Kenya Play (KPLAY) is a holistic, gender responsive approach to scaling Learning Through Play with Technology (LTPT) in coastal Kenya Kwale and Kilifi Counties.

KPLAY is funded by the LEGO Foundation as part of the global LTPT initiaitive, the project is led by IREX with technical support from our partner humans who play (hwp). Aligned with Kenya’s new national Competency- Based Curriculum (CBC), KPLAY will provide methodologies to help teachers build the STEM and soft skills required by the CBC and for Kenya’s vision for its future.

Kenya Play Training Guide 

• The KPLAY Program will operate in primary schools in the underrepresented counties of Kwale and Kilifi in coastal Kenya.
• The KPLAY approach will be embedded within national and county educational systems to equip teachers as LTPT experts and champions, and to create a Kenyan-owned LTPT scaling model for coastal Kenya. This will lead to systematic opportunities for students to experience the joy and rigor of LTPT.
• Through direct investment in educators, KPLAY will reach 90,000 children across coastal Kenya.

• Help playful learning become the standard for good teaching and learning in Kwale and Kilifi counties, equipping female and male students for today’s world.
• Offer Kenya a workforce with fundamental skills in computational and design thinking, manufacturing, critical problem-solving, empathy, self-directed learning, creativity, and collaboration.
• Equip practitioners and champions of Kenyan-contextualized, gender-responsive Learning Through Play Technology (LTPT)-teachers, school leaders, parents and communities, local and national NGOs, and county and national education officials-sustainably embedding Kenyan LTPT in Kwale and Kilifi county schools.

• Curriculum and Learning Guide Development: Teachers, education leaders, and learning through play with technology specialists will work hand in hand to develop a holistic teacher training curriculum to incorporate LTPT into primary schools. The curriculum will directly tie to Kenya’s Competency Based Curriculum initiative and build capacity in LTPT strategies such as tinkering, making, and robotics for children in low-resources schools.
• Teacher and School Leader Training: KPLAY will build the capacity of 2,160 teachers to experience the joy and rigor of effectively implementing LTPT in their classrooms, and will assist 600 school leaders, 310 teacher leaders, and 30 system-embedded coaches to support these teachers.
• School Play Lab Models: KPLAY will work with teachers and county education officials to identify initial materials and methods for inclusion in an adaptable Play Lab model for upper primary school studnets. Play Labs are customized school-based spaces for playful interactions and creativity, containing context-appropriate lo-fi and high-tech LTPT resources that speak to girls and boys. Play Labs, whether indoors or outdoors, fixed or mobile, will have values of playfulness, experimentation, curiosity, collaboration, and connection to the community.
• LTPT Ambassadors: School-level Play Ambassadors support PLCs. KPLAY will equip one teacher leader per school to be a Play Ambassador. They will create PLCs in their schools to help teachers plan for and reflect on LTPT implementation, and will connect PLCs across sub-counties.
• Community Outreach: Parents, community leaders, and trusted community-based organizations (CBOs) will support LTPT in schools and advocate to county-level government for its sustainable inclusion.

Kenya Play ( KPLAY ) is funded by the LEGO Foundation.

The Project is led by IREX with technical support from humans who play .

Sarah Bever, Senior Technical Advisor, sbever@irex.org