Huge participation in Kenya’s 4th Annual Digital Essay Competition

Kenya’s Annual digital Essay competition has seen a very strong and hope-giving growth in participation with 325% rise in submissions from the country’s 47 counties.

The competition has realised 20 winners and 40 finalists, who will be recognized at a prize giving ceremony on September 21, 2016 during the Nairobi International Book Fair at Sarit Centre.

Established in 2013, the digital essay competition organized by digital educational content distributors – eKitabu, attracted submissions in both English and Swahili languages with 6800 students registering. In 2015, there were only 2,120 essays submitted from all over the country.

The Digital Essay Competition is actually a platform which enables students to submit essays online at essay.ekitabu.com.

“Together with public and private partners in ICT for education, eKitabu has awarded over 1,500,000 Ksh in prizes since 2013 to winning students, teachers and schools across Kenya,” said a release distributed after a media briefing at eKitabu’s office in Nairobi.

This year’s essay question was: [English] Is technology changing your life? How? Or [Swahili] Je, teknologia inabadilisha maisha yako? Vipi? The participants were drawn from both Primary and Secondary schools.

The 2016 Digital Essay Competition was sponsored by Positivo BGH, a company selected to deliver tablets and laptops in partnership with Jomo Kenyatta University for Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) under Kenya’s Digital Literacy Programme for public primary schools. Other sponsors included Longhorn Publishers, Oxford University Press East Africa, and Moran Publishers.

Major milestones on the Digital Essay Competition 2016 timeline:

Thursday 12^th May – Primary School Official Launch at Visa Oshwal Primary School
Thursday 26^th May – Secondary School Official Launch at the Kenya High School
Month of June and July – 10 Regional Kickoff events countrywide
10^th August – Deadline for Entry Submissions
21^st September – National Prize Giving, Sarit Center, Nairobi.

STUDENT VOICES

Without the galaxy

The world is dark and dull

Technology in education;

The star designing Kenyan stars

The sun inspiring the son’s visions

The moon radiating the daughter’s ways

To revolutionize education, lean on technology.

“Don’t give me milk… give me flash discs.”

“Technology has donated the wings for our flight. Fly Kenya. Go my country.