Three years ago, Alexandra Lütz, 14, felt the need to help students who were impacted by the Covid-19 lockdown. While some schools continued with online classes, many schools didn’t have access to this platform. This is when she started sharing videos of mathematics classes with pupils who were keen to learn. Since then, Alexandra has grown her small idea into a growing online platform, called Milani Education.
Alexandra, now 17, lives in Hillcrest and is in Grade 12 at St John’s Diocesan School for Girls in Pietermaritzburg. After getting permission from her headmaster and teachers, she downloaded the lessons she was learning from at the time and uploaded links and files to a Google Drive folder.
“The lessons were sourced from St John’s D.S.G. and Maritzburg College,” she said. “Some of the lessons are downloaded from these schools’ or teachers’ YouTube channels or collected from the teachers directly. Many schools are moving towards online learning methods and due to lockdown, there are an abundance of online learning resources which were created during that time.”
Alexandra said the inequality in the country’s educational system was highlighted during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as most pupils had no access to online resources or learning. Those who already had a low quality of education were then missing weeks and then months of important learning time. This gap in their learning, she said, impacted the pupils’ marks and chances of studying further or getting a job. Through this she learned there is a great need for an open source learning platform suited to South African pupils.
“Milani Education is an online platform which shares existing learning material from great schools in the country. Soon we will have Thomas More College mathematics resources as well as other partnering schools. It refines the content into the South African curriculum and makes these resources available to students at no cost – they will need to buy data to access the online classes. These resources take the form of videos of teachers teaching a lesson, PowerPoint presentations and testing material too. The material is all moderated carefully to ensure only high-quality lessons and content are made available to students. The platform is easy to use and reliable to learn from,” said Alexandra.
The platform is designed for grades 8 to 12 – but any person wanting to learn has free access to these resources. At present, Milani Education offers grade 10 to 12 mathematics and is in the process of uploading grade 8 and 9 mathematics. They are also gathering content for English home language and English first additional language which will be added on the platform.
“The platform serves as a supplementary learning tool which helps students revise their school work and look over topics which they may not understand fully. The website allows students to virtually sit in the classroom of world-class teachers who may have different methods and styles of teaching that are more suited to the learner,” she said.
“The videos also allow students to pause and rewind lessons, they can learn at their own pace. At present, there is no communication on the platform, so learners only have access to material which has been screened and moderated. This is for the protection of the learners and eliminates any false advice or inappropriate information between the teacher and student.”
Alexandra is passionate about business and enjoys mathematics and statistics. She wants to study data science or economics at Stellenbosch University next year.
At the launch of Milani Education earlier this year, sponsor Llyod Mika, said he heard about Alexandra’s idea from her parents Sven and Judy Lütz. He said he was overwhelmed with all the work she had put into getting the education programme started.
“Her motivation and self-belief are inspiring, and I helped her financially to get the project going. We need more people like Alex in South Africa – to educate everybody and anybody, especially the disadvantaged.” said Mr Mika.
The Milani Education website can be accessed at www.milanieducation.com and by clicking on “Our Subjects” you can enrol in a course and start learning the subject once you have logged in.