The Specifics
The word ‘Kytabu’ comes from two words to form a Homophone. ’Ky’ is from the word ‘Key’ and ‘Tabu’ is Swahili for ‘problem’. Kytabu also sounds like “Kitabu” – the Swahili word for “book”. Framed together, the word “Kytabu” then comes together to mean “the solution to the Problem of books”.
The current manner in which education is delivered is pretty standard. A teacher walks into a classroom [where there are classrooms], stands in front of a black[or white] board and speaks. Every now and then, a rather costly textbook is required for reference with examples and tests included. After a few years, the student, now a graduate, is sent into a super-technologically savvy and dependent world and asked to contribute.
Its not that this does not work, its just that the system is saturated with ‘employable’ people with fewer jobs available. Everything started getting automated and with little experience in creativity and innovation, very few of those educated in the system above have a place in today’s market.
What’s the alternative? Well..this!
What if we introduced a new variable in the learning equation? Tablets or e-readers allow a more current system of learning that goes past textbooks into animated learning, research, innovation and creativity. Leasing books on a subscription system would also make learning 60% to 80% cheaper, faster and more accessible. This helps the process of synthesizing them with technology from the start.
Now think of this in a semi-arid and hilly village 250 kilometers from the nearest power line. Can such a tool be of use to them? The answer is yes. In fact, it was built for exactly that kind of scenario and can therefore work almost anywhere.
An application that encrypts textbooks and provides them on a cheap tablet by subscription creates unprecedented access at really cheap prices. You don’t need to buy a book and keep it when you can just ‘rent’ the digital version for a period of time for less than a tenth of the price. Whether its for a week, a month, a school term or a year, students can get access to a book or chapters of a book and ‘rent’ them via mobile money transfers in the Kytabu application.
In addition to the digital textbooks, the tablet will integrate a mini-sim card that supports mobile payment, an android OS, expandable memory slot, anti-piracy security features, animation-for-learning tools and software and additional programs that are handy for a student audience. All this on a sturdy and firm solar powered tablet for an affordable price.
- Everyone is involved
Everyone is already involved in the education process and has a part they play in making the future leaders, taxpayers and citizens as productive as possible.
Kytabu takes advantage of this and streamlines this collaboration into a cheaper solution for wider and more scale-able use. Textbooks are already a requirement. Let’s make them more accessible and affordable! Its a win-win situation for everyone especially the students from low and middle income families with 12 years of school ahead of them. 
- The Process
The partnership among the innovators, publishers, mobile service providers and government will lead to a solution that lessens the cost of education delivery among students in all three [Primary, Secondary and Tertiary] education levels as well as prepare them more adequately for a technology dependent world.
- Updates
Updates and changes in textbooks will also be instantaneous with the publisher providing the mobile service provides with the files that they would then upload onto the system and allow users to download on demand.
When it comes down to it, education is about access to information and is a right everyone has. Cost implications shouldn’t rob anyone of a future. Especially today with technology opening up opportunities no other generation ever had access to.
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