THE innovative learning application designed by Maranatha Christian High School’s innovation team of learners to beat the effects of Covid-19 on learning beat the rest of the world and was voted number one at a global competition held on Tuesday.
At the world competitions, the Maranatha team, which represented Africa, came up against five other teams representing different regions, which also presented their own innovations.
But the judges were thoroughly impressed by how the Maranatha app makes education accessible to all and how it could potentially change lives of rural students and revolutionise the whole education system in light of conditions brought by diseases such as Covid-19.
The application, which is adaptable to any environment, saw the Maranatha Christian High School team walking away with US$15 000, plus a free entrepreneurship course at an institution of the team members’ choice.
The team, made up of four Upper Sixth learners, Tinovonga Sangonda (18), Blessing Bvunzawabaya (19), In’utu Mubiana (18) and Kudzai Katambarare (18), has since formed a company known as Hekima Inc, which will assist them push forward the app which simply requires a user to have an android device to easily access educational material.
The school’s innovation team was representing Africa at the world event after beating a number of fellow African students in innovation at the continental competitions held in Nigeria recently and moved to the African finals after winning the local competition and beating the rest of the Zimbabwean competitors.
The global entrepreneurship competitions, where the two boys and two girls excelled, were held virtually.
The team became the first from Africa to win the competition sponsored by Junior Achievement (JA) Global.
The other teams were from Greece (JA Europe), Ohio (JA US), UAE (INJAZ Al-Arab), Mexico (JA Americas), Guam (JA Asia Pacific) and Zimbabwe (JA Africa).
Other five teams’ works were not ranked, but each was given US$5 000 for reaching the world finals
Hekima Inc’s chief executive officer, Sangonda, described the competition as educational.
“It has been an exciting experience, though it had its fair share of challenges and obstacles, but it has been educational,” he said.
Bvunzawabaya was equally excited: “We are very happy and excited to be crowned champions and one of the things that I learnt towards our journey to the final competitions is team work.
“We managed to showcase what Africans can do on the global platform and it’s clear that there are so many hidden talents in Africa.”
The team is now working on establishing themselves as a fully-fledged business entity that can contribute to the economy.
“We are not going to share our money among ourselves, but we will use it to further develop our company by registering and marketing our app,” said Mubiana, who is the production director of the company.
Maranatha Christian High School head Mr Evermore Chakwizira said he was extremely proud of the team and implored other heads to create a conducive environment for innovation.
“Students have a lot that they can offer if we give them the space,” he said. “I just want to encourage my fellow heads to create a conducive environment in their schools so that students can express themselves through innovation.”
De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award recognises outstanding young entrepreneurs and seeks to equip senior secondary school level students with the entrepreneurial skills and mindset to solve problems in their communities by launching a business venture and unleashing their entrepreneurial spirit.
Mr Allen Chinhanhu, the executive director JA Zimbabwe, said he had confidence in the Maranatha team.
“We thought from the beginning that the innovation that the team showed was a very strong innovation,” he said. “I think winning the global competitions goes as proof to show that the innovation is what we thought it was.
“We will be there to support them in terms of any other business development.”
Maranatha innovation team scooped four regional awards in Nigeria at the African competitions last year that put them first, ahead of schools from eight other African countries, giving them a chance to represent Africa at the just-ended Ralph de la Vega Global Entrepreneurship Competition. – The Herald
