Disrupting SA education: High school from home and get into Harvard, Stanford, Oxford

In early 2017, the Robert and Sam Paddock pocketed R1.8bn when selling their Cape-headquartered online education business Getsmarter.co.za to Nasdaq listed 2U. Getsmarter has relationships with the world's great universities, offering its global student base access to MIT, Harvard and Oxford degrees through online studies. Having served their obligatory earn-out period and after a short break, the Paddock brothers are back in the startup mix, this time with the Valenture Institute, which offers a massively disruptive option to traditional High School education. Like Gersmarter, leverages technology to offer students remote access to top quality education. At R60 000 a year, the cost compares favourably with leading private schools in SA - with the significant advantage of delivering a qualification that's recognised by the best universities on earth. In 2020, Valenture will offer the equivalent of SA's Grades 8, 9, 10 and 11, expanding to matric the following year. In this fascinating interview Robert Paddock explains how it works - and why this democratisation of schooling has already captured the imagination of both parents and pupils. - Alec Hogg