After COVID lockdowns hit, teachers were either forced to adapt and accommodate new technology interventions at their own cost or be left behind as parents sought alternatives for their children. Most teachers, especially those with limited resources, had no-one to learn from except other teachers on private Whatsapp groups. They needed a place they could learn on their own quickly and affordably.
Kibanda is a cross-platform (Android and iOS) messaging and social community mobile app, much like WhatsApp, that supports community engagement, online courses, forum discussions and self-paced learning and assessment content for its users. The application is free and many of the courses on the application are also free, with some proprietary courses available for purchase for self or group learning.
Kibanda provides teachers with a community of peers on a mobile application to support their self-development and advance their teaching techniques especially with education tools and delivery systems changing so much post-COVID.
KYTABU partnered with the Kenyan Primary Teachers Association (KEPSHA) and The Kenya Secondary School headteachers Association (KESSHA) to run the Alpha version with its senior leadership of 3218 headteachers. We are currently in this phase (February 2021).
In August 2021, we will deploy two apps (Kibanda KEPSHA and Kibanda KESSHA) to the 18,817 primary school and 10,207 secondary school headteachers in Kenya. They will then cascade the application to their teachers in the respective schools by providing them with invites to the app. We are additionally sponsoring national and regional teachers organizational meetings and presenting the application to them in sessions and workshops.
Please email tonee@kytabu.com for an apk file you can install onto and Android device or a testapp for iOS devices.