EduFocal Limited started a tradition… a tradition where each year the Team will worship at a church to mark the start of another school year and another year of success for the Company, with God’s blessings of course.
On September 22, 2019, the EduFocal Team shared in the worship service of Gregory Park Baptist Church. We thank Rev. Karl Henlin and his Church Family for agreeing to host us… and what wonderful hosts they were! From the Praise and Worship to the Preaching.
Oh yes! We were indeed blessed by the preaching of Sis. Dorrett Campbell, an Educator and, clearly, an excellent Preacher! We were truly blessed by the message – the message of Nineveh and Jonah and the similarities highlighted between the happenings of that time in Nineveh and the happenings of now in Jamaica. We were charged not to run away, not to retreat like Jonah but to stand firm to the call of God and missions and to ensure we do the good works of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our CEO, Gordon Swaby, in his Greetings recognized and prayed for the Grade 6 Teacher of St Richard’s Primary School who was recently mauled by dogs. We continue to pray for her speedy and full recovery. In closing, he offered to gift 1 student of the Gregory Park Baptist Church with 1-year free access on the EduFocal platform. The congregation was also invited to share in a cake, courtesy of EduFocal.
EduFocal Limited (LEARN) Acquires Assets of American K1 Edtech SaaS Company
EduFocal Limited (LEARN) has acquired the website and assets of https://cleverschoolteacher.com, a Denver based edtech company that provides Monthly curated K-1 resources and Live on-line professional development sessions for K1 Teachers in the United States of America.
The acquisition, which is being financed by the company, will be immediately accretive to earnings.
Gordon Swaby, Chief Executive Officer commented: “Acquisitions and new markets are high on our agenda as a primary driver of top and bottom line growth.”
The acquisition of Clever School Teacher gives us immediate presence in the USA on day one, access to hard currency and to opportunities at the often overlooked early childhood level, both in Jamaica, the region and obviously the USA.”
Marc Gayle, the lead consultant that drove the deal, added: “CST demonstrates the vast surface area of opportunities for EduFocal. Education has many niches, including teachers, not just students. Teachers need resources for lesson planning.” The transaction was structured through a new subsidiary, with Ramsay & Partners advising.
The CEO went on to add: “We are looking forward to growing an already very profitable company even more in the short term which will benefit our shareholders and a fast-growing number of users”.
2019 – The Year in Review
It is almost the end of 2019 and It has been an exciting Journey for EduFocal. After a year of transition, growth, relationship building and faith, EduFocal has managed to remain on top while living and expanding our mantra “Making Learning FUN” with the merge of technology and education.
With the implementation of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) which replaces the Grade Six Achievement Test, the company had a lot of work to do during this transitional period. Ideally, PEP assess students’ knowledge, in addition to, placing increased emphasis on assessing students’ demonstration of the 21st-century skills, for eg. critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. As such, the EduFocal Platform was revamped and in no time #PEPREADY to make learning fun with the new exams in town. Did we mention that EduFocal Limited is approved and endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information? Yes, that was a big step for EduFocal in order to contribute to higher and better quality education in Jamaica. EduFocal in all spheres embodies goal number 4 of the UNDP Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. QUALITY EDUCATION. Though PEP is new, EduFocal has and still is putting in the work to ensure that our platform can change lives while introducing new strategies to learning outside of the classroom.
In ending 2019, EduFocal closes the year with over 100% increase in staff count. EduFocal is on to something greater than ever before. The company exited its birthplace, and now occupies a new space where ideas unfold and memories are being created. As the team settles in their new space, EduFocal has crafted and designed how the EduFocal work culture should be. Why not be utmost comfortable while getting work done, maximizing on one’s skills and most of all MAKING EDUFOCAL A GREAT PLACE TO WORK.
The year 2020 is fast approaching and more than ever, EduFocal is excited to continue on its path of success and being a game-changer. In the meantime, The EduFocal Team would like to wish all our stakeholders – students, parents, principals, sponsors, partner schools, Members of Parliament – A Merry Christmas and an amazing New Year!
– Tia Facey, Office Adminstrator
EduFocal helps Allman Town Primary with Paper-less Exams
Allman Town Primary School in collaboration with EduFocal, will have paper-less end of term examinations this December. The institution has been one of EduFocal’s partner schools since October this year and will be the first school to utilize the system for formal examinations. Principal, Mrs. Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith has been very excited about EduFocal since the initial introduction and is anxious to implement it in her school’s end-of-term examinations for Grades 2, 4 and 5.
Teachers on our system will benefit tremendously from this new method of testing as EduFocal will save them the time of printing, administering, collecting and marking tests and then collating grades. Using our system, EduFocal does most of that work for teachers while also generating a detailed report card.
Creating Tests
Teachers are able to create tests easily on our site. EduFocal allows them to create new questions and place them on their tests or add questions from our extensive question catalog. These are multiple choice questions that would similarly be present on a regular test paper.
EduFocal also allows teachers to add their own specifications like the time and duration of the tests, number of attempts and the amount of points they desire to be allotted to each question.
Instant Grade Generation
Once students complete tests, EduFocal’s powerful system will instantly mark and grade each paper. This, you can imagine, does work for the teacher that would normally take hours or even days to do, instantly. This drastically cuts back on the time taken to mark and return grades.
Report Card
A detailed report card with students’ performance in each subject is also generated after tests are completed. Teachers and parents/guardians are able to evaluate each students’ strong and weak areas under each sub-topic in each subject. This type of detailed reporting will no doubt assist teachers to target what needs to be revisited to ultimately improve student performance in the long and short term.
This feature of EduFocal being used by Allman Town Primary School, ties in with our goal to partner with schools in revolutionizing the classroom by opening doors for technology to aid in the performance of teachers and students alike. This new form of testing brings together the quality of traditional education and a new form of testing that meets this technology driven generation right where they are.
We are confident this will reap good rewards for students and teachers at Allman Town Primary School.
FEATURED: Jada-Marie Brown
“When I started grade 6, I disliked Science very much. I started to use EduFocal as part of my GSAT preparations,especially for Science. I noticed that my interest and knowledge of this subject grew more and more each day as I utilized the resources that were made available to me. After using EduFocal, Science became like second nature. I am now a more rounded student, having a better understanding of all my subject areas.”
“It’s my hope that Jamaica will become a better place. I would like to see us export more and import less so that we can reduce our debts. Also, I would like to see more programs like EduFocal being introduced to assist students to prepare for exams so that they can perform better in school and not turn to crime. This will help to lower our crime rate. I would also like the government to improve our road not just in tourist areas but in rural and urban residential areas. In addition to this, I would like for there to be more job opportunities for persons to become gainfully employed. Finally, I would like us as a country to take greater pride in our surroundings and reduce pollution by property disposing of garbage and waste.”
FEATURED: Matthew Chambers
FEATURED: Jo-Anna Martinez
Comparing Learning in the 21st Century: EduFocal vs Traditional Learning
In the age of mobile devices and the Internet, the way children learn and interact is changing. Learning is becoming more of a personalised experience and EduFocal is innovating to serve this new generation. Check out this infographic to see how EduFocal compares to traditional learning!
Gamification: A Tool for Lifelong Learning
Hardly any child wants to go through the mundane task of studying. On our first visit to a school participating in the Government’s Tablets in Schools Programme, a child ran up to us and showed us his tablet. He had been watching a video on Youtube. Similarly, when a child has your smart device the first question asked is, “What games/videos do you have on your phone/tablet?” Children want to play games. They just want to have fun. And many times children have been conditioned to think that learning and school is a chore.
Gamification is the foundation on which EduFocal is built. Some may have less of an appreciation for it but what makes gamified experiences successful lies in how people are motivated. Gamification works by providing not only extrinsic motivation but intrinsic as well. Extrinisic motivation comes in the form of rewards, levels, leaderboards and rankings while intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, drives behaviours that result in enjoyment, positive feelings and happiness. These are often thought of as polar opposites but both are linked as extrinsic motivation can drive intrinsic.
- Relatedness: social status, connections, belonging.
- Autonomy: creativity, choice, freedom, responsibility
- Mastery: learning, personal development, levels
- Purpose: altruism, meaning, a reason why
More New Features (Question reporting and new profile page)!
Hello, EduFocal Users.
We’re always striving to improve the EduFocal experience for you! We’ve heard your requests and we’ve brought them to life!
We’re bringing you two new features! Now, test takers have the ability to report any question that has a problem – whether it’s an incorrect answer, lack of relevant image or anything else – you can tell us about it and we’ll fix it! Just click on the ‘Report Question’ button beside the question you want to report.
Then you would select the error from a list of options. If the error isn’t listed, you can tell us about it in your own words.
Also new to EduFocal is our new and improved Profile page. We now use bright expressive colours to show students’ progress on their subjects. The subjects are displayed in an easy to read chart. If you hover the mouse over any section of the chart, you can see what subject it represents and the points the student has with that subject!
We’re very excited to bring you these new features! Go check them out now and tell us what you think!
EduFocal Team worships at Gregory Park Baptist Church – September 22, 2019
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