Ethiopian Ed-tech Startup Gets Early Traction Offering Customizable Teaching Websites

A year-old Ethiopian startup is finding success in navigating the historically challenging ed-tech industry through a portal that allows the creation of customized digital learning centers. Addisastemari has racked up around 8 thousand students attending courses from 19 clients. The platform which translates to “new teacher” in Amharic accommodates full-fledged private schools, individual teachers, and other educators offering online courses.

Fasil Menale, founder and CEO of the Company, says he was inspired by a desire to help teachers make extra income outside of their regular work. He recalls feeling like a simple, intuitive digital portal would allow Ethiopian teachers to significantly increase their income.

“Teachers earn barely enough wages despite the value they offer,” Fasil told Shega.

After teasing the idea on Facebook, the feedback from teachers further enticed the software engineering graduate to focus on developing the platform. Following a few months of development to build a minimum viable product, the Company started giving training sessions.

Fasil says around 400 teachers received training through six rounds on how to tailor educational content for the online space.  While many teachers quickly picked up on the lessons, getting them to film content was not so straightforward. Finding a place to shoot, editing, and getting a camera was not economically feasible for most teachers.

“We have now built a full-fledged studio,” Fasil says.

The Company charges annual fees for the privilege of using the Platform which offers comprehensive course toolkits and teacher course assignment features. While language schools proliferate the platform popular online news reporters like Brook News have also begun offering content strategy, marketing, and editing courses.

Despite access to quality education remaining out of reach for millions of Ethiopian children, digital innovations in education technology tools have yet to seal the gap. A recent edtech ecosystem assessment by Reach for Change, a social enterprise incubator focused on improving youth and children’s lives, highlights access to finance as a major challenge for edtech enterprises in Ethiopia. Only 7% of the surveyed 65 startups had investments above 3 million birr while around 65% had allocated less than 500,000 birr. As traditional education mediums face challenges amid incidences of political instability in parts of Ethiopia, digital alternatives offer a possible respite. Recent reports suggest that nearly 60% of school-age children in a single regional state were not attending classes.

Addisastemari’s CEO believes that as the general adoption of technology increases across Ethiopia, online education will become the norm. The ability to cater courses to the evolving tendencies of students through digital tools enables teachers to bridge the education gap and gain extra income, according to the Founder. The Platform has also begun selling books in PDF formats after continued requests from authors.