Hekima Learning App

The Nyansapo Foundation

Hekima Learning App

Hekima Learning is an innovative, AI-powered assessment and learning tool designed to help young children improve their reading and math skills.

Nairobi, Kenya

KEN

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

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Early Childhood Education (ECE) learners, especially from underserved communities in Kenya, cannot read or count despite going to school every day. Although there have been attempts, such as the implementation of a Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), literacy and numeracy gaps have remained visible, partly because of the large classrooms of over 80 learners per teacher in some schools. The schools often use paper-based assessments and manual grading, which delay feedback for low-performing learners. Apart from grading, teachers are also burdened with administrative tasks, which limit their time for instruction and the provision of personalised learning. This leads to poor education outcomes, which are likely to persist in their primary and secondary education. According to estimates from UNESCO (2022), 90% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and comprehend a simple text. In Kenya, Uwezo (2021) revealed that only 47% of Grade three learners could read a grade-level text. Additionally, the Kenya National Examinations Council Report (2021) highlighted that over 50% of learners in grade two could not solve arithmetic problems.

The Hekima app helps teachers manage the large classroom sizes in Kenyan ECDE by providing AI-powered assessments and personalised learning. This enhances instruction, reduces administrative burdens and supports school leaders to make data-driven decisions. The app is compatible with common devices used in the Kemyan ECDE classrooms and has an offline functionality ensuring access in low connectivity areas. How it works: (i) Teachers assign assessments – This is conducted during lessons or designated checkpoints. The assessments are aligned with Kenya’s Competency Based Curriculum (CBC ) and focus on language and mathematics activities (ii) Learners complete assessments with an option for immediate feedback where speech-to-text is leveraged for literacy assessments and computer vision for some numeracy assessments. The app offers hints and explanations to help learners understand mistakes made and further reinforce concepts. (iii) Teachers access real-time student and class data, which allows them to dynamically group learners based on their learning levels aligned to the CBC curriculum, access student performance indicators, plan instruction to focus on challenging areas and assign interactive activities suited for different levels. (vi) School leaders and parents can assess the platform through simplified progress records. Video link: https://youtu.be/tm3k2eY5RI0

Hekima Learning targets learners in underserved communities in Kenya which are often characterized by overpopulated classrooms which limit the ability of teachers to provide personalized support to struggling learners. In this context, Hekima Learning helps the learners to grasp literacy and numeracy concepts through the provision of assessments which provide immediate feedback. The assessments reinforce learning through hints and explanations suited to their learning levels. Additionally, the app allows grouping and provides personalized learning, ensuring that each learner receives support aligned to their learning levels. These assessments help teachers have access to real-time insights on learner progress, where they can adjust the lesson plans to suit the diverse needs of the classrooms. Additionally, the Hekima App reduces their administrative burden by reducing the time taken in grading the scores and can generate other professional documents required to be manually filled in by teachers such as learners' progress records.