Habari Reader,

Don’t we all love holidays that fall on a working day? I hope you did something that makes you happy.

Find out what's happening, opportunities, and resources in the EdTech Space in Africa. Please forward EdTech Jalada to an EdTech enthusiast in your circle!

To enhance the National (Kenya) EdTech Summit experience and ensure its sustainability, would you be open to paying a participation fee for the upcoming and future editions? YES MAYBE ... depending on the value NO

What’s Happening

• Maths is Back! All senior school learners will learn some form of mathematics. Newly appointed Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, announced during the National Conversation about the Competency-Based Curriculum that all students must study some form of mathematics. Read more here.
• The Central EdTech Summit was a success. We had insightful conversations about EdTech adoption in the Central region, a stakeholder forum to discuss the ICT in Education and Training Policy, and learning out loud workshops plus EdTech Demos that were all so informative. Look out for the next one near you!

• The arts are powerful! Two words; Butere Girls. How did one school play hold the nation’s attention? Echoes of War elicited heated debates and dialogue on the rights of playwrights in Kenya, government censorship and using children in political fights. I would love to hear your thoughts about this, and the ensuing publicity about the play after it was banned; a classic example of the Streisand Effect. Talk to me :)

• “Mastercard Foundation and UNHCR launch $300m partnership for refugee education and livelihoods.” This partnership “will enable more than half a million refugees and displaced youth across Africa to complete their education and 200,000 young people to transition into dignified work by 2030.” Read the great news here.
• ​The 2025 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation features 16 African Innovators, with 2 who’ve built incredible AI powered solutions that can transform education. Chinelo Okafor from Nigeria with the Play n Learn Web App, and Kenya’s Elly Savatia with Terp 360; an innovation that translates text and speech into sign language, and can be mainstreamed in education and other sectors.

Which amount can you comfortably pay for the National (Kenya) EdTech Summit ticket? KES 1,000 - 1,500 KES 1,500 - 2,000 KES 2,500 - KES 3,000 KES 3,000+

Opportunities

Request for Proposals: ASR Model Development in Tanzanian Kiswahili

AI-for-Education.org Requests for Proposals to support the development of fine-tuned Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models aimed at automating the scoring of one-on-one early grade assessments in Tanzanian Kiswahili. Submission Deadline: 11 May 2O25

They are seeking:

• Data collection firms specialising in early grade reading assessments with experience creating voice recording datasets—to collect oral assessment data (child voice recordings) in Tanzanian classrooms (Phase A)
• Machine learning specialists with expertise in Voice AI, particularly for assessments, low-resource languages, and contexts—to use the collected dataset to fine-tune ASR models for phonics and decoding tasks (Phase B)

Make inquiries via this form.

Link to Proposal

Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert program

Are you a teacher, school principal, curriculum specialist, trainer or someone who wants to create positive change in education? Apply for the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert program between May 15 and June 17, 2024.

Apply for the MIE program

Resources

Read the Industry Guidelines for Child Online Protection (COP) and Safety in Kenya developed by the Communications Authority of Kenya. Watch this episode of EdTech Mondays on Resource Mobilization and Partnerships for Sustainable Impact. Listen to the inspiring story of the three Kenyan World Robotics Olympiad Champions from Mbaikini Girls Secondary School. Read in-depth articles about the EdTech ecosystem on the Echoes of EdTech in Africa newsletter by Kirimi Mitambo.

Subscribe to EdTech Mondays

Baraza Corner

• Baraza Member Spotlight

Kirimi Mitambo is a seasoned EdTech leader and consultant with over 15 years experience in EdTech innovation, AI strategy in education, and product leadership. He is the Co-founder of Code Yangu and leads the EdTech Product Café, a platform for community-driven EdTech conversations. Kirimi is the author of Echoes of EdTech in Africa, a monthly newsletter spotlighting transformative ideas and voices shaping African EdTech.

• We are redesigning the content in the EdTech Baraza and will be hosting webinars and debates on different topics of interest to our community members. Would you like to be a host for the webinars, and/or be part of the webinar series, write to me by responding to this email (nyarinda@edtech-eastafrica.com)
• Do you have an EdTech product/event/opportunity that you’d love for our community to know about? Send me a brief about it.

Until next month,

May everything align in your favour!

Nyarinda

Nairobi, Kenya
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