Human story
A P1 teacher who would rather walk the class than sit and write
After the survey interviews, 60 Decibels held longer conversations with a small group of female teachers. This account follows one teacher’s experience. The report uses a pseudonym to protect her identity.
60 Decibels Lean Data Study, Kurasa Kenya, April 2024. Phone interviews with 208 teachers in Kenya, March 2024, in English and Kiswahili. Client population 991; response rate 52%; 95% confidence; margin of error ±5%. Sponsored by Acumen. Findings are teacher-reported and describe this sample and period.
On the record
What the study is allowed to say.
- Role
- P1 teacher, certificate in education
- Lives
- Kiserian, with her child
- Habit
- Four days a week, about an hour a session
- Uses
- Registers, assessments, results
- Name
- Changed in the study — published here as Miss Wanjiru
Miss Wanjiru is a P1 teacher living in Kiserian with her child. She holds a certificate in education. She opens Kurasa about four days a week, roughly an hour at a time, around the shape of the school day: registers, assessments, results.
She does not like sitting down to write. She likes teaching and walking the room. The manual method, she said, meant writing most of the time and rarely getting valuable interactions with learners. Kurasa, in her telling, gave the walking back.
Workload dropped because documents no longer had to be written out by hand, or researched from a pile of papers and textbooks. She connects that recovered time to the academic progress she sees. That is her attribution. It is not a controlled trial.
She also named the snags: missing marks, inaccurate entries, strands that do not load, curriculum that feels misaligned. She wants closer collaboration between Kurasa staff and teachers. And she wants parents to see assessments — especially a parent with children in Grades 4, 6 and 7, who should not have to open three separate pages.
On digital literacy she is almost wry. After Form 4 the slogan was “IT is here to stay.” She took computer classes, had nowhere to practise, and was scared to try. Daily work on a device is what made the slogan speakable.
In their words
To be honest, I really do not like sitting down to write. I enjoy teaching and walking around in class. The manual method meant I am writing most of the time and rarely got time to have valuable interactions with learners. Kurasa has allowed me do my job as I ought to.
Miss Wanjiru — 60 Decibels human story (name changed)
Link our parents or guardians to gain access to my learners’ assessments… When a parent has for example 3 children in our school, I suggest Kurasa allow the parents the convenience of accessing one page with all his or her children at once.
Miss Wanjiru — 60 Decibels human story (name changed)
Topics 60 Decibels · Impact stories
Tags Digital literacy · Kenya teachers · Lesson planning · Parent engagement
The weekday
Registers and results should not steal the walking.
Attendance and formative assessment are the two jobs she named by name.
