PSL Fireside
Esther Diera: math that has to live outside the textbook
Esther Diera teaches mathematics and chemistry in Kakamega County. She also writes CBC-aligned questions for Grades 6 to 9 as a Kurasa MWALIMU WA Math panelist. The useful part of her fireside is not the title. It is that she was not always “a maths person.”
Kurasa field note, updated September 2026. The visit dates, schools and participants are drawn from the published account on mykurasa.com.
I struggled with math in Form 1 and 2 until my teacher, Mr Martin, changed how I saw it. Now I help students see that math is alive and everywhere.
Esther Diera — PSL Fireside, June 2025
The classroom, not the stage
She names the myth learners bring: where will I ever use this. Maps use matrices. Bridges use curves. Tax is arithmetic. GeoGebra, PhET, Desmos — tools that can run offline — are how she makes that sentence true in a rural school, not a slogan on a banner.
Scratch Day
At Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology she ran a Scratch Day with 283 junior-school learners from Facebook Academy, St Joseph’s Academy, Pendo School and Shikhello JSS. They built a live maths quiz. That number and those school names are from the June 2025 write-up. They are not a national enrolment figure.
What she tells girls
Algebra feels abstract in Form 1. Vectors arrive later. Calculus looks impossible. Her method is unfashionable: revisit the basics, use a real object, add a game when it earns its place. To learners — especially girls — she says she once thought maths was not for her. Practice still has to happen.
In their words
Math should feel like discovery, not punishment.
Esther Diera — PSL Fireside, June 2025
I once thought math wasn’t for me. If I did it, so can you.
Esther Diera — PSL Fireside, June 2025
Topics Impact stories · PSL
Tags CBC Kenya · Kakamega · Kenya teachers
The habit
Curiosity is a weekday job.
Daily Challenge is five questions after supper. PSL is the public sitting. Workspace is the lesson that has to hold both.
