Insights for Education from a Bakery, Hospital, and Netflix | Jana Du Plooy | TEDxStellenbosch ED - Video

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In this thought-provoking talk, Jana du Plooy explores the urgent need to rethink how we approach education. Through the stories of a bakery, a hospital, and Netflix, Jana challenges the conventional model of education, where teachers perform every role in the classroom—from lesson planning to grading—regardless of their years of experience. This inefficiency, she argues, stifles innovation and limits the impact teachers can have.

Drawing parallels to the specialised roles in hospitals and the scalable model of Netflix, Jana envisions an educational system where teachers focus on what they do best: teaching. By adopting technology and reimagining classroom structures, she shows how we can drastically reduce the cost of education while improving quality and accessibility.

Jana’s talk is not just a critique of the current system but a call to action. She offers a blueprint for how we can radically redesign education to meet the needs of all learners, especially in under-resourced areas.

The moral of the story? To give our children the education they deserve, we must be willing to rethink the traditional system and embrace new, innovative models. Jana is the Founding CEO of Apex Education, an organisation that aims to make high-quality education accessible to children from low-income communities. Apex Education exists to challenge the relationship between quality education and cost, specifically by reimagining the century-old (unchanged) design of the classroom, redefining the critical role of the teacher and deploying technology to enhance children’s learning experiences.
Jana has spent more than a decade working in the social sector, in various industries, organisations, and roles. She holds LLB (law) and MBA (cum laude) degrees from the University of Stellenbosch and is an HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech 2024 Fellow. As a hopeless disruptor, driven by an insatiably curious nature, she finds the opportunity to work on humanity’s biggest challenges highly rewarding, humbling and deeply meaningful. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx