With two million educators, Nigeria has been a hub of educators around the globe. The educators of Nigeria have been helping populations across the globe to learn various new things. According to reports, more than fifty million people are being helped by these educators. Last autumn, Facebook announced that it was opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria. This office became the first office of the continent to be packed with engineers who have now launched its very first product known as Sabee. In the Nigerian language, Sabee means ‘to know’ and as the name of the product suggests it is an education-focused mobile app.
Facebook Research and Development Team Develops Sabee
The internal Research and Development team of Facebook is testing Sabee, an educational mobile app to provide education solutions. The app is designed with an objective to connect the learners and educators who are present in the different online communities with educational opportunities which can benefit both the educator and the learner. Further, it will make it easier for the educators of Nigeria to connect with the students.
Currently, Sabee is undergoing Alpha testing with less than 100 testers who have signed a non-disclosure agreement with Facebook. Recently, the app was also made public in Google Play Store but it failed to earn any rank in the different charts. Sabee is now available to only the testers and hopefully, it will be launched by the end of the year. Facebook wants to help the Nigerian learners the most with its launch.
What will Sabee do?
Sabee will help the educators to provide a contact-less service to the students. Currently, the education space is seeing a massive digital revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the offline classes into online ones too and even the little kids are learning how to use the devices and internet for online lessons. Sabee will try to ensure that education is made available for everyone. With internet connectivity which is as low as 2G, the Sabee app will work in a fully functional manner. Many Nigerian entrepreneurs are addressing the old-age problem of education in the country with their tech start-ups. Currently, Nigeria houses 210 education-focused start-ups.
Further, it has been noted that Nigeria consists of 50 million learners but the number of educators present in it is merely 2 million. By launching Sabee, Facebook is hoping to build a community of educators to ensure that education is made available to all. It should also be noted that the huge disparity that exists between educators and learners also affects women and girls and Sabee is trying to fix that issue too. Further, it would look into ways through which the groups which have been marginalized by technology can be served better. This is the reason why it becomes important that Sabee is functional with internet connectivity as low as 2G.
Launching Sabee is a strategic move
According to data, launching Sabee is a part of a larger strategic move by Facebook. It is expected that by 2030, a huge majority of the population will live in the urban centres and further, the population of Nigeria will also increase. Portals like Banglarbhumi can be used to check such landholding and different documents attached to it. Therefore, it becomes of utmost importance to create connections in these regions and Facebook has realized that much of its future growth will be derived from the African demographic.
The education system of Nigeria needs immediate help
Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, The Minister of State, Education has recently revealed that Nigeria consists of the highest number of out-of-school dropouts in Africa. Currently, the country consists of 10,193,918 children dropouts. The main problems cited for it are poor funding, inadequate qualified teachers and infrastructural facilities. To improve the education sector, the Nigerian government recently launched Better Education Service Delivery For All which will focus on improving the education infrastructure in 17 states of Nigeria. Such education programs are prevalent in many other countries including India which has created a portal named Shala Darpan that allows the parents to keep an eye on the progress of their children in Rajasthan.
Hopefully, the Sabee app will help Nigeria to improve its education sector to create a brighter future for its children.
