Headteacher- Nicholas Okwako, Joseph Nguli & Stella-Maris

Stella-Maris Wayua Nguli is a proud mother. Her son Joseph Nguli, was the top student from St. Michael’s Boarding primary school in Kitui County, in the Chemsha Bongo Na Shupavu291 competition. Kitui County is on the Eastern region of Kenya.

Joseph’s mother is a mini-shop owner in Mwingi town. She found out about Shupavu291 through a text message four years ago. She then subscribed to see the learning content offered on the platform. Stella-Maris then introduced Fanuel Mulungi, Joseph’s brother, to Shupavu291 to supplement his schoolwork when he was in class six.

Joseph Nguli

Joseph Nguli, who is in class 6, started using Shupavu291 in class 5, after seeing his elder brother, Fanuel excelling in his studies. The brothers took turns studying on their mother’s feature phone. Though Joseph was already a bright pupil, scoring between 395- 410 marks, Shupavu291 helped him to revise and comprehend better. His mother says that Joseph has exhibited a notable improvement in Mathematics. He scored 92% in Mathematics for his third term exams. It was an improvement from 80% previously. He scored a total of 436 marks in his end of year exams.

Fanuel now in Form 1, won school fees twice in previous Shupavu291 school fees competitions when he was at Muthale Primary School. He scored 336 in his KCPE and proceeded to Mwingi Boys High School, a public boarding school, in Mwingi North Constituency, Kitui County. Some of the subjects that Fanuel excelled in thanks to Shupavu291 are Computer studies and Physics.

Students at St. Michael’s school

Mr Nicholas Okwako, Joseph’s Head Teacher, was elated while announcing their victory to the students who were in school during our visit. He said that Joseph Nguli was the reason their school had emerged the best in Eastern province. The top schools in all the eight regions of the country won a cash prize of KES 100,000, while the top five students per region, won KES 10,000 each.

Joseph scored a total of 112,980 points in the Chemsha Bongo Na Shupavu291 competition. His mother says that sometimes she had to force him to go to sleep while studying late into the night on Shupavu291. Joseph was a day scholar during the competition and is becoming a boarder next year since he is advancing to class seven. According to Mr Okwako, all the class seven and eight students in the school have to board. The school is an ICT integrated centre of academic excellence in the region, sponsored by the catholic church.

As I finish my interview with Stella-Maris, she tells me that she will use the prize money to buy Joseph a phone, so that he can study more on Shupavu291.