The experiences of teachers in Africa differ greatly from those of their European counterparts. However, if there is one consensus, it is the substantial workload. From Nigeria to the United States, teachers are burdened with planning lesson notes, creating and grading quizzes, tests, and assignments, giving feedback, and classroom administration.
This workload is often intensified by the fact that many countries, primarily in Africa, have one teacher managing up to 30 students. For example, in Nigerian primary schools, there is an average of 35 students to 1 teacher. In Rwanda, the student-to-teacher ratio is as high as 59 students to 1 teacher.
This shortage of teachers not only increases classroom sizes but also magnifies the amount of preparation and grading each teacher must handle. Faced with these pressures, many have turned to artificial intelligence for support.
Although AI is experiencing slow adoption in African classrooms, many teachers worldwide rely on multiple tools to plan lesson notes, create test questions, and grade.
However, Akinwumi Fakokunde, Founder, Notegrade.ai, believes teachers shouldn’t have to bounce between AI tools to manage their classrooms.
Fakokunde, who used to work as a teaching assistant, tells Techpoint Africa that teachers often spend up to 20 hours preparing for a one-hour class.
Additionally, when it comes to grading, they have to grade about 250 students, give individual feedback, and, in many cases, are expected to release results a week after exams.
Given his experience, he felt equipped to solve a problem he had seen cross borders. With his software engineering background, he worked on the platform from idea to development, integrating all the individual aspects of a teacher’s job into one tool.
How Notegrade.ai works
Notegrade.ai presents itself as an all-in-one AI teaching assistant designed to help educators save hours on planning and grading. Essentially, it reduces teachers’ workload, allowing them to focus on teaching.
Teachers can begin by using AI to create teaching materials. The platform can generate structured lesson plans, lecture outlines, and student study materials for any subject or curriculum. From the same workspace, they can also build quizzes and assessments to match their lesson goals.
When students submit assignments and tests, Notegrade.ai grades the tests instantly using the parameters the teachers have set. It also supports plagiarism detection and AI-writing analysis.
If a school uses a learning platform, Notegrade.ai offers seamless LMS integration, including direct export to major systems like Canvas, Google Classroom, and Moodle. This makes it easier to move content and results into the tools schools already rely on.
The model for revenue generation
The product, which is primarily being marketed to teachers, students, and governments, currently runs a freemium model. The lowest account is a free account with limited features, followed by a Starter (Lite) plan for $6.34 monthly, and a Pro plan for $11.42 monthly.
Fakokunde adds that for inclusivity, those in Africa and Asia can have access to the platform at a discounted rate.
“We have global access for teachers in these regions because it might be very expensive for them to pay the rates. If they apply for global access, they can use the tool at a cheaper price.”
Every user who signs up to the platform gets 25 credits regardless of their plan, which they can use to create content. Every content generated uses up one credit. Users also get five free credits monthly.
Fakokunde explains that the company, which includes a team of four people who are currently not being paid, has relied on family and friends up until now. However, there is a plan to raise external capital soon.
Offering what competitors do not
Fakokunde admits that Notegrade.ai is not the first tool attempting to reduce the workload of teachers, but he adds that “most of the tools focus on grading, because grading is the most difficult task for teachers.”
Tools like CoGrader, Mindgrasp, and Gradescope focus solely on helping teachers grade assessments. But Notegrade.ai is different because it focuses on four pain points: lesson notes, quizzes, assignments, and grading.
“On our tool, we have a plagiarism detector and feedback. Students can also use the platform to review their assignments before submission. It tells them what they have done right, the areas they need to improve, and can predict their score based on the rubric.”
However, Notegrade.ai has a bigger competitor in tools like TeachMateAI — which claims to be used by 351,000 educators — and Eduaide. These platforms offer services similar to Notegrade.ai and have been in the market for much longer.
Taking a slice of the market
The company operates globally and has onboarded 56 users on the platform, many of whom are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.
While a majority of the users on the platform are individual sign-ups, Fakokunde notes that they are currently exploring a partnership with Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) in England, the combined authority for five unitary authorities: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar, and Cleveland.
“There are about 28,000 teachers in the Tees Valley region, so we are hoping that they can push our tool to the councils under their jurisdiction, and onboard all the teachers on it.”
Notegrade.ai addresses a significant issue in the global education sector, but it is entering a market with many competitors.
The company’s success will rely heavily on how well it can market its tool to markets where many of its competitors do not operate, like Africa and Asia.
However, Fakokunde tells Techpoint Africa that his biggest challenge has been marketing the product across several markets.
He light-heartedly says, “The only thing I need now is sales and marketing. When it comes to tech, I am okay, but I am not a marketer.”
