Dar es Salaam, July 23 -- WHEN Covid-19 disrupted learning across East Africa in 2020, millions of children were abruptly cut off from their classrooms. In Tanzania, the crisis highlighted a significant digital divide and exposed deep-seated challenges within the education system.

With physical schools shut down, families, educators and institutions quickly turned to technology in its simplest forms, from television lessons and mobile phone messaging to radio and YouTube. These solutions, though basic, kept learning alive and planted the seeds for a more connected future in education.

Tanzanias education system supports over 12 million students annually. Still, statistics are worrying, nearly 29 per cent of youths are not in education, ...