The BBC has featured an online education platform created by Jamaica’s Gordon Swaby. The Edufocal platform turns school examinations into an online game. Swaby’s company hopes to make studying similar to a computer game in which students compete, with test results acting as high game scores. According to Swaby, Edufocal is designed to help children taking the yearly Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT). The game works like this: students start on Level One in all the subjects, and to move up to higher levels, they must provide correct answers to questions. Students can also win prizes like movie tickets, food vouchers, or mobile credit. Swaby says, “Jamaicans love to win stuff, they love incentives.” Swaby, 25, had launched video game website from his central Jamaican home during his teen years. With Edufocal, he has four full-time employees and two part-time employees. Teachers in Jamaica are paid to write the content for the platform. Through a subscription, students get access to 23,000 exams in the core subjects covered by the GSAT, including languages, arts, science, mathematics, social studies, and communication. If parents subscribe to the Sunday Observer, students can access Edufocal via an access code provided in its Career and Education magazine each week. Swaby is actively seeking new markets, among them Barbados, Ghana, and Trinidad and Tobago as those countries use a curriculum similar to Jamaica.

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