About M-Lugha
M-lugha is an offline/online multilingual and interactive mother tongue based Apps that help learners both young and adults in rural areas of Kenya and Africa acquire basic literacy and numeracy with the help of their respective indigenous languages. The Language of instruction in Kenya is English/Swahili, Most Rural and pastoral communities only understand their local mother tongue, it becomes challenging for the kids to cope up with the syllabus. The Apps are Approved by Kenya Institute of curriculum Development. The App currently serves 19 Kenyan Communities. M-lugha is a very strong pillar in the implementation and realization towards achieving of SDG4.
M-Lugha Awards & Milestones
GESAwards Winner, Best 100 Startups Istanbul 2019, 11 Best Startups Africa Tech Summit 2020, Best Education Innovations Africa Union 2020, 1st Runner up Africa Telecommunication Union Innovation challenge 2020, 200 Pitches Africa Innovation Week, Best 60 Innovations Covid 19 ICT Task force, Whitebox Entrepreneurship Program, Metis Fellow, Global Edtech Awards winner 2021
As a pastoralist community,we comfortably speak and understand our first language (L1) before we go to school. Imagine walking into a class for the first time,the language of instruction is Either English or Swahili and above all the teacher is a non local who don’t understand your L1? Imagine dressing up for school one morning but you are told “no school for you today,we are moving to look for pasture” Imagine,having a passion to learn but there is no school around or the nearest school is 20km away? – The language policy by the curriculum developers in Kenya states that kids in rural areas should be taught using their respective mother tongues.M-Lugha Mobile apps translated the Early childhood development Education syllabus(all subjects) to indigenous languages. With Solar powered kids Tablet and M-Lugha Apps,rural kids can access ECD digital content anywhere and anytime while learning with their mother tongue!
M-Lugha solves the following problems:
- Lack of enough teachers due to the remoteness and insecurity in the Northern Kenya where non local teachers fled the region
- Language incompetence because language of instruction is not our L1.
- Non-Local Teachers and local pupils language barrier.
- Digital literacy for rural kids
- Lack of enough schools
- School dropout due to constant movement form one place to another in-search for pasture for the livestock.
Statistics shows that a class 2 pupil in urban centers can comfortably express themselves than a class 6 pupil in the rural areas.School drop out rate in the rural areas is 8% and enrollment rate is 11% due to persistent drought,famine and inter community conflicts.
App Screenshots
We worked hard to make a product that will stand out from the crowd. Take a look at some of our App Screenshots
Abdinoor Alimahdi-The Innovator
Abdinoor Alimahdi is an Education Technologist and Telecoms Engineer. He holds MSc ICT in Education and instructional design. Before he started his Educational technology career, Abdinoor was working in the telecom Industry as A licensed Optical network Engineer. He switched to Edtech after seeing the technology gap and poor education standards in the Northern Region of Kenya, where a Grade 7 pupil can’t read or write well. “The rest of the world is in the industry 4.0(The forth industrial revolution) but my people are struggling with langauge barrier” he says. Abdinoor Alimahdi Skills;
- Techpreneurship
- Education Technologist
- Telecoms Engineer