Soma Learning Networks

Kisii Innovation Lab

Soma Learning Networks

Empowering Kenyan teachers with AI and SSI to create and track personalized IEPs for children with learning disabilities—at scale.

Kisii, Kenya

KEN

Nonprofit

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In Kenya, over 1.2 million children with learning differences are not visible. They’re left behind four times: first by circumstance, then by a system that doesn’t know them (or forgets them), and by a society that shames them. For example, children with ADHD are branded ‘disruptive’. For them, the education system is broken. A child who struggles to read (dyslexia) is ignored in a classroom of 60 other children and one teacher while another child with dyscalculia slips through cracks of transition. And disability identification? This often comes late or never, like never ever. Only about 3% of children with learning disabilities are identified. Without identification, teachers label these children as “slow learners" or "lazy," compounding their shame and isolation. Then there is the debacle of transferring to new schools. The children’s records are everywhere and nowhere. A child with dyslexia arrives at a new school; their history doesn’t follow them. Restarting without support is akin to fishing in the dark. That is the problem when you have a learning disability. It is worse when that disability is not known. It is worse when no one cares.

Our Solution supports schools and communities to identify children with learning disabilities early and provide them with the support they need to enroll and transition in school. We give teachers tools to create personalized Individualized Education Plans. Our system solves the chronic problem of lost records through Self-Sovereign Identity technology, giving children permanent and life-long ownership of their data via secure digital wallets that travel with them between schools. For a child like Nasieku with dyslexia who moved schools three times due to drought in Kajiado, her IEP and assessment history now follow her seamlessly. The disability data - functional assessments, intervention records, and past IEPs - is held and selectively shared by caregivers, allowing AI to help teachers and parents develop and monitor IEPs at scale. For identification, the system uses a rules-based digital system (governed by SSI protocols) that connects learners (holders) with County hospitals and intervention service providers (Issuers) for functional assessments and teachers (verifiers). This approach takes disability services closer to learners, in their communities. The entire system runs basic smartphones, offline first, costing less than $2 per child per year and can scale to millions of wallets.

Our solution serves children with learning disabilities like Nasieku, a 9-year-old girl from Kajiado who struggles silently with dyslexia. She has been branded "lazy" and nearly expelled from school. Across Kenya’s, over 1.2 million children face similar fates—unidentified, underserved, and shamed—while sitting in classrooms unequipped to support them. For Nasieku, our innovation changes everything. First, a functional assessment at her local County hospital (just 10km away, not the 100km her mother once travelled to look for EARCs) identifies her dyslexia. Next, community-trained service provides provide counseling to deal with the shame and stigma she previously faced. Next, her teachers use AI to create and monitor her IEP. Now, her personalized IEP, stored securely in her digital wallet, follows her even when drought forces her family to move—ensuring she never restarts from scratch. For Nasieku, County hospitals bring functional assessments near her. Where families once traveled days for assessments that never came, now functional assessments happen at local hospitals, reaching more children. Teachers and parents also get affordable, practical tools they can use every day to support learning, enabling children with learning disabilities like Nasieku to finally learn alongside their peers rather than falling further behind.