I thought some programmers in Naija would be interested in this. You never know if any of you have the solution.

The organizers of X Prize have just announced their newest target: global education. For this new contest, each team must "develop open-source and scalable software that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing, and arithmetic," by two years from now.

X Prize competitions put forth multi-million-dollar prizes to encourage teams of engineers, designers, and dreamers to take on the big problems. Previous competitions have challenged their teams to build high-efficiency gas vehicles, personal spaceflight, and Star Trek-style medical tricorders. For the Global Learning X Prize, the foundation is offering $10 million for the winner and $1 million each for five runners-up.

In the announcement, X Prize CEO Peter Diamandis optimistically draws parallels between the promises this new contest holds for revolutionizing global education and how, a decade ago, the Ansari XPRIZE catalyzed the field of commercial spaceflight. "We will never build enough schools or train enough teachers to meet demand," Diamandis says, but the software developed during the competition will bring "quality learning experiences to children no matter where they live."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/x-prize-global-education-17234664?click=pm_latest



Website


http://learning.xprize.org/