In Uganda, teachers grapple with overwhelming workloads. With classrooms often exceeding 100 students and teacher-to-pupil ratios as high as 1:130, educators spend up to 75 hours manually grading hundreds of exam papers.
This workload leaves little time for detailed feedback, forcing many to resort to generic scores instead of personalized explanations.
The impact is severe: stagnant student performance, teacher burnout, and national exam failure rates exceeding 40% in core subjects like math and science.
“After grading 100 papers, you’re too exhausted to write feedback,” laments a secondary school teacher. “Students just see a grade, not why they lost marks.”
This challenge is not unique to Uganda, as many African countries face similar struggles with manual grading delaying results and hindering learning outcomes.
The Solution: AI-Powered Grading with Mark AI
Enter Mark AI, a Ugandan artificial intelligence startup designed to tackle one of education’s most persistent challenges: the exhausting, time-consuming process of grading exams.
Key Features of Mark AI:
- AI-driven grading: Automates marking of exams in minutes, eliminating human fatigue and bias.
- Personalized feedback: Identifies specific errors (e.g., “Incorrect formula in Question 3”) and generates targeted follow-up assignments.
- Handwritten recognition: Analyzes handwritten answers, images, and contextual responses with high accuracy.
- Integration-ready: Works with Google Classroom, Moodle, and other learning platforms for seamless adoption.
- Massive time savings: Frees up 50–80 hours per term, allowing teachers to focus on student development.
From Classroom Frustration to Tech Innovation
Mark AI was co-founded by Tusiime Kenneth and Deograsius Ssemakula, both of whom experienced firsthand the challenges of manual grading. While volunteering as a high school teacher, Tusiime often relied on senior students to assist with grading—a stopgap solution that left him feeling uneasy.
“I always wished for a better way to grade students and provide feedback without sacrificing time,” he recalls.
With advanced AI models, Mark AI grades 300 papers in under two minutes, providing instant feedback and actionable insights for educators. Studies show that personalized feedback improves academic performance by 20–30% and enhances student-teacher trust.
Who Benefits from Mark AI?
Mark AI serves three key customer segments, each facing unique challenges in exam assessment:
- National Examination Bodies: These organizations invest heavily in hiring and accommodating teachers for months-long grading processes. AI can streamline this workflow.
- Educational Institutions: Schools with large student populations suffer from grading delays that disrupt learning progress. Mark AI ensures timely feedback.
- Individual Educators: Private tutors and professional teachers can use the tool to efficiently assess student work and foster growth through personalized insights.
Scaling Beyond Uganda
Though Mark AI was founded in Uganda, its impact has global potential. Similar grading challenges exist in classrooms worldwide, and the startup aims to scale its solution to other regions.
“Our goal is to become every teacher’s grading companion,” says Tusiime. “We’re not just saving time; we’re nurturing futures.”
In an era where education systems are under immense pressure, AI-driven solutions like Mark AI offer more than just efficiency—they redefine technology’s role as a force for equity and transformation, one graded paper at a time.
