Zah'Ai: Offline-Capable AI Learning Tool for Girls in Madagascar's Pilot Lycées

A study conducted between February and April 2025 examined the factors shaping Malagasy girls' access to, persistence in, and success within science, technology and digital fields, finding that in 2020 girls made up only 17% of Mathematics and Computer Science enrolments at the University of Antananarivo's Faculty of Sciences, versus 63% at the Faculty of Letters, a gap the study attributes to gender stereotypes, sexist practices in families and schools, and access barriers in rural and disadvantaged areas.

Building on those findings, Madagascar's Ministry of National Education presented 'Zah'Ai' at an 18 August 2026 workshop in Anosy: a tool accessible by phone, tablet or computer, usable with or without an internet connection, offering artificial-intelligence resources and self-directed learning content for students in Seconde and Premiere (grades 11-12) and their teachers.

The tool is being piloted in lycees in the Analamanga, Amoron'i Mania and Diana regions.

Both L'Express de Madagascar and AllAfrica reported the same workshop, study findings and pilot scope, and neither source reports post-pilot learning outcomes, so the evidence here covers programme design, offline accessibility and the documented gender-gap baseline rather than measured results.