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Education is Kenya is broken and every employer is complaining about employee skills and while there seems to be a huge skills gap, employers says every employee they train leaves the door just as they finish their trainings.
Faced with these and the urge to help the underprivildged, the M-PESA Foundation, a non-profit arm of Safaricom’s M-PESA has announced that it is constructing a state of the art, mixed boarding high school that will seek to provide a first class, unique education to gifted but economically disadvantaged children from all counties of Kenya.
“The M-PESA Foundation is deeply committed to empowering large scale and long term sustainable projects that aim to have maximum impact on Kenyans in the areas of education, health and environment. The Academy will be the home for transformative education in Kenya,” said Michael Joseph, Chairman, M-PESA Foundation.
The M-PESA Foundation Academy is also promising to deliver the KCSE curriculum in a world-class educational facility inspired by entrepreneurial leadership and drawing on advanced technologies. The Academy promises it will employ the latest technology to aid the students in their studies whilst at the same time providing them with the technological skills to meet the future demands of business in Africa.
Situated along Mang’u-Thika Road the Academy will open in January 2016 with an initial intake of 90 students and will ultimately have a capacity of 800 students by 2019. It will boast of first class sports, arts and cultural facilities. In addition to academic facilities, will include an indoor sports hall, a sports field, running track, swimming pools, squash courts, a music centre and a 500 seat auditorium.
As part of its commitment to ensure that the M-PESA Foundation is well-grounded in best in class education, the Foundation will be hosting a cross-sector Educational Symposium in May to start a comprehensive conversation on the state of Kenya’s education sector.
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The forum will bring together key stakeholders in government, education and the corporate sector to discuss how Kenya can reap the benefits of leadership and technology in our education system.
The M-PESA Foundation Academy will empower, train, and provide an environment in which educators can rethink the way that KCSE subjects are delivered to ensure that student needs are at the core of the learning, and keeping teachers continuously trained and engaged as key facilitators in the education process.
“If Kenya aims to develop transformational leaders for our future economic growth, it must adopt an innovative approach to education. We feel that bringing together the kind of expertise that led to the creation of M-PESA and the Safaricom Academy will prove beneficial to this project,” said Onesmus Mbogo, Country Manager, IDC East Africa.
Beyond preparing students to excel in KCSE examinations, the M-PESA Foundation Academy will redesign subjects taught so that they are delivered in diverse and excitable ways. It will equip the students with the skills and knowledge to seamlessly enter tertiary education or embark on their own business ventures.
The academy will be the first such facility by the M-PESA Foundation. Other foundations running their own schools include the Aga Ghan Foundation which runs both primary to tertiary institutions in the region.
