SabiThe free AI tutor children reach by phone call
/sah-bee/ — "to know" in Nigerian Pidgin
A child dials a number and gets foundational reading and maths in five-minute spoken lessons. No smartphone. No internet. No cost.
The Learning Crisis
Children go to school for a decade and come out unable to read.
98M
Children out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa
7 in 10
Nigerian 10-year-olds who cannot read a single sentence
16%
Of planned learning that actually happens in schools
The Answer Is Already in Their Pocket
600 million people in Africa have no internet. But 70% have a mobile phone. In Lagos, 95% of households have one. 2G coverage is 99%.
What if we used the infrastructure that already exists?
How Sabi Works
A child dials a phone number. Sabi does the rest.
Child calls the number
Works on any phone — even a $5 feature phone. No app, no data, no account needed.
Sabi greets them by name
New callers introduce themselves once. Returning callers are recognized instantly.
A lesson begins
Sabi teaches at the child's actual level using scenarios they know — market transactions, Naira, everyday Lagos life.
5-7 minutes, one concept
Short, focused calls. Gets harder when the child is ready. Slows down when they struggle.
Child calls back tomorrow
Sabi remembers everything — their name, their level, their mistakes. Picks up exactly where they left off.
A Real Sabi Conversation
The Science Behind Sabi
Every design choice is backed by research from Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Madagascar, and global RCTs.
9x
Market math vs. abstract math
Children solved comparable subtraction tasks 9x more often in market framing than in formal school format (48.5% vs 5.4%).
1.5-2 years
Learning gains in 6 weeks
World Bank RCT in Nigeria: AI tutoring delivered 1.5-2 years of learning gains in just 6 weeks.
7% → 45%
Reading with no teachers
In Tanzania, children given only tablets went from 7% to 45% reading ability in 15 months — without any teachers.
$0.50-5
Per student per year
10-100x cheaper than any alternative. At $2/student, reaching 100,000 children costs $200,000/year.
Built for the Last Mile
Any Phone
Works on a $5 feature phone. No smartphone, no internet, no app download. Just a phone call.
Persistent Memory
Sabi remembers every child — their name, their level, their mistakes. Picks up where they left off.
Completely Free
Toll-free calls. No subscription. No paywall. Sponsored by Education for Equality, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
For developers & organizations
Build on the Sabi voice API — or fund a cohort
The same African-accent voice pipeline behind Sabi, rentable per minute. Speech-to-text, LLM, and Nigerian voice in one call — from $0.06/min, 1,000 minutes free every month.
Common questions about Sabi
- What is Sabi?
- Sabi is a free AI tutor that a child reaches by calling an ordinary phone number. It teaches foundational reading and maths in short spoken lessons, with no smartphone, no internet, and no data cost to the family. Sabi is built by Education for Equality, a nonprofit.
- What does the name Sabi mean?
- Sabi is pronounced /sah-bee/ and means "to know" in Nigerian Pidgin.
- How does Sabi work?
- A child dials the number. Sabi greets them by name — new callers introduce themselves once, returning callers are recognised instantly — then teaches one concept in a focused five to seven minute lesson, using scenarios the child knows such as market transactions and Naira. Sabi gets harder when the child is ready and slows down when they struggle, and remembers where they left off for the next call.
- Do you need internet or a smartphone to use Sabi?
- No. Sabi runs entirely over a voice call, so it works on a five-dollar feature phone with 2G coverage. There is no app to download, no data to buy, and no account to create.
- How much does Sabi cost?
- Sabi is free for families. Calls are toll-free and there is no subscription or paywall. Developers and organisations can license the same African-accent voice pipeline from $0.06 per minute, with 1,000 minutes free every month.
- Where does Sabi operate?
- Sabi is built for Nigeria and the wider African continent. A Lagos pilot is planned for Q4 2026 with 100 to 500 students in high-burden local government areas.
- Who built Sabi?
- Sabi is built by Education for Equality, a nonprofit founded by Naomi Ivie. Its work has been recognised by the MIT Sloan Africa Business Challenge, the Wesleyan New Venture Awards, the UNICEF AI Ventures Accelerator, and Schmidt Futures x Rhodes Trust Rise for the World.
Try Sabi Right Now
We're not building another education app that sits in an app store. We're building something a mother hears about at church, dials after dinner, and hands to her child for five minutes.