The Snapplify Foundation has worked with global edtech company Snapplify and leading South African academic publisher Juta to donate over 500 key e-textbooks to TSIBA Business School.

The business school, offering affordable undergraduate and postgraduate business qualifications to purpose-driven students, forms part of the TSIBA social enterprise, which aims to drive social change and take South Africa forward through world-class business education. 

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, TSIBA has had to think differently about how students and educators access the resources they need. 

Now, the higher education institution has received free copies of Juta’s top-quality e-textbooks, which users can access easily through Snapplify’s award-winning e-learning technology. The donation was made possible by the Snapplify Foundation, an NPO focused on making digital textbooks and e-learning solutions available for students and educational institutions that need them most. 

‘The Snapplify Foundation is looking to collaborate with partners across the broad education ecosystem in order to have a positive impact on education. Increasing access to ebooks is a crucial part of this, so we have been particularly pleased to work with Snapplify and Juta to make a real difference to an educational institution like TSIBA, which is already doing such important work,’ said the Snapplify Foundation’s Debra Ogilvie-Roodt. 

Acknowledging how the digital donation has given TSIBA students access to learning materials that they wouldn’t necessarily have been able to obtain otherwise, Philile Mabolloane, Juta’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: ‘For years, Juta has been proud to support TSIBA because we believe in the spirit of their mission to encourage transformation through education. The pandemic has made the delivery and use of physical books difficult, so we were delighted to be able to connect with the Snapplify Foundation and to be able to harness Snapplify’s technology to donate books digitally during this time.’ 

TSIBA’s Knowledge Curator Msimelelo Fana said, ‘We at TSIBA are very excited that Juta, Snapplify and the Snapplify Foundation have worked together to offer prescribed ebooks to our students and lecturing team. When we started teaching and learning online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to relook at our textbook offering, moving away from print to complement the online strategy. Our longstanding partner Juta came on board and Snapplify made the process of migration to ebooks seamless. We are indeed grateful for this milestone on our e-learning journey!’

The donation was facilitated by the recently established Snapplify Foundation, which aims to work locally with communities, government and the private sector, and globally with thought-leaders and the donor community, to build and manage interventions that help bridge the digital divide and increase access to education. 

Email hello@snapplifyfoundation.com to chat about how you can partner with the foundation to make digital education more accessible.