Elevating SA with digital education

‘I often joke

that with my mother being a secondary school principal, and the fact that I grew up with teachers all around me, meant that I was sure I would never go into education. However, here I am – in a life that revolves around education,’ says Dr Varady. ‘For many, education is a priceless investment whose parents spend their lives struggling to provide, and my parents were no exception to that rule. As a young boy, my father was a refugee, and it was an education that enabled him to achieve everything he has today.

‘The privilege that I have known since I was born was a result of the hard work and education of my parents. So we have a mission at IDEA to take on this struggle and assist students with their education. We may not be able to reach everyone as meaningfully as we want, but the IDEA team and I are working on our bit of making the world a more equal place.’

Today, Dr Varady oversees a growing team of educational curriculum designers, animators and coders. He strongly believes that in the 21st century, given our global access to technology, that the quality of a child’s education should not be limited by socioeconomic background.

‘I cut my teeth in education building brick-and-mortar school facilities. While doing so, I soon realised that while building physical schools obviously has its place in the world of education, it also presented limitations because those buildings are not easily scalable to meet the needs of growing communities.

I also realised that the key challenges faced by the global education community were not about buildings or increasing attendance rates, but rather about the quality of the education provided in our schools; and whether or not we are aiming for student achievement or simply box-ticking.’

IDEA was created in 2014 to deliver core foundational education to groups of students and teachers of any size and provide access to learning that everyone wants, while also paying close attention to the

‘education is the only investment that, once made, can never be removed or taken away’