When we attended the mEducation Symposium in Washington in October 2022, we didn't imagine that we would meet now partner, Storyworld, let alone go on to be a coveted Tools Competition Winner (2023) or deliver a dynamic literacy system.

Where it all began

The annual mEducation Symposium is renowned for bringing together thousands of like-minded people from across the globe who all share a passion to change the educational landscape.

Both sQuid and Storyworld have vast experience in delivering literacy tools to help young learners improve and develop their literacy and basic education skills. Bringing this combined experience together allows us to co-design and deliver a truley engaging platform.

R.E.A.L. learning for REAL results

We are proud to introduce you to R.E.A.L - Real-time Early Assessment of Literacy is designed to help close literacy gaps in children by way of a digital assessment, based on the E.G.R.A (Early Grade Reading Assessment) used in Kenya. The key difference here is that this is an aural-oral assessment is completed digitally using a tablet instead of traditional written test. Students simply listen to the questions and orally provide their answers. Their recordings are then submitted for analysis.

This has already proven to have 3 key benefits:

1. The simple interface of the platform means that students can complegte the assessment without teacher supervision
2. The assessment takes under 12 minutes to complete - reducing exam stress for students
3. Students find the platform so engaging that they ask to take the test again!

Dr Chilala, Director of the Examinations Council in Zambia said "I welcome this initiative and hope we can go further with digital tools in assessing true literacy amongst students."

Trials of R.E.A.L are currently underway in Luksaka, Zambia, Oakland in the USA and Kathmandu in Nepal. Early feedback from the schools reveal that students are engaged and really enjoying using the platform. We are excitedly awaiting the initial results, and can't wait to share these with you in anogther update soon, so stay tuned!