As the world marks the first ever International Day of Education, Safaricom has yet again announced a milestone in strengthening the progress of education in the country. In the new thematic strategy by Safaricom Foundation, education is one of the key areas and with good reason. Here are 5 ways in which Safaricom and Safaricom Foundation have contributed towards better education measures in Kenya:
- This morning, Safaricom announced that it has set aside Kshs 40 million to support 100 students through secondary school at over 90 different learning institutions around the country. The students all come from needy backgrounds with two selected from each county and the rest being those living with disabilities. The students were picked from the cohort of learners who had applied for the M-PESA Foundation Academy but were unable to secure a slot due to limited capacity.
2. M-PESA Foundation Academy
2. M-PESA Foundation AcademyThe M-PESA Foundation Academy is a state of the art, co-educational and residential High school offering the best to talented but economically disadvantaged students from all corners of the country.
3. Shupavu 291
Shupavu 291 is an exciting revision study tool that was brought about in conjunction with Safaricom and Eneza Education that enables students to take quizzes, search subjects and topics as well as access Wikipedia summaries without internet connection. all this is just at a flat rate of Kshs 30 for unlimited usage of the platform per month and can be accessed from any mobile by dialing *291# or sending the word START to 20851.
4. Providing infrastructure
Another major way that Safaricom contributes to education is by increasing access to educational resources, for example with the 47 in 1 project that aims at providing computer labs to at least one primary school in every county. They have so far deployed 18 labs in 18 counties including Turkana, Samburu, Machakos, Kajiado among others.
In arid areas, the Safaricom Foundation has continued to promote access to technical and vocational education for young people. A good example of this is with this partnership with ZiziAfrique
5. Technology programs
There are loads of programs that Safaricom Foundation has setup/launched with aims to expand access to education through innovative solutions and partnerships. One such example is the partnership with Computer for Schools to provide various schools and institutions with ICT infrastructure.
Women in Technology is a technology incubator that helps nurture the younger generation of students undertaking STEM courses. This initiative has led to the growth of female engineers within technology division from 15% to 22%
