Ugandan startup Moquestions is building an online depository for exam papers, allowing students to access questions from learning institutions across the world via a subscription model.
The startup is compiling question papers from as many learning institutions as possible to offer students an online institutional question bank, and plans to monetise by charging for access and offering advertising to companies who wish to reach out to students.
Founder Philip Mwine told HumanIPO he wanted Moquestions to be a global depository of exam papers, offering students in less developed countries the material used by developed countries to evaluate their students in a bid to bridge the education gap.
“We plan to get the question papers from different learning institutions around the country and world at large. We are also planning to include tertiary institutions and learning boards,” he said.
“Currently we are starting with Uganda but later we hope to expand to cover East Africa, Africa and other parts of the world. The big idea is creating a one-stop online question bank for as many learning institutions around the world.”
Moquestions is currently self-funded, which Mwine says accounts for its limited growth thus far. However, though it is hosting the question papers themselves for free, he said students will be required to pay a subscription fee in order to access marking guides.
“We also plan to make the site subscription based, with categories that charge a specific amount of money for the material accessed,” he said. “For example, Bronze giving access to question papers and forum, Silver giving access to question papers, forum, marking guides, and Gold giving access to question papers, forum, marking guides and interactive videos.”
Mwine said the company would also sell advertising space to learning institutions, businesses and organisations interested in reaching out to students.
Aside from the financial aims, he said such a platform would also be of great assistance to Uganda’s education sector.
“The sector is rigid and still backward when it comes to exposing or sharing learning materials with other institutions, they have a mentality of this gives an upper hand to the competing schools and aids them to perform better than them,” he said.
“There is a big inequality gap between the good schools and the not-so-good schools. The best schools in the country can afford all the best learning material for their students and the latter can’t. Hence with Moquestions we hope to bridge the gap and get the learning material of the best schools to also be accessed easily by these other schools and students, therefore creating a rounded education for all students around the country.”
He said taking this online would simplify the access to these papers, as most learning institutions keep their papers in libraries, while simplifying the sharing of the information and providing on-the-go revision opportunities to students via their mobile phones.
“Technology is growing rapidly in every sector including the education sector. In Uganda currently half the learning institutions have computers and access to internet. This has enabled students to learn computer skills while at school and these skills will enable students to use the online website site,” Mwine said.
The startup is one of 50 semi-finalists for mobile startups event PIVOT East, which will be held in Nairobi on June 24 and 25, and is waiting to discover whether it has earned the chance to pitch at the event.
Mwine said he hoped to be selected for the final in order to learn from experts how to expand the startup, while he is also seeking investment and team members to allow it to grow.
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