Our team always loves to see startups that are using technology to give a helping hand to people in underserved regions. One of the most important and powerful ways that can be implemented is through education. Online courses are becoming commonplace in our society, but for those of us living a relatively privileged existence, these courses are mostly about convenience.

For people living in areas where “under-the-tree” schools are just as likely as formal institutions, however, digital curricula and online learning materials can mean the difference between having or not having access to an education.

Meet Kytabu

Nairobi-based startup Kytabu is tackling the issue of bringing education to anyone in Africa who wants it, starting in Kenya, with an aim to expand from there. The idea is simple: provide educational materials, to those who need them, incrementally. For some students, the cost of textbooks and reading materials is simply too high to consider buying even a single textbook.

For them, Kytabu gives them a way to purchase only the parts of a book that they need right now, with the option to add on other parts later. Buy one chapter now, another one next week, and so forth, as the course progresses. This gives the student some breathing room to come up with the money in little bits instead of all at once, which can be overwhelming for many families.

Kytabu gives students a way to purchase only the parts of a book that they need right now, with the option to add on other parts later

For other students, there’s a further issue of having access to physical books at all. Although 7.5 million children attend formal schools in Kenya, a further 7.2 million are taught in informal learning environments.

Kytabu’s attitude is that students who live in far-reaching rural areas where things are more loosely structured have just as much right to a quality education as those who live in cities, so if books and other materials can be accessed online via mobile technology, then those students can be given an equal chance to study and learn.

Watering the Seeds of an Idea

Kytabu got its start in 2012, after tech entrepreneur Tonee Ndungu had a conversation with his father, a school headteacher, about how to provide textbooks both affordably and digitally to schoolchildren. Given the economic situation in which most of the students in their urban settlement found themselves, it seemed like leasing out the content little bits at a time was the best solution for all involved.

Everyone in the community would understand how the system worked, because buying only what is needed right now is the standard way of making purchases. In Swahili this is called kadogo, which means “little economy” in Swahili – work today to earn the money to buy what you need tomorrow.

Ndungu wanted to bring the concept of kadogo to the world of education, and specifically textbooks, so the idea for Kytabu (Swahili for “book”) was born.

The way students access Kytabu is through a mobile application on a low-cost tablet device, and downloaded content can be stored locally, either on the tablet or a dongle. Publishers, content providers, mobile service providers, educators, hardware manufacturers, and investors all work together to get the app into the hands of as many students as possible.

Kadogo [Swahili]: Work today to earn the money to buy what you need tomorrow

In addition, because the content is digital, Kytabu can ensure that the materials are current and relevant, which means that students don’t encounter the problem of buying out-of-date physical textbooks.

Affordable, Accessible, Legal

In areas around the world, illegal copyright infringement is a huge issue for publishers, and of course Africa is no different in this regard. One of the best aspects of Kytabu from the point of view of publishers and content creators is that it provides a way to keep costs low and allow widespread access to materials, while still filtering payment back to the source of those materials.

By cutting out the printing and distribution costs and sticking with a digital model, the result is significantly less expensive textbooks, with both instant delivery and instant payment. This helps solve two problems: the illegal photocopying of textbooks, and the significant price increases from year to year to try to recoup losses from students who already couldn’t afford the books at the lower price.

Tonee Ndungu’s goals for Kytabu are ambitious, for sure, but in the nearly three years that the startup has been operating, it has garnered significant attention and assistance from important organizations. In 2014, Microsoft’s 4Afrika programme gave Kytabu an innovation grant to help fund continued development, and Ndungu has been interviewed and featured by countless publications.

The attention has all been positive, and next few years will be very interesting for Kytubu, as the team strives to find ways to bring the startup’s vision to a greater number of students in a greater range of areas.