Nairobi, Kenya October 4, 2015 – Today GPF Kenya today hosted the first Leap Hubs Hackathon for four schools including Moi Forces Academy, Kenya High Girls School, Mangu Boys High School and Mary Leakey Girls School, participating in the Leap Hubs program at an event held at CEMASTEA. The event was graced by mentors from 9 corporate entities among them Airtel, Cisco Systems Inc, Microsoft Corporation, De Silva Group, Strathmore Business School, Innovate Kenya and Copy Cat Ltd.
Under the theme “Transforming Education in Kenya”, the hackathon sort to measure the creativity of the students in solving some of the challenges faced in the education system and give them an opportunity to present their ideas to the professional mentors for further idealization and development as they prepare to launch their own businesses or social enterprises.
Speaking at the event Mr. Heshan De Silva motivated the students to use the available resources including their knowledge to start their small enterprises. He shared his personal experience of how he used US$116 to start a small insurance business which has seen his worth go to over $10-million. He encouraged the students to “start now” and not wait for “golden ticket” to venture into business. Mr. Heshan was especially impressed by the e-book business idea presented by Mary Leakey students as a way of not only saving paper production to address environmental degradation in the country but also as an innovative way to transform Kenyan classrooms.
Among the presentations made by the students include;
Moi Forces Academy. A Securty Management Systems that includes user friendly applications to address teacher/student interface in the classrooms.
Mary Leakey Girls High School – Introduction of e-books for learning thereby making blackboards, chalk dust and text books obsolete. This is meant to reduce the cost of education but will also address environmental conservation.
Mangu High School – An online game conceptualized around specific subject and topic areas in the curriculum. Game Pro is designed as an alternative to regularly assigned homework to instil study culture in youth who find studying boring.
Kenya High school – An innovative approach to design modern desks for the classroom to be fitted with laptop screens which are controlled at a central screen used by the teacher. This is meant to save space, considering the high admission rate in schools.
“For years, we have been looking for mentors to nurture the creativity of our students and Leap Hubs is giving exactly that. There is hope that we are not raising job seekers but job creators “ Mrs. Olive Njoroge, Leap Hubs Coordinator, Mangu High School.
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