The Programmer Who Plans to Revolutionise Education

I talk to a young entrepreneur and programmer to find out more about his motivations behind changing the way education is done in Singapore.

Akshith Krishna types away furiously, his focus fully directed towards programming Liberi’s newest features. It takes quite a bit of calling his name for him to look up.

Akshith, 21, is the co-founder of Liberi. His goal? To one day revolutionise the education system in Singapore, allowing people to learn whatever they wish to regardless of their circumstances, without limits.

This stems from Akshith not being able to study subjects that he truly felt passionate about during his upper secondary and junior college years. “I was offered the opportunity to go to the US in secondary three to attend a programming bootcamp,” says Akshith. “I fell in love with programming, but there was no way for me to formally study it in my school.”

According to the official Ministry of Education website, the subject that Akshith wanted to study at the O-level, Computing, is only available at a limited number of schools, and his school was not one of them.

After Akshith returned from the United States, he spent a significant amount of time refining his programming skills. Combined with his lack of interest in the subjects he studied, led to Akshith’s grades declining.

Akshith’s teachers confronted him about it, dismissing Akshith’s interest in programming. “They just disregarded my interests,” says Akshith. “They told me that going to a JC and subsequently, going to a university was what’s important.”

Akshith subsequently went on to enter Saint Andrews Junior College. Sadly, the same problems arose: Akshith found no interest in the subjects he had to take, and classes did not engage him.

When Akshith voiced his frustrations regarding Singapore’s education system, both in the way they taught and the range of subjects they offered, his peers all agreed with him: The current educational system was extremely restrictive. That was when he decided to create his very own solution to this problem: Liberi.

Liberi is a one-stop platform for people to learn whatever they want, for whatever purpose they may have. “Liberi allows anyone to be able to make their ideas into reality, beginning with education,” says Akshith. “For instance, a farmer who wants to implement an irrigation system can implement his idea without much prerequisite knowledge as others will be able to teach him the knowledge he needs on the math and physics side of things to actually implement it.”

On Liberi, people will be able to find mentors for specific subjects. Ms Jeanette Watt, 21, one of Liberi’s volunteer mathematics mentors, says: “In our current education system, not everyone is in a mathematics class because they want to learn more about it. However, in Liberi, people come because they want to learn. Students don’t waste their time and my effort isn’t wasted.”

They can also meet like-minded people to partake in activities together for some hands-on learning. “Take Project Work in JC for example,” says Akshith. “If I wanted to learn project management, Liberi helps me to find like-minded people who wish to learn it as well, and then recommend projects for us to participate in together. Wouldn’t doing the actual thing benefit me more than JC’s play-pretend version?”

Between pitching to investors and ensuring that Liberi’s programming runs smoothly, Akshith is always working on Liberi’s success. “Akshith has put in his heart and soul into Liberi,” says Mr Govindasamy Muthu Krishna, 53, Akshith’s father. “He [puts in] every minute available into Liberi, knowing that later on, he would only have a limited time to spend on this when he enrolls into university in August 2021.”

Thankfully, Akshith’s actions are not for naught. According to him, Liberi has been valued at $1,500,000 USD during their most recent valuation.

The co-founders of Liberi also clearly appreciate what Akshith brings to the table. “His vision is the backbone of our company’s direction and everything it stands for,” says Ms Lakshmi Manoj, 23, Akshith’s fellow co-founder and Liberi’s data scientist. “In addition to him literally programming Liberi itself, his sublime ability to motivate our team and compromise when needed enables our team to progress amicably, making him an irreplaceable member of Liberi.”

Akshith concludes: “I hope that with Liberi, people can come together, learn from each other and make their ideas a reality.”