The team at Archie is passionate about reaching young minds by boosting their confidence in themselves, and strengthening their educational experience through interactive, colourful, self-paced learning tools. They have spent years refining their content with experts in the fields of Maths and Science, to ensure this platform is enjoyed and easily accessible to the majority of our South African youth.
As part of our effort at Teacher’s Monthly to raise awareness of educational suppliers during lockdown, we decided to check in with Gavin Welsh, CEO of Ask Archie Education …
Tell us about your company’s history?
The Archie brand (known initially as Ask Archie) has been in operation since 2005. Our offering began as a High School Maths ‘teacher’s visual aid for revision’, for use primarily in the classroom. Our goal was to boost teacher and learner experience and interactivity.
In our early days, Archie was distributed via CD- Rom in partnership with a blue chip company in Gauteng to a network of schools. From there, we grew organically into a more robust offering: content now includes not only High School Maths Revision (CAPS) aligned content (Gr 8 – 12), but also Physical Science (Gr 10 – 12) and TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) Colleges Maths content.
Archie derives its name from one of the ancient world’s ‘Fathers of Mathematics’, Archimedes.
Tell us about your product range?
We have grown the brand to have a strong online presence for learners facing their nemesis subjects, especially before exam time. Maths Grade 8 and Grade 10 are the most important foundational grades to build a solid base; then Grades 9, 11 and 12 are excellent resources to consolidate knowledge, but also cover a vast quantity of work. Our subscription based platform affords users access to all subject grades for the duration of subscription, hence very effective for revision purposes allowing learners to go back to previous years’ work.
Our footprint in the TVET college sector (Department of Higher Education) is most substantial and worthy of mention, as we are in operation in 30+ campuses nationwide. As with our High School courses, content has been specifically aligned for TVET students. We offer NATED Mathematics 1- 3 as well as NCV Level 2 – 4 Mathematics.
TVET students forego traditional High School to enter these Technical and Vocational colleges in order to enter the job market in fields such as plumbing, quantity surveying and electrical work. Apart from being a student support platform, Archie is also recognised as a Lecturer support platform.
What is your price point for customers?
We do run bulk school promotions throughout the year, however our standard pricing point per user is R490 per year or R49 per month. Learners and teachers receive access to all 8 subject grades for this price. (Gr 8 – 12 Maths as well as Gr 10 – 12 Physical Science)
TVET campuses purchase the content through government budget allocation. Our resellers into the TVET market, Cape Book and College Suppliers, quote colleges as per the number of students and tailor make packages for the college.
Tell us about some of your top customers?
We have a strong online presence. Homeschoolers, private schools, as well as government schools and TVET college students use our program successfully. With regular usage, users achieve incredible improvements having used our platform.
I started my teaching way back in 1968. Yes, do the arithmetic.
If only Archie had been around way back then. Last year we purchased Archie and our students (57 of them) just loved the Mathematics and Science help. They were able to revise Grades 10, 11 and 12 Mathematics and Science.
The presentation, thoroughness, easy of understanding, examples and building up of fundamental concepts is brilliant.
– Rowan Hall, Edumap College
Do you provide product training for teachers?
We don’t have a teaching training program per se, but many teachers have subscribed and benefitted from the course material over the years. Landing on our learning platform is literally two clicks away for a teacher to access our content, making their job so much easier, especially in this current climate of enforced distance learning. Parents will also find our content useful now as they can really support their child with our facilitator-friendly style.
Is your product range relevant to the SA market?
Yes very much so, our content is in line with CAPS curriculum and is developed 100% by experienced South African educators.
Do you have any resources available during lockdown?
We have just adapted our courses for mobile phone usage and our app was released on 30 April 2020. We are aware that many learners are sharing devices and so we hope this contributes to making our product more accessible. Our learning software is also data efficient and operates with both Android and iOS.
What is at the top of your company’s wish-list?
Our goal is to ensure we elevate the pass marks for learners in Maths and Science throughout our nation. We know these subjects are vital springboards for the jobs of tomorrow. South Africa falls very low on the Maths and Science global ratings for matric passes. To contribute in fixing the devastating unemployment rate, now exasperated by COVID-19, Archie strives to get learners through Maths and Science by reinforcing their foundational knowledge of these subjects, thereby creating job opportunities when they pass in order to have a free and fair chance at attaining a job for our citizens is our supreme goal.
Where do you see your company in 5 years?
Our new Archie logo is of a left (green) and right (pink) brain. We will have more left brain content on offer in the coming months, such as assessment tools and video based lessons.
As part of a very exciting rollout in 2021, we are currently focusing on developing right brain content for the youth of South Africa, with a key market focus on children from our most disadvantaged communities. We believe a child learns in a holistic manner and we need to be teaching the ‘whole’ child. We learn best through play. Our brains need rest and lateral thinking as much as they need logical, practice style learning to achieve great results. Play Archie will incentivise young people to work hard, play hard. And we will have rewards for their achievements.
Visit Archie online.
