Two men from Gumbani village near Malamulele in Limpopo have developed a free educational app aimed at supporting learners and teachers, particularly in rural areas.

Malungelo Mathonsi and Khongelani Shibambu created the app, called Novar, which offers lessons in subjects such as Mathematics and Science. The app is freely accessible and designed to improve access to quality education regardless of a learner’s background or financial situation.

Mathonsi says the goal was to address educational challenges faced by learners in rural communities.

“I think the Novar app is a platform where all learners should have the same quality education. When we look at the education system in our villages, it’s so poor,” says Mathonsi, adding “We want every person, at the comfort of their home, to learn everywhere, anytime, regardless of their situation – whether you have money or you don’t have money.”

Shibambu explains some of the difficulties they encountered while developing the application.

“One of the biggest challenges we had to face when developing the platform was definitely the equipment and resources we’re actually having. Specifically, the computer that we were using – it was really outdated, it was super slow, and it would take so long to start running the programme, when we had to start coding and that made our job to be really made our job to be super super slow and to be really really challenging…”” says Shibambu.

He added, “The second thing has to be internet connection and electricity. It is so hard to do a job where you have to use the computer, the internet, and electricity, and everything is just super slow.”

Despite the setbacks, the developers hope Nova will continue to support learning and improve outcomes for rural learners across the country.

@shibambumarvel1my goal is to produce high quality level 7 learners. download the NOVAR app today♬ Shootout (Slowed + Reverb) – Izzamuzzic & Julien Marchal