About us

The evolution of our company

Our history

  • 2002

    Knowledge should be freely accessible

    The Free High School Science Texts project begins publishing Open Educational Resources (OER) as a group of students get together with the conviction that they need to share their knowledge, for free. With the collective power of volunteer collaboration, the project produces open textbooks for Gr 10-12 Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, allowing teachers and learners to print or share them digitally.

  • 2007

    A project with an open mission

    Off the back of the FHSST work, Siyavula is born as a fellowship project within the Shuttleworth Foundation, with the aim of making openly licensed content available for all grades and subjects within South Africa. The government prints and distributes millions of the open textbooks to all learners in the country. Siyavula goes on to produce additional open content in Gr 4-9 and refines the collaborative authoring process, volunteer contribution and unique content production pipelines.

  • 2012

    Transition to a technology company

    With help from the Shuttleworth Foundation and PSG Group Limited, Siyavula Education is spun out as a company in pursuit of long term sustainability and stability. The focus is on building an integrated learning experience, drawing on the benefits of open content and adaptive practice for mastery in Maths and Science.

  • 2014

    Further expansion and reach

    With an investment from the Silicon Valley-based group, Siyavula becomes part of the Omidyar Network. The company turns its attention to expanding into international markets bringing Siyavula Practice to the world.