How CBC platform is keeping students busy during holiday

Daniel Maundu's life almost got shattered when he was dismissed from campus in his first year due to indiscipline and drug abuse.

However, his passion for becoming a computer engineer saw him seek ways of mending fences with the campus administration to allow him to continue with his course.

Though he never managed to graduate due to fee problems, he got the necessary computer skills which have enabled him to invent the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) Digital Learning Programme. The system which harbours all the necessary resources in line with the CBC curriculum enables primary school kids to learn on their own.

Maundu launched his CBC learning app early last year to meet the needs of the CBC learner in all aspects of the learning process. "CBC Digital is an online academy which fully caters for the CBC needs of Kenyan students by providing an online education platform that has complete lessons for all subjects or learning areas," explains Maundu.

"It also consists of academic videos after each lesson, revision exercises after each lesson that are marked automatically by the system every time a learner answers a question, downloadable summary notes for each lesson and an online library, all under one roof."

The interesting bit of it is that the system was developed by Maundu entirely on his own, safe for a well-wisher who offered him a laptop to work on during its initial stages.

To get the content and resources that he uploaded into the system, he first worked as an untrained teacher at a local academy where he got a chance to access the required content. "I had to work in a certain school which used to pay me Sh10,000 monthly but my focus was to get the resources and materials for my app," he says. "I still work as a school teacher because the system is yet to leverage well to the point of sustaining me on its own."

Embraced program

He claims that since he launched the platform last year, there are a lot of Kenyans, especially private school owners and parents who have embraced the program for their kids.

"Right now, more than 400 people who mainly consist of parents and private school owners have signed up to the system," reveals Maundu, adding that "most have attested to the positive impact this program has added to the academic and learning life of their kids."

To sign up for the website platform, a user will be required to make a payment of Sh300, which is the monthly fee for using the platform and its services. This translates to Sh10 per day.

This implies that on a good month, Maundu can make at least Sh120,000 before deducting the costs which include maintenance of the website and marketing-related costs. Among the greatest challenges for Maundu is the lack of awareness and resources to do proper marketing.

"This program can be well appreciated by Kenyans but the lack of awareness is hindering its progress," says Maundu. "I am a hustler and my source of income is neither stable nor sustainable to support the marketing aspect of it."

It is because of this that Maundu requests well-wishers and potential partners out there to link up with him and support the progress of his initiative for the benefit of Kenyan learners.

"As you are aware, CBC is geared towards making today's learner technologically savvy and so the stakeholders including the government need to support their program to its best. As much as I am the inventor, I may not be able to do much or even much progress if I work alone."

Maundu says his focus is to see as many Kenyans as possible embrace the platform for the benefit of their children. As such, he will be happy to onboard new partners to help him create more awareness about this program, its functionalities and how it works to support CBC.

Maundu says there are also counselling lessons to enable children to understand the value of living a moral life and support a well-rounded learner who also fits within a societal setting.