Turn.io Selects Four Education Innovators to Scale AI-Powered Learning Across Africa and India
Across Africa and India, educators, governments, and communities are working to strengthen foundational reading and numeracy so every child can reach their full potential. Yet up to 70% of children in low- and middle-income countries are not acquiring basic reading and math skills by age 10. Today, Turn.io, with support from the Gates Foundation, announces the four organisations selected for the Chat for Learning & AI Accelerator - a six-month programme designed to strengthen and scale locally led education solutions using AI-powered chat on WhatsApp.
Rather than sourcing new innovations, the programme focuses on what’s already working, and helps it work even better and scale significantly through stronger pedagogy, frontier AI integration, and embedded measurement. Frontier AI, including large language models that can personalise feedback, assess learning, and deliver coaching in local languages, is central to what makes this programme distinct from traditional EdTech support.
“These four organisations are already doing remarkable work reaching teachers, caregivers, and children in some of the most under-resourced settings in the world. What excites us most is the evidence we’ll generate together - proof that when AI and chat are designed thoughtfully, they can genuinely shift learning outcomes at scale. That’s what it takes to move from promising innovation to system-level change.” Gustav Praekelt, Co-Founder, Turn.io
Over six months, each organisation will move through multiple cycles of design, testing, and refinement, building stronger, more scalable chat-based learning models backed by real-world data. They’ll receive hands-on, practical support and access to technology designed to enhance pedagogy and evidence of learning impact.
Following a competitive application process, the following four organisations have been selected for their proven reach, clear learning goals aligned with national priorities, and strong potential to influence system-level change across the Global South:
South Africa (Literacy & Teacher & Caregiver Support)
Funda Wande is a South African non-profit organisation dedicated to ensuring every child can read for meaning and calculate with confidence by the end of Grade 3, working in partnership with government to deliver evidence-based teaching materials and teacher development at scale.
The Challenge: Most South African children do not learn to read for meaning in their first three years of school, and without this core skill, they fall further and further behind. A key reason is that Foundation Phase teachers were never taught how to teach reading, particularly in African languages, despite more than 70% of learners being taught in one.
Funda Wande is developing a reading initiative to deliver structured, evidence-based support to teachers and caregivers at scale, with plans for national rollout across South Africa in 2026.
Sub-Saharan Africa (Teacher Support)
Amal Labs develops responsible education technology designed to transform how classrooms teach and learn. By investing in locally grounded, scalable solutions, Amal Labs equips teachers with interactive tools that make personalised learning practical, even in low-connectivity environments.
Today, over 5,000 teachers use Amal Labs’ platforms to reach more than 200,000 K–12 students. With an evidence-based approach supported by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Ayaat Stiftung, and Metis Collective, it brings personalised learning into everyday classroom practice.
The Challenge: By 2050, Africa is projected to be home to one in three of the world’s young people. Yet, millions of teachers across Sub-Saharan Africa still face a shortage of high-quality, contextually relevant educational materials, particularly in rural areas with limited digital infrastructure. Amal Labs is building AI technology that enables teachers to create high-quality, contextually relevant educational content, unlocking the creator economy and helping improve outcomes for more than 100 million students.
Senegal (Multilingual Education & Teacher Coaching)
ARED, a Senegalese NGO and pioneer in promoting bilingual education in Senegal’s national languages, IDinsight, a global advisory, data analytics, and research non-profit and the Senegal Ministry of Education, are developing an AI-assisted WhatsApp tool to provide pedagogical support to teachers navigating a new multilingual education reform.
The Challenge:
To improve literacy and numeracy, Senegal is transitioning from a French-only curriculum to a structured bilingual model that integrates national languages (like Wolof and Pulaar) in early grades.
While research supports this shift, it also increases the demands on teachers, many of whom were primarily trained in French and have received only brief preparation to teach core subjects in national languages.
To bridge this gap, this WhatsApp-based support tool is designed to provide teachers with real-time assistance, including: translation and pronunciation checks, lesson plan (“fiche”) preparation in Wolof, Pulaar, and French, and ongoing professional guidance to build instructional confidence.
India - Expanding to Africa (AI Reading Assessment)
Wadhwani AI Global (WAIG) is a mission-driven AI-for-social-good organisation. Its AI Reading Coach and Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) suite has delivered more than 11 million EGRA-style assessments (Early Grade Reading Assessments) in Indian government schools, and is now expanding to Africa with local partners.
The Challenge: Reading fluently is a key early-grade skill, yet many students in low- and middle-income countries fall behind because teachers lack the tools to routinely assess and address individual learning gaps. Through Wadhwani AI, students share read-aloud voice notes via WhatsApp; teachers instantly receive ORF scores, learning-gap insights, and targeted remediation tips - making accurate, scalable reading assessment accessible even where teachers lack the time or tools to run routine assessments.
The Chat for Learning & AI cohort will begin their six-month journey in early 2026, working alongside Turn.io’s team of experts and the wider Gates Foundation and Anthropic teams.
At the end of the programme, each organisation will showcase its results to peer education organisations, potential funders, policymakers, and implementation partners, positioning their solutions for further scaling and system-level adoption.
