Learning Equality

Learning Equality

Offline Squared

Kolibri brings project-based STEM learning and AI teacher coaching to middle grades classrooms with no internet

La Jolla, California

United States

Nonprofit

Getting children to read and count is not enough. The sector has made remarkable progress on foundational learning. Validated models exist, evidence is strong, governments are adopting. But almost every proven edtech intervention stops at grades 3–5. The children who graduate into middle grades in low-resource contexts face a different reality. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 1 in 10 students reaches minimum proficiency in reading by the end of primary school, meaning they arrive at grade 5 already behind, in classrooms where learners are years apart in learning levels. Their teachers are subject specialists who often go months between formal training sessions, and 2 in 5 do not meet national qualification requirements. Every major edtech intervention has stopped at grade 4. The middle grades are the sector's most consequential blind spot: no validated edtech model exists for what comes next. These are also the years that determine everything. Middle grades are critical for learners to develop the core skills of AI literacy: agency, inquiry, and critical thinking. For learners in low-resource contexts, access to this kind of education determines whether AI reshapes the world with them or without them.

Offline Squared is a teacher support and student learning solution for under-resourced middle grades classrooms, built on two layers. The first is a project-based STEM curriculum for grades 5–8, delivered through Kolibri, our open-source, offline-first platform reaching millions of learners across 195 countries. In practice: a teacher opens Kolibri on a shared device and leads students through a short STEM video or exercise. Then the class moves off-device: students work in groups on a structured project tied to a real community problem, using lesson plans designed for large classes and wide variation in starting points. Completed projects are shared as student portfolios, making learning visible and persistent for the first time. The second layer is a WhatsApp-based AI coaching tool. Teachers in small, under-resourced schools often have no subject-area peers and go months between formal training sessions. The tool delivers personalized, just-in-time instructional prompts and reflective questions via WhatsApp, meeting teachers on the networks they already use, between lessons, in the moments when support matters most. Together, Kolibri structures what happens in low-resourced classrooms through project-based learning; the WhatsApp tool sustains teacher practice between sessions.

Offline Squared serves two populations whose needs are inseparable: middle grades learners and their teachers in low-resource government schools, primarily in East Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Most of these students arrive at grade 5 already behind, in classrooms spanning multiple learning levels, with no validated learning model designed for them. The edtech interventions that exist stop at grades 3–5. For girls especially, middle grades are where the system loses them. These are also the years that determine whether a child develops the critical thinking, inquiry, and creative problem-solving that constitute AI literacy. Their teachers are equally underserved. Subject specialists in small schools often do not have peers to reflect with, and go months between formal training sessions. When external support disappears, even good programs erode. Two in five teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa do not meet national qualification requirements, not because they lack dedication, but because the system has never built the ongoing support structures they need. Offline Squared meets both where they are: students through structured, community-grounded project work that builds academic learning, agency and problem solving skills; teachers through on-device support and WhatsApp-based coaching that sustains practice between sessions.