Erick Oude had never used a computer in his life. He would only hear about them or see them via television. But one day, he got to use them. This was when he joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology university in 2010 to study computer science.
His was a prayer answered. A dream come true.
Having always been intrigued by computers, learning the basics of computing and programming became his daily task. He lived and breathed computers. By the end of his coursework, he got an opportunity to work for a certain corporate but he felt his calling was to make a difference elsewhere.
It is then that he and his friend Isaac Ochieng, teamed up to start Zeraki.
Zeraki is an edtech company based in Nairobi that develops technologies that support teaching and learning in schools. It directly operates at the intersection of education and technology by combining the power of education with the magic of technology to deliver tools that enable teachers, parents and schools to collaborate and improve learning outcomes.
Zeraki offers three solutions: Zeraki Analytics – data analytics system, which is an exam management system, Zeraki Learning – digital learning platform which is a digital learning tool for high school students and Zeraki Finance, which is an accounting software for schools.
When registering their company in 2014, their goal was to leverage technology to improve learning outcomes in two ways. One was to create access to high-quality content for students all over the country. This would be achieved by working with high school teachers to create content based on the Kenyan curriculum, which would thereafter go through the normal review process by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and then make this content available to students. This content would then be packaged on an app called Zeraki Learning.
The idea behind this was that in every class, different students have different learning needs, as there are students who will learn faster and there are students who need to repeat a concept twice or thrice before they get it. It is then that they decided to get teachers and have them create content the same way they do it in a classroom, but this time, on record.
A student falling behind in a particular area of the syllabus would then sit in front of a laptop, tablet or phone and go through the lesson. This would also provide an opportunity for teachers to recommend study materials for their students and be able to track the learning process. The same visibility would be given to parents, especially during the holidays as they could track what was studied and what wasn’t.
The second goal was to make decision-making in schools and within the education sector to be based on data – data-driven decision-making. This is what inspires Zeraki Analytics, as it is a tool that allows schools to process examination results, generate reports and share that data with parents, teachers and with other education stakeholders over the phone.
The team had realized very early on that a lot of schools did not have enough computing resources and therefore, what used to happen before Zeraki Analytics is that, in a school of say, 30 teachers, there would be one computer in the Dean of studies office where after exam completion, all the teachers would line up behind the same computer to enter the results which would be time-consuming.
Based on the progress they made with analytics and the fact that they were already managing data for schools, a lot of schools then started asking them to provide other tools like library and stock management systems, finance and accounting software etc.
They then developed a third solution which was a finance system that integrates with the analytics. The advantage here would be having all data in one system instead of having different systems. They integrated it in such a way that the parent is then able to access analytics, which is the performance data, but also able to access the school fee information from within the app as well as make payments to the school directly.
Over time, the team has built a network of almost 100,000 teachers, most of them senior examiners and expert teachers in each subject. The teachers develop content that then goes through the normal KICD approval before it is uploaded on their platform.
They currently serve about 4800 schools in all 47 counties in Kenya. Five months ago, they started looking at different markets in Africa and have 130 schools enrolled in Uganda and 10 in Guinea. And currently exploring the Tanzania market as well. In total, the number is roughly about 5000 schools spread across four countries in Africa and about 115,000 teachers.
After rolling out the platform, they realized that usage was near dismal, and this was because schools hadn’t figured out by that time how they’d integrate digital learning in their day-to-day. They realized they required a lot of user change management and user training, which required a lot of resources. “We realized that schools were purchasing the product but not using it because they lacked the appropriate infrastructure, and teachers didn’t know how to integrate it within the school setting,” Erick said.
But when COVID-19 hit in 2020, schools were closed, kids were home, and there was nothing that was going on. They then reviewed their product and started pushing it to provide opportunities for the students to continue learning at home.
Between March 2020 and April 2020, they got about 100,000 downloads and had 150,000 users on the platform. Currently, the application on PlayStore has about 500,000 downloads and about 100,000 users on the web.
Among the many schools that adopted the Zeraki products is the Ongata Senior School in Kajiado County. Their partnership with Zeraki started in 2017 as they were looking for a platform where their teachers would be able to analyze their student’s results, upload marks and interact with parents back at home on the progress of their learners.
Once they admit new students, they are issued an admission number synchronized with the Zeraki platform. The parents are shown how they can download the Zeraki Analytics tool on their phones or laptops. Through the given credentials, they are able to receive timely report cards as the term ends as well as educational content for their children through the Zeraki Learning tool.
“Zeraki has made everything easy for us. With a touch of a button, you get the progress record; you get the analytics part of the performance in class, you are able to tell which subject is performing well and which areas you need to improve in class. It is a very good touch-up of everything a teacher needs,” said Carol Gachiengo, Deputy Principal Ongata Senior School.
The school creates time for the students where they can go to the school computer lab, and get to interact with Zeraki Learning. They can also access the analytics part, for example, to see their graph performance to note progress.
According to Ms. Carol, the students are able to access their assignments on an online platform, especially when on holiday, and they are also able to interact with unlimited content, which is quite exciting for them.
“For the videos that have been uploaded, it’s something new for them. They are able to have lessons that have been downloaded for them and they are able to watch them. So it’s a quite a fun activity for them.” She adds.
Also, Zeraki’s partnership with Safaricom has made it significantly cheaper for someone to use their platform because through the My Safaricom app, one is able to buy one-off data bundles for as low as 10 and 20 shillings that allows you to access the content for all day.
On the Zeraki platform, there is also a calendar on the app where they are able to pass information to the parents about the term dates and all the major activities that they have through the term. The teachers can also access something referred to as Zeraki Achievers, where Zeraki uploads exams from form one to form four, with all marking schemes uploaded.
To access the Zeraki services, there is free and premium content. The free content includes anything that is uploaded by a school, for example, note assignments as well as exams uploaded freely by Zeraki.
The video content, however, is charged and has three payment options. One can pay a monthly subscription fee of KES1900, a weekly subscription fee of KES800 and a daily subscription fee of KES150.
With Zeraki recently raising $1.8 million seed funding in a round led by Acumen Fund, for product catalogue growth and regional expansion, Erick says their goal is to continue innovating in the intersection of education and technology. They plan to introduce more administrative tools for schools in the coming future, like timetabling software and supporting parents with fee loans.
