Major mobile phone company Nokia and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) on Friday jointly launched the Nokia Mobile Mathematics (MoMaths) service for South African pupils and teachers. The service is aimed at Grades 10, 11 and 12, the last three grades in South African high schools.

“From today, this is generally available,” stated Nokia VP South and East Africa Gerard Brandjes. “Previously, in the pilot phase, it was available in particular schools in particular provinces. We have proved that this adds value to learners. We need to make sure we get the true benefit to all learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12.”

The new service is accessible via any cellphone, tablet, laptop or desktop without first having to download an app. Only a short sign-up process is required. Local mobile phone networks Cell C and MTN have zero-rated access to MoMaths, meaning that pupils do not have to pay anything to make use of it. Nokia is in talks with other networks, to do the same.

While the original pilot was Mxit-based, the service is now browser-based. It gives access to theories, hints and more than 10 000 exercises of different levels of complexity. It allows pupils to cooperate with each other, compare their results and get help on making progress. Teachers are able to get a better understanding of their pupils’ abilities and improvements.

The project was started in 2009 and initially involved 260 Grade 10 pupils in three provinces – Gauteng, North West and Western Cape. The pilot programme was subsequently expanded to embrace 150 schools with 14 000 pupils as active users of the service. So far, they have completed more than 4-million exercises. Among the active users of MoMaths, mathematics competence increased by 14% in comparison to non-users. Furthermore, 69% of teachers actively used the service. Interestingly, 82% of the utilisation of MoMaths happened outside school hours.

“This is one of many different initiatives we have across South Africa in particular and Africa in general,” explained Brandjes. “This is the culmination of one of our cooperative programmes with the DST. Typically, we focus on education, where we feel that mobile [telephony technology] can add value and is scaleable.”

“This partnership will grow much further,” affirmed DST Director: ICT Services Industry Jeanette Morwane. “We are happy working with Nokia to show how ICT [information and communications technology] can improve education in South Africa.” She noted that the DST currently had three partnerships with multinational corporations in the ICT sector, of which Nokia was one. “We promote the partnerships with multinational corporations.” A major reason for this was to highlight local capabilities and encourage these companies to do research in South Africa.