Terms of Service

1. About These Terms

These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of Upskul, an educational technology platform operated by LBS Online Platform (Pvt) Ltd (“Upskul”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

Upskul provides digital education, learning, assessment, communication, artificial-intelligence-assisted learning, virtual classroom, marketplace and related educational services.

These Terms apply to users of the platform, including, where applicable:

• students and learners;
• parents and guardians;
• schools;
• teachers;
• school administrators;
• Academy learners;
• Academy instructors;
• educational institutions;
• publishers;
• content creators;
• course providers; and
• other authorised users.

Different services may have additional terms, policies or agreements that apply to them.

By creating an account, accessing the platform or using a service for which acceptance is required, you agree to these Terms.

If you are using Upskul on behalf of a school, institution or organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms on its behalf.

2. Eligibility and Children

Upskul provides educational services to learners of different ages, including school-age children.

Where a learner is a child, access to Upskul must occur through an authorised school, parent or legal guardian and in accordance with applicable law and the safeguards applicable to children’s personal information.

Parents, guardians and schools are responsible for ensuring that children using the platform are appropriately authorised to do so.

Where consent of a parent or legal guardian is required, we may request information or confirmation reasonably necessary to establish that consent.

We do not knowingly require a child to provide personal information independently where applicable law requires parental or guardian involvement.

Zimbabwe’s current data-protection guidance treats persons below 18 as children and provides specific safeguards for processing children’s personal information. See Information About Children in our Privacy Policy.

3. Accounts

Some Upskul services require an account.

You agree to:

• provide accurate information;
• keep your login credentials confidential;
• maintain the security of your account;
• notify us if you believe your account has been compromised;
• use only accounts that you are authorised to use; and
• provide updated information when reasonably necessary.

You must not impersonate another person or create an account using another person’s identity without authorisation.

We may use security controls including email verification, authentication codes, trusted-device mechanisms, session controls, anti-bot protection and failed-login monitoring.

4. Schools and Institutional Accounts

Schools and institutions may use Upskul to manage educational activities involving their learners, teachers and administrators.

A school is responsible for:

• ensuring that individuals it enrols or authorises are permitted to use the platform;
• providing appropriate instructions concerning school-controlled data;
• obtaining permissions and consents required for its activities;
• maintaining the accuracy of information supplied to us;
• ensuring that its staff use the platform appropriately; and
• complying with applicable education, privacy and other legal requirements.

We may process school-controlled information on behalf of a school where we are acting as a service provider or data processor.

Separate data-processing terms may apply between Upskul and schools.

5. Educational Services

Upskul may provide:

• curriculum content;
• digital learning materials;
• assessments;
• examinations;
• academic records;
• progress tracking;
• AI-assisted learning;
• virtual classrooms;
• messaging;
• educational marketplaces;
• courses;
• certificates;
• digital libraries;
• financial and subscription services; and
• related educational tools.

Specific services may be changed, improved, suspended or discontinued where reasonably necessary.

6. Acceptable Use

You must use Upskul lawfully and responsibly.

You must not:

• access another user’s account without authorisation;
• attempt to bypass security controls;
• interfere with the operation of the platform;
• introduce malicious software;
• scrape or systematically copy platform data without permission;
• reverse engineer the platform except where permitted by applicable law;
• use the platform for unlawful purposes;
• upload content that infringes another person’s rights;
• distribute harmful, abusive or illegal content;
• impersonate another person;
• attempt to obtain examination answers through unauthorised means;
• interfere with examination integrity;
• misuse virtual classrooms;
• record or redistribute classroom sessions without appropriate permission; or
• use the platform to harass, threaten or exploit other users.

7. Examination Integrity and Secure Mode

Where an examination or assessment uses Secure Mode or another integrity-control system, users agree to comply with the applicable examination rules.

Depending on the assessment, the platform may record events such as:

• leaving full-screen mode;
• switching browser tabs;
• copying or pasting; and
• other security events relevant to the assessment.

Such information may be made available to authorised teachers, instructors, examination administrators or institutions for assessment-integrity purposes.

Upskul does not guarantee that automated examination controls will detect every form of academic misconduct.

8. Artificial Intelligence Services

Upskul may provide AI-assisted educational services including:

• tutoring;
• explanations;
• question generation;
• feedback;
• OCR of handwritten work;
• assessment assistance;
• grading suggestions;
• flashcards;
• summaries; and
• educational content generation.

AI-generated information is provided as an educational aid.

AI outputs may contain errors, omissions or inappropriate interpretations and should be reviewed by an appropriately qualified teacher, instructor or user where appropriate.

We do not represent that an AI-generated answer is necessarily correct.

AI-generated grading suggestions are advisory. They are not automatically treated as the final academic decision where teacher or instructor review is required.

Where AI services are enabled, submitted information may be processed by third-party AI service providers acting under their applicable terms and technical arrangements. See Artificial Intelligence in our Privacy Policy.

9. User Content

You may upload or submit educational material, including:

• assignments;
• examination responses;
• photographs;
• documents;
• notes;
• questions;
• course material;
• teaching resources; and
• other educational content.

You retain ownership of content that you own.

By submitting content to Upskul, you grant us the permissions reasonably necessary to:

• store the content;
• display it to authorised users;
• process it to provide the requested service;
• create backups;
• perform security and technical operations; and
• provide requested AI, educational or assessment functionality.

You confirm that you have the necessary rights and permissions to submit the content.

10. Publisher and Instructor Content

Publishers, instructors and content creators are responsible for ensuring that material they upload or publish does not infringe copyright, trademarks, privacy rights or other rights belonging to third parties.

We may remove or restrict access to content where there is a reasonable legal, security or policy basis for doing so.

We may also suspend publishing privileges where necessary to protect the platform, users or rights holders.

11. Copyright and Intellectual Property

The Upskul platform, including its software, design, branding, platform features, original content and underlying technology, is owned by or licensed to LBS Online Platform (Pvt) Ltd or its licensors.

You may not reproduce, sell, redistribute or commercially exploit platform materials that we own without permission.

School-owned, teacher-owned, instructor-owned and user-owned content remains subject to the ownership rights applicable to that content.

Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of intellectual property unless expressly stated.

12. Payments and Subscriptions

Certain Upskul services may require payment.

Payment information may include:

• payment references;
• uploaded proof of payment;
• subscription information;
• transaction records; and
• information necessary to reconcile payments.

Where manual payment verification is used, access may depend on successful verification.

Prices, subscription periods, course prices, books, AI credits and other charges will be communicated through the relevant service.

We may introduce additional payment methods or payment providers in the future.

13. Refunds

Refund eligibility depends on the product or service purchased.

Unless a separate written refund policy applies, refunds are considered on a case-by-case basis having regard to:

• the service purchased;
• whether the service has already been substantially used;
• technical problems attributable to us;
• duplicate payments;
• incorrect payments; and
• applicable consumer-protection requirements.

Nothing in this section removes rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

14. Instructor and Publisher Payments

Where the platform provides instructor, publisher or content-creator payouts, the applicable commercial arrangement may specify:

• revenue share;
• platform commission;
• payout requirements;
• payment thresholds;
• payment schedules; and
• applicable deductions.

Users providing payout information are responsible for providing accurate information.

15. Virtual Classrooms

Virtual classroom services may use:

• microphones;
• cameras;
• participant names;
• email addresses;
• organisation information;
• network information; and
• classroom participation information.

Some sessions may be recorded where the relevant functionality is enabled and where appropriate notice and permissions have been provided.

Users must respect the privacy and rights of other participants.

16. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate an account where reasonably necessary because of:

• serious breach of these Terms;
• fraud;
• unlawful activity;
• security risks;
• misuse of the platform;
• examination misconduct;
• infringement of intellectual property rights;
• non-payment; or
• conduct that materially threatens the platform or other users.

Where appropriate, we may provide notice and an opportunity to resolve the issue.

Account termination does not automatically remove information that we are legally required or otherwise entitled to retain.

17. School Account Closure

School account closure is subject to our school data portability and closure procedures.

Where applicable, a school may request an export of school-controlled information before closure.

The export may include relevant:

• school information;
• learner records;
• staff information;
• academic records;
• financial records;
• school content; and
• other eligible school-owned information.

Certain information may need to be retained where required by law, necessary for legitimate platform operations, required to resolve disputes, or otherwise lawfully retained.

We will not treat school closure as automatic authority to delete information that belongs to individual users or that we are required to retain.

18. Availability

We aim to provide reliable services but do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.

Services may be temporarily unavailable because of:

• maintenance;
• upgrades;
• infrastructure failures;
• network failures;
• security incidents;
• third-party service failures;
• circumstances beyond our reasonable control; or
• other technical reasons.

19. Third-Party Services

Some Upskul functionality depends on third-party infrastructure and service providers.

Third-party services operate subject to their own terms and policies.

We remain responsible for selecting and managing third-party services used to provide our platform in accordance with applicable contractual and legal requirements.

20. Disclaimers

Upskul provides educational technology and does not replace professional judgment by teachers, instructors, schools or appropriately qualified professionals.

Educational information should be reviewed where accuracy is important.

AI-generated information is particularly subject to verification.

21. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, LBS Online Platform (Pvt) Ltd will not be liable for indirect, incidental or consequential losses arising from use of the platform.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded.

22. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time.

Each version will have an identifiable version number and effective date.

Where a material change requires renewed acceptance, we may request that users accept the updated Terms before continuing to use affected services.

23. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Zimbabwe, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

Disputes will be handled through the courts or other legally available dispute-resolution mechanisms applicable in Zimbabwe.

24. Contact

For questions concerning these Terms:

LBS Online Platform (Pvt) Ltd
Email: [email protected]