Dear Friends,Thank you for joining us in launching the 9th Digital Essay Competition (DEC) on 3rd June live on Zoom and Facebook. We invite all Upper Primary and Secondary school students to submit their essays online for the following categories: Kiswahili, English, Art, Kenyan Sign Language, Braille, French, and German. The DEC 2021 question is:

Ni magumu na mazuri yapi uliyopitia kipindi hiki cha Korona?...What are the hardest and best experiences you have had during the COVID-19 pandemic?...Quels ont été tes pires et tes meilleurs souvenirsvécus pendant la crise du Covid-19?...Welches sind die schlimmsten und die schönsten Erlebnisse,die du während der Covid 19 Pandemie hattest?

For the past 8 years, we have welcomed essays and art submissions electronically as well as on paper every year from over 45,000 students and over 2,000 schools across all 47 counties of Kenya. In 2021, we are asking everyone to turn in your essays and art online at essay.eKitabu.com. That will help us to maintain social distancing and reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure for everyone involved.Director Fred Haga, Kenya Ministry of Education Director of Special Needs Education, who attended the DEC 2021 virtual launch, said “We may not realize it now, but when the autobiography of a future award-winning Kenyan novelist will be written in the next 30 or so years, don’t be surprised to learn that it was DEC that unlocked his or her potential and provided the platform to launch their writing career. It would be even more exciting if the writer used braille or Kenyan Sign Language to enter the Competition!”Dr. John Kimotho, Director of Educational Media, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), noted “A national platform like DEC allows all learners to share their experiences and creative ideas. At KICD we see DEC as a real Competency Based Curriculum activity for learners to build real competencies.”DEC encourages students to use ICT in learning. It recognizes and rewards students—and the teachers who support them. DEC prizes include scholarship money, computing devices, gift hampers, and national recognition with MOE for the achievements of students, teachers and schools. We are working to make DEC more inclusive every year, and we welcome collaboration with all teachers, parents, caregivers and stakeholders in education. We welcome your ideas, creativity and resourcefulness to include all children in learning, reading and writing.Warmest regards,Will[su_button url="https://mailchi.mp/ekitabu/ekitabu-tunaenda-digital-newsletter-june-2021" target="blank" background="#e80904" color="#ffffff" size="5" radius="0"]Read the entire newsletter here[/su_button]