Teesas, an African Edtech start-up that is delivering educational content via web and mobile applications, has signed Nollywood actress Mercy Johnson-Okojie as its first brand ambassador to assist in the organisation’s objective of deepening learning among Nigerian children.
The focus of the Edtech is to assist the country increase learning at the primary level through the education App and bridge quality education gap among classes of Nigerians and Mercy Johnson-Okojie’s role as a mother who is also passionate about education, is to influence traction to the App and engage the children. Her contract is for initial two years.
Osayi Izedonmwen, the founder and chief executive officer of Teesas explained to BusinessDay recently that Teesas is a new educational app focused on teaching children aged 2 – 12 years core subjects including Maths, Sciences and Literacy through engaging tutor-led videos and e-books in English, as well as educational content in major Nigerian languages namely; Bini, Hausa, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Yoruba, and Tiv with plans to include French soon.
The initiative, he said is to fix a major foundational gap in Nigeria and Africa which is access to quality education. “Access to quality education in Africa is expensive and what we have done with Teesas is to bring very best tutors from top schools, all across Nigeria to our studios, they work with us to create engaging videos. We animate those videos and deliver them through our App, the mobile App and Web version.
Read also: NSIA impacts Nigerians with education through Bridge Academies
“Even if a child does not have a device or tablet, so far there is a computer, or any device that has internet access, they can access our App”, he said. According to Unicef, there are 13.2 million children out of school in Nigeria, making it the highest in the world, and Teesas believed that the education app can bridge this gap by allowing children access to education.
He said children can learn different languages through the App as he said this is initiative schools and government can key in.
Teesas also has a companion app for parents called the Teesas Parents that provides personalized content recommendations and real-time feedback on their child’s performance.
He further explained that adults seeking to learn their mother tongue (local languages) would also find the app useful. The Edtech firm believes that it can create a great synergy with the brand ambassador to promote these features.
Expressing delight at the signing ceremony, the actress said: “Our strength is in our diversity and it is important that our Nigerian children are made aware of this and get integrated into various aspects of our culture. This partnership is also important to me because of the educational value Teesas provides and the incorporation of the Montessori system. More importantly, it is tailor-made for Nigerians at home and in the diaspora.”
Teesas app, according to the company can be downloaded on the Google Playstore and offers three subscription options: N3,000 monthly, N8,100 quarterly and N27,000 yearly.
