to leverage the power of the internet to improve education, by combining superior educational resources with advanced information technologies”.
Elernity has already offered its services in nearly 100 countries and regions including the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Turkey, and has a strong presence in some economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative such as Russia.
It has acquired 100 percent stakes in firms such as London-listed Promethean, which specializes in combining hardware and software solutions and has a presence in more than 100 countries and regions and in 1.3 million classrooms globally.
The company, which is based in Fuzhou, Fujian province, also signed a collaborative agreement with the Nigerian government to build smart classrooms as part of the N-Power Junior Smart Classroom Project.
Through the project, Elernity will bring one of its key products Edmodo to the smart classroom. It will also donate a smart classroom in Abuja, capital of Nigeria.
Following the visit and program in Nigeria, Elernity along with its parent company NetDragon will also sign a memorandum of understanding with Kenya.
“A large number of foreign economies are showing a strong desire to improve their education quality and efficiency,” said Xiong Li in an earlier interview with China Daily.
“We’ll continue to bolster our businesses in foreign markets, especially some BRI ones, this year, to improve the quality of education in different countries and regions,” he added.
The IDEA concept aims to allow students across Africa to benefit from the wisdom of a Chinese internet company and to provide technology-enhanced education to more children.”
Liu Dejian,