This archive report was first published on 5 August 2020.
Since schools closed in March, learners in Kenya have largely rejected online content offered by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), instead opting for alternative platforms, according to a recent survey published on August 5, 2020.
The study by mobile service provider Safaricom found that KICD recorded low uptake of its educational bundle, which can be downloaded by dialling 544# on mobile phones.
Learning materials from Longhorn Publishers, Shupavu 291, and Viusasa have seen better uptake, the numbers reveal.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has praised the KICD content on several occasions, but the report shows that many learners are shunning it.
Some private institutions have been offering online lessons since the schools' closure, but there have been complaints that millions of children in public schools, especially those from marginalised areas, have been left to their own devices.
The research findings are a wake-up call to the government, which recently announced plans to launch communal learning from September to help address the rich-poor gap that online programmes exposed.
The survey, which received responses from 24,053 learners, shows that more girls than boys have been using online learning platforms.
Almost two-thirds of the subscribers who used the Shupavu291 platform were females, with males making up only 35.4 percent.
Close to half of the learners reported that they mostly used their mothers' phones (46.5 percent) to access learning content, as opposed to asking for their fathers' phones (17.3 percent).
“Parents and their children are looking for localised curriculum learning material,” said Ms Joan Njogu, the head of commercial operations at Eneza Education, a digital education content company that runs the Shupavu291 platform in partnership with Safaricom.
Twenty-two percent of the subscribers surveyed said they used their own phones, while five percent used their siblings' phones.
More than half of the learners did not use phones without internet access.
In March, there were 592,000 subscribers, but this number increased to 1.66 million in July.
Learners in the Rift Valley were the biggest subscribers to education bundles at 29 percent, followed by Nairobi with 23 percent, while Mt Kenya came in third with 21 percent.
The Coast region trailed at seven percent.
Form Ones recorded the highest subscription at 153,627, followed by Standard Eight learners (130,916).
Interestingly, only 69,681 Form Four candidates had subscribed.
Ms Njogu said that the greatest challenge has been to reach all learners.
Access to the service will be free up to the end of this month.
