Founder of Edu and Masomo Edge, Newton Khamasi, has called for greater collaboration across Kenya’s education sector, saying the system has been “working in silos” and that unity among parents, schools, and policymakers is critical for nurturing children’s abilities.
Speaking on Tuesday on Radio Generation, Khamasi said fragmentation in the sector is contributing to controversies in schools, including disputes over dress codes and religious practices. He argued that working together, rather than separately, would strengthen the system and help prevent such tensions.
“In Kenya or in the world, the education ecosystem has been working in silos,” he said. “Instead of working together, everyone is working on himself or with himself or on his sides.”
Khamasi emphasized inclusivity across all players in education—from parents and schools to edtech firms and financial institutions. “We want every player in the education sector coming together with one soul, with one goal to build a unified education ecosystem,” he said.
On school leadership, Khamasi highlighted the authority of school heads while stressing the importance of accommodation in discipline matters.
“The head of a school has enormous powers,” he said, noting that most schools have committees to handle controversial issues. He added, “You can say, look, you can’t wear a black hijab, but you can wear a garment that conforms with the colours of the school, but does not violate your faith. That is called accommodation.”
He described intolerance as a symptom of ignorance and urged broader conversations to address misunderstandings in schools.
Khamasi also spoke on the role of parents under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), noting that the system encourages collaboration among teachers, learners, and parents.
“The backbone of CBC is to ensure that a parent, a child and a teacher work together for the nurturing of the abilities of this child,” he said.
He added that children today have more say in shaping their education paths. “In the current era, students and children are the ones guiding where they want to be,” he said. Drawing from personal experience, he recalled, “There’s a moment I realised what I had thought this boy could do is not what he really wants to do.”
Edu and Masomo Edge, Khamasi explained, grew from the All Schools Expo, which was created to connect parents with learning institutions across the country.
“The journey of Edu and Masomo Edge began with All Schools Expo,” he said. “We intended to bring a conversation around the highly invested investment for a parent and for a child.” He pointed out that parents often make critical education decisions at transition points without long-term planning. “You find that parents make those decisions at the point of transition, not before,” he said.
Highlighting the rise of digital learning, Khamasi said, “There are schools that are offering quality education through online platform. Your child doesn’t need to leave home to go to school.” While he acknowledged resistance to change, he described it as natural. “All this is something that is very human. You are responding to change. It’s unusual. We don’t know it. We resist it.”
Looking ahead, Khamasi called for data-driven planning and strengthened information flow across the sector to ensure every child finds the right educational path.
“What Edu does is to bring in the demand, to highlight and to forecast what the supply will look like,” he said. He stressed that collaboration and structural systems are necessary to empower decision-makers and improve educational outcomes.
