Kytabu is a story

Kytabu is many things to many people. An education app, a school management system, a low-cost content access library, an online content repository, a remedial teachers app, an online content store, a parent’s eye into their child’s progress in school, a teachers’ assistant, a “cool app I can learn with my friends on”. It is all of it. The Kytabu Super School Suite, or S3, is all of it. A safe space for learning institutions to build their own online community.

At heart, however, Kytabu is the opportunity to give children in Africa an opportunity to go around the barriers that hinder their potential and aspirations. Right now, they all see the rest of the world. They all see that they are as good as any other child if given the opportunity those other children have. They all see that nothing is too far from their reach. At Kytabu, we use empathy, exposure, explanation, experience, and education to bring that world as close to their reality as possible.

For us, Kytabu is To Aspire.

Our Values

Creativity

Innovation

Inclusion

Integrity

Community

Dyslexia has its advantages

You tend to be very good at a small number of things and generally alright at everything else, except words and numbers. That was always a problem when the education system I was in predominantly scored my abilities on those two functions. Two decades later, cars are driving themselves, watches are more advanced than the first rocket that got men to the moon and we still have the same standards for learning and education. Sounds off? I thought so too.

We are smarter, faster, better, clearer, and able to forecast the future of work (machine learning, A.I., Robots), and therefore the future of education. We can be better for those coming after us.

Here is a little reading on it: Educating Students to Improve the World – Fernando M. Reimers

Tonee Ndungu - Founder and C.E.O.

KYTABU preparing Africa for a future full of technology

Kytabu was founded in 2012 with an Android application for phones and tablets that enabled teachers and students to rent curriculum textbooks using mobile money. The digital textbooks were preloaded onto a server then books were divided into chapters, and those chapters divided into topics. The fractured content was linked to individual animations and audio files that reduce the dependence of learners on teachers.

The additional ability to lease the fractured content for either an hour, day, week, month or school term, reduced the cost and data costs of the content by as much as 72%, and in some cases, by 1/1000 of the original price. This was a never-before-seen interaction between content consumers in desperate situations and content creators. The ubiquitous mobile money revolution in Kenya created the opportunity for content distribution that gave the low-income communities in the country that could not access quality learning resources (36% then) an opportunity to do so.

Today, Kytabu offers a complete Education suite that includes a school management system tied to a teachers’, parents’ and students’ mobile application.

Our Mission Statement

Our mission is to create an enabling environment for students to access affordable and relevant resources conveniently to improve their educational experience and its applicability to the job market for our future of work. Kytabu is doing this by introducing a new delivery mechanism for learning resources on a digital platform powered by micropayments on mobile devices.

Our goals for digital education resources

Affordability

We believe education resources can be made affordable for students in Africa while still being profitable and creative in their development. We work to make this possible in East Africa.

Accessibility

We believe technology provides opportunities for access to learning resources for even the least fortunate in our communities wherever they are. We work towards making that possible.

Relevant

The future of work greatly influences the content of education today. We work to create and distribute learning content that identifies with and empowers learners to realize opportunities in that reality.

Convenient

Learning environments in East Africa for a majority of children are laced with elements of agony and sacrifice children should not endure accessing a basic human right. We are working to reduce or eliminate that sacrifice.