Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Nokia South Africa
Research suggests the MoMaths programme can improved the maths score average by 14 percentage points. Photograph: Themba Hadebe/AP
Research suggests the MoMaths programme can improved the maths score average by 14 percentage points. Photograph: Themba Hadebe/AP

Nokia uses mobile e-learning to align social and business objectives

This article is more than 11 years old
Web-based MoMaths service aims to plug learning gap in pupils from low-income households and create new business opportunities in Africa

When it comes to mathematical basics, "MoMathematicians" are not only clued up but plugged in. For those not in the loop, "mo" is for mobile and linking the mobile to maths was the bright idea of Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia.

Mobile phones are the "laptops of Africa", explains Riitta Vänskä, senior manager of Nokia's mobile and learning solutions team. "Via this service, we believe we can give low-income learners access to high-quality education." Today, high school pupils across South Africa are learning theory and solving sums on their handsets as a result.

Education for all?

MoMaths is pitched as contributing towards the United Nations Education for All commitment. In sub-Saharan Africa, there's a long way to go. Nearly one in four children do not attend primary school, marking a major barrier to development.

Nokia has developed a wide-ranging set of maths problems that can be accessed and answered via internet-enabled mobile phones. It's maths with a difference though. This isn't just a digital blackboard. Nokia has integrated dynamic graphics and games into the service and because it's all web-based, pupils can also compare their performance scores and usage time against their peers.

The service, which kicked off in 2008, is proving popular. Last year, 8,000 South African high-school students racked up a total of 2.5m exercises. Interestingly, 82% of this activity took place after school or during the holidays.

Where resources are stretched, MoMaths can also help educators fill the gap, Vänskä says, and research by Nokia shows that students' average maths scores improve by an average of 14 percentage points when using the programme.

A developed programme

MoMaths isn't a ready-made solution dreamed up in Helsinki and deposited in Africa, insists Vänskä, but was developed through "very tight co-operation" with South African educationalists, ensuring its relevance to the local setting.

Another distinguishing feature is scale. Standard education programmes require huge investment in teacher training, school infrastructure, classroom materials, and so on. "The beauty with this is that you can actually reach a massive amount of students with a minimal incremental cost", says Jussi Hinkkanen, vice president for corporate relations in Middle East and Africa.

Lack of coverage and high line costs are however two obvious barriers. Hinkkanen bats off both. Web-enabled connectivity is available in most of South Africa, he says. The fee for line usage is waived as well, thanks to a tie-in with local operators such as MTN and Cell C.

Even so, the e-learner needs a handset and the $20-$30 (£12-£18) price tag for a basic model can be prohibitive, Hinkkanen concedes. Especially for MoMaths' target audience, typically from low-income communities in rural and peripheral urban areas.

Donating recycled phones is a possible way around the problem but Nokia is hesitant. Africa is already the world's "graveyard for PCs", with all the associated e-waste problems and Hinkkanen fears the same future for phones. Instead, he's banking on the aspirations of African society. "They are all about buying ... and showing off ... mobile phones play an important part in that."

New frontiers of phone use

An obvious argument exists for the macro benefits of education and the business rationale for Nokia – better maths skills create a more competitive workforce, generating employability and promoting entrepreneurship.

But the idea focuses around the uptake of internet-enabled phones. Nokia has set itself a target of helping connect the next billion mobile phone users and it recently expanded its Nokia Life service portfolio with a host of new web apps.

Young people feature highly in its marketing plans but it's low-income youth that Nokia are especially interested in. The new frontiers for mobile phone companies are in developing markets. Hinkkanen is upfront about MoMaths' role here. "This sort of programme helps us in improving our understanding [of] how we can potentially introduce a service like this into the commercial space", he states. That understanding will only increase as Nokia rolls out the initiative to markets such as Tanzania, Senegal and Nigeria in the near future.

Governments need persuading too. African policy makers are yet to be sold on the use of mobile technology in the delivery of public services. A "flagship initiative" such as MoMaths can begin to change such thinking. Again, the potential commercial benefits for a phone manufacturer are self-evident.

That Nokia should be tying its social investments into its business objectives does not negate the educational value of MoMaths. Balancing the two interests – public and commercial – is not easy. It demands just the right formula. One for the next MoMaths test sheet perhaps.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed