Rising Academies’ chatbot tutors reach 150,000+ students across Sub-Saharan Africa with Claude

Working with communities across Sub-Saharan Africa, Rising Academies has developed two mobile-based educational tools using Claude: Rori, a virtual math tutor for students, and Tari, a newly launched support system for teachers. These tools complement existing educational systems by providing additional learning resources through widely-used mobile platforms.

With these tools, Rising Academies has:

• Already reached over 150,000 students, with a large number of students using Rori across Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda.
• Achieved a 0.3 standard deviation effect size in learning outcomes, equivalent to accelerating a year's worth of learning
• Provided teachers with 24/7 access to curriculum support and subject matter expertise

Creating accessible education solutions through widely available mobile technology

Rising Academies was founded in Sierra Leone in 2014. The organization aims to improve learning outcomes in the places that need it most using a unique blend of high-tech and low-tech learning solutions. They are already working with 1,000 schools across Africa, supporting more than 300,000 students through their programs. From this experience, they recognized that in most educationally disadvantaged regions, many learners progress through the curriculum without mastering critical skills, creating knowledge gaps that compound over time.

"When students learn in large classes, they often receive minimal individual attention," explains Owen Henkel, Product Manager at Rising Academies. "This creates situations where learners encounter increasingly complex material before mastering fundamentals—like attempting college chemistry without the necessary background knowledge."

In recent years, Rising Academies has developed tools leveraging basic smartphones and WhatsApp, noting that conventional edtech solutions requiring laptops and reliable high-speed internet reach less than 5% of students in their service regions. “This approach meets families where they are, using technology that's already integrated into their daily lives while superpowering it with AI, and what’s best is that it can sustain the test of time,” says Shabnam Aggarwal, Chief Technology Officer at Rising Academies.

How Claude supports personalized learning and teacher development

Rising Academies has built two educational tools that utilize Claude; Rori for students, and Tari for teachers.

Rori is a student-facing math tutor that uses a mix of pre-written lesson plans and dynamically generated conversations to help students learn mathematics. Claude helps students by

• Intelligent answer interpretation: Claude evaluates open-ended responses, recognizing correct answers despite varied formatting. This approach accommodates diverse ways students express their thoughts and solutions, making the learning experience more effective than traditional multiple choice formats.
• Smart question handling: When students ask off-topic questions, Claude uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to maintain appropriate and educational interactions, redirecting the conversation back to learning objectives.
• Soft skill development: Claude powers discussions about learning mindset, normalizing mistakes in the learning process, and supporting goal-setting. The system incorporates strict safety guardrails specifically designed to protect young users throughout these interactions.

Tari is a teacher support tool where almost all the interactions are powered by Claude:

• Proactively initiates conversations with teachers about lesson planning
• Offers private subject knowledge support without risking teachers' professional standing
• Maintains conversations across multiple messages, checking in when users don't respond
• Provides an AI-native experience with 95% of interactions through Claude

Both platforms use WhatsApp to reach users on basic smartphones without requiring downloads or banking access. "WhatsApp is the main communication platform in Sub-Saharan Africa," explains Henkel. "Many phone users can't access app stores without credit cards or formal banking."

“Across many regions where we work, people typically purchase mobile data in small amounts—perhaps one gigabyte for a dollar,” notes Henkel. “Text conversations use significantly less data than video, making this solution more cost-effective and accessible for everyone”.

Improving educational outcomes for students and teachers

Rising’s Claude-supported solutions impact regional education. School-based studies by researchers from the University of Oxford and JPAL show Rori producing a 0.3 standard deviation effect in math learning—accelerating progress beyond a typical school year.

For students, Rori delivers learning tailored to actual ability rather than nominal grade level for students. Henkel says, "There's robust evidence that teaching students at their current level, with practice opportunities and immediate feedback, is highly effective. It's one of the few approaches that consistently works." This approach builds confidence as students progress at their own pace.

Teachers find Tari valuable as a professional development tool. The platform provides confidential support for strengthening content knowledge and preparing lessons, creating a judgment-free space for educators to explore concepts and enhance their teaching effectiveness.

Rising Academies expands access to educational resources through technology already in use. The text-based format ensures affordability for users with pay-as-you-go data plans, where video content would be cost-prohibitive.

Building toward an AI-enhanced educational future

Rising Academies is expanding Rori to more countries while developing open-ended lessons beyond their core curriculum. Henkel says his vision includes group chats where "Rori is one member in a conversation with multiple students."

Future innovations aim to break down barriers. Voice interfaces will eliminate reading constraints. Support for indigenous languages and visual classroom analysis (uploading photos of classroom activity) will bring expert teaching guidance to remote areas. "The teacher could speak in their native language but receive answers in English," explains Henkel, creating more linguistically inclusive educational experiences.

By leveraging the simple smartphones already in people's hands, Rising Academies is proving that transformative education doesn't require expensive infrastructure or cutting-edge devices on the front-end. Their success across Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates a powerful truth: when innovation meets accessibility, we can build educational bridges that reach every learner, no matter where they are. With each student who masters a new concept through Rori, and each teacher who gains confidence through Tari, Rising Academies is turning this vision of inclusive, quality education from an aspiration into reality.