The advent of technology has been a boon in the way Kenyans communicate, access information, and carry out their businesses.

For a long time, though, there has not been much effort in bringing education materials closer to learners. This gap has been bridged through a revolutionary program run by Safaricom that is providing 8-4-4 compliant education content to Kenyan children.

The SMS-based teaching program dubbed Shupavu 291 was first launched in 2014 by Eneza Education. In March 2016, though, it was taken up by Safaricom, leading telecommunications provider, with a goal to avail quality learning materials to children across the country through mobile phones.

“Our aim is to ensure that all Kenyan children have easy access to educational materials in the same convenient manner that banking services are available on mobile phones,” said Safaricom Chief Executive Officer, Bob Collymore.

Since then, Shupavu 291 has reached over 1 million learners in Kenya. Shupavu 291 primarily enables primary school pupils and secondary students to access lessons and assessments that are aligned with the national curriculum.

“The program provides real-time course level progress, interactive lessons and assessments,” says Safaricom in a note. “Users can access locally-designed tutorials, as well as chat live with teachers through SMS, online chats or through an app.” The subjects start from Class Four to Form Four.

To the benefit of learners and guardians, the charges have been kept at a low to enable as many children access the service. Currently, the service is charging Sh. 10 per week. Further, teachers, parents and learners do not necessarily need a smartphone to access the service since it is available on SMS.

So revolutionary is this product that it scooped the Best Mobile Innovation for Education award at the just concluded Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) 2018 that was held in Barcelona, Spain, during the Mobile World Congress. Many candidates of Kenya Certificate of Primary Educations (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) are expected to benefit from Shupavu 291 program for this year’s annual national examinations.

Peter Njoroge, a science teacher in Ndundori, Nyandarua County, is one of the teachers who are using Shupavu to broaden the scope of their teaching. “Not every question that appears in KCPE is included in the curriculum. To bridge this gap, I have been using Shupavu since February to broaden my lessons and make it easier for my pupils to understand their lessons,” he says.

One of the key questions that teachers and parents who want to enlist on Shupavu 291 have is how to get registered and how to navigate their way through it. Below, we have compiled a step by step guide to help you utilize the Shupavu 291 learning tool:

1). You can get registered on Shupavu by dialing *291# on your Safaricom line. Alternatively, you can send the word START to the short code number 20851.

2). After completing the registration process, you can now select a topic you would like to start study. Study topics in the program are classified according to subject, class and unit. For example, if you want your child to take a lesson on from the Class 8 Unit on Animals, you will need to select Animals801. You will then receive your first question through an SMS. Once you respond with an answer, you will receive an answer indicating whether your answer was correct or not.

3). You can also engage a teacher in a question and answer chat. However, you will only be able to do this once you have completed two questions successfully. To get and answer these questions, you will need to type the word WIKI followed by what you want to search and send it to 20851. For example, if you want to search Reproduction, send the word WIKI Reproduction to 20851. You will then receive all the available information on reproduction from Wikipedia.

4). In the same vein, you can have a mini lesson that usually appears before your questions. This will occur if your get 60 percent and above in the previous questions. Once this happens, you will get a text from Safaricom instructing you on how to go through the lesson to improve your points.