Muli Justus
Meet Muli Justus, a class 8 teacher at Bridge Kabiria, Nairobi county. Muli joined Bridge in the year 2018 and has loved every minute of his life working at Bridge. He says the Bridge teaching method of using teacher tablets and having lessons already prepared makes it easy for him to teach and for pupils to learn.
“Bridge provides teachers with technology to use in the classroom, not only for accessing and teaching their lessons, but also for keeping track of pupil performance and attendance data. “ Says Justus. With Literacy day soon coming under the theme “Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces”, in Sub-Saharan Africa, many children are attending school today but are not learning. The World Bank has called this a learning poverty, where children are unable to read and understand a simple text by age ten. Justus says there is a need for having well trained and effective teachers who can prepare pupils for early learning.
“There is a recent independent study by Professor Michael Kremer of the University of Chicago which found that Grade 1 pupils in Bridge are more than three times as likely to be able to read as their peers in other schools. “ Says Justus. Justus adds that Bridge pupils perform really well in KCPE exams due to the good education foundation set and high literacy levels. For Justus Literacy is important because it creates a path for pupils to pursue their dreams and ambitions.
“One of the ways I am able to track whether my pupils are doing well and their literacy skills are efficient is through giving them assessments, having a one on one with them to understand pupils who are lagging behind and focusing more on them.” He says. Justus concludes by saying Literacy is important in driving poverty because it is through literacy that people gain the knowledge needed to create a better future for themselves and that of their offsprings.