Kenyan startup Elimu TV is seeking to bridge the educational gap for secondary students in slum areas occasioned by socio-economic problems such as poverty and teenage pregnancy by providing them with educational content via digital television.
Executive director Jane Muthiga told the Kenya Internet Governance Forum challenges facing education access include a lack of infrastructure and teachers.
Elimu TV was born at the suggestion of former ICT minister Bitange Ndemo, who offered it a licence, but Muthiga said the first challenge it faced was a lack of content.
“We had 24 hours of TV but no content and this was a big challenge,” she said. “We needed to produce content, we worked through the challenges and in June this year Elimu TV went on air.”
The channel works with teachers from national schools coming up with content for subjects such as English, Swahili, Mathematics, IRE/CRE, Biology, Chemistry, History and Home Science, while a recent partnership with Pricecam Media also helped in generating video content for the platform.
The channel airs to platforms such as GOtv and StarTimes and is currently in talks with Zuku, with the 24-hour channel distributing the subjects for form one to form four students and repeating them.
“This helps the students access the content at a time they are able to,” said Muthiga.
The programmes on the channel require students to interact with the teacher and Muthiga told HumanIPO an agreement with Safaricom allows the students to ask questions via SMS at a KSh5 cost. Elimu will also be offering slots for advertisements and this will help in generating income.
The organization is now looking to create an internet portal to enhance the learning experience, with a Facebook presence having done much to assist interaction between students and teachers. It is also looking to start WhatsApp groups that will see students interact which counterparts from other schools.
Elimu is now calling on the government to address the issue of ICT training of teachers, who will be required to use Facebook and other digital platforms to teach. Another challenge is connectivity, which will make teachers readily accessible.
