Non-profit edtech organization Solve Education! announced that it has marked a milestone of impacting 1,000 beneficiaries across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand through educational programs. This achievement was supported by the Lenovo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Lenovo. Both organizations aim to ramp up efforts to improve the accessibility of education to underserved populations in the Asia Pacific.
Sharing a mission of bridging the digital divide, Solve Education! and the Lenovo Foundation teamed up in 2020 to advance education amongst underprivileged youths and students in the region. Solve Education! develops applications combining curriculum with gameplay. Its proprietary city-building game, Dawn of Civilization, includes a series of tasks participants must complete within each chapter to earn reward points. These platforms deliver English language, Numeracy, and essential life skill lessons, catered toward equipping students with the requisite elementary skillsets.
Game-based learning has a demonstrated capability in keeping students engaged during lessons, which is vital, especially during study-from-home lockdown periods and the advent of hybrid learning. With education technology, learning can be fun and interactive for students, no matter where they are. Enabling youths to gain easier access to technology, Lenovo plays an important role by supporting the digitization of educational materials and providing devices like PCs and tablets for students to use.
To date, over 20,000 students have benefited from the program in India. In 2021, the program was extended to six other markets – India, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, and is slated to benefit more than 4,000 youths in the coming months.
“Children and youth do not have access to education because they face issues such as gender inequality and marginalisation. They often find themselves on the edge of the education system and do not benefit from learning, which is vital to their intellectual and social development. This also creates a slack in the labour market and contributes to high rates of youth unemployment” said Janine Teo, CEO and co-founder of Solve Education. “We are proud to partner with Lenovo Foundation who share the same mission of empowering under-represented populations with access to technology and STEM education.”
As the workforce returns to offices, Lenovo is working with Solve Education! in Malaysia and Indonesia to introduce mentoring programmes for students. This includes job shadowing and visits to corporate offices to offer students a glimpse into the STEM careers they can aspire to.
Since August 2021, Lenovo has embarked on an environmental, social, and governance journey with a goal to impact 15 million beneficiaries and transform the lives of 1 million people by 2025.
“The agenda of driving greater inclusion and literacy has taken on added significance during the pandemic, which has exacerbated inequalities amongst the have-nots and vulnerable segments of societies. Aiming towards the program’s goal of impacting 15 million beneficiaries globally by 2025, we are excited to continue our collaboration with Solve Education! on new projects to bring about a positive difference in the places we live in and narrow the digital inclusion gap,” said Pratima Harite, Head of Philanthropy, Lenovo Asia Pacific.
