Berlin-founded Edtech social enterprise EIDU is transitioning to an open-source model. By unlocking its proprietary source code and making it freely available to and modifiable by third parties, EIDU aims to maximise collaborative development and ensure sustainable usage.

Founded in 2015 by tech-founder Bernd Roggendorf, EIDU partners with governments in  low– and middle-income countries (LMICs) to sustainably and affordably digitise public education systems. 

Backed by partners including Google.org and Founders Pledge, EIDU provides a tech-enabled, human-centred platform for learners, teachers and government officials.

EIDU partners with content providers like onebillion, Anton, and Tayari, and uses a ‘train the trainers’ model to equip educators with the skills to deliver quality education in resource-limited settings. Its offline-first design ensures device usability with no or limited internet connectivity, and the platform’s iterative approach, driven by real-time learning and usage data, enables continual improvement of education systems.

Its entire platform consists of several apps and server components, ensuring easy reusability of all open-sourced code. The platform is designed to integrate into daily school timetables, offering digital personalised learning for learners, lesson plans for teachers, and tools for training and coaching teachers at scale. 

It supports governments in the efficient and transparent management of thousands of schools, provides advanced real-time learning analytics and more. EIDU works on low-cost mobile devices and was developed to work in environments with little or no internet.

The move is part of EIDU’s broader strategy to enhance learning outcomes globally. In high-income countries, 90 per cent of children can read by the age of 10, whilst in low-income countries only 10 per cent of children can. 

By opening its platform, EIDU hopes to enable governments to dramatically increase learning outcomes, with a particular focus on low- LMICs.

Bernd Roggendorf, founder and CTO of EIDU, commented: 

“Open-sourcing our platform is an obvious choice because a global standard for digital education cannot be closed-source. 

This initiative reflects our commitment to elevating global learning standards. This is not just a tech upgrade—it’s a game-changer for accessible education. As we roll out our open-source strategy, we’re excited to continue refining our solution and sparking vital conversations on tackling the global learning crisis.”

As of today, EIDU’s platform seamlessly integrates into the daily routines of over 350,000 learners across 6,000 public schools in Kenya, with independent and rigorous studies showing an increase in learning outcomes to an additional 0.8 years of learning, placing EIDU among the top 10% of learning interventions in terms of impact in low– and middle-income countries.

Lead image: EIDU. Photo: Jim Gramming