Works with the phone in airplane mode
The teacher stays at school. Mdarisi comes home.
Mwalimu mfukoni, hata bila mtandao.
The textbook is locked in a classroom cupboard and the bundle ran out on Tuesday. Mdarisi still works. Every lesson lives on the phone, with a patient tutor that explains it until it clicks.
- Free for families
- No sign-up
- Grade 7 Integrated Science first
Why Mdarisi
Every evening, learners sit down to revise with no book and no bundle.
There's usually a phone in the house, often a parent's. What's missing is something on it that knows the CBE syllabus and can answer a question without spending a single shilling of airtime.
- 52.3M
smartphones already in Kenyan hands. The device is mostly there.
- 26%
of rural homes can get online. The connection isn't.
- 1 in 8
schools keep textbooks on the premises. The book stays behind when the bell rings.
Sources: Citizen Digital (June 2026), KNA household survey, APHRC 2022.
How it works
Like a good teacher: knows the syllabus, admits what it doesn't know.
Most chatbots answer everything, right or wrong. Mdarisi is built the other way round: it teaches from real lessons and stays honest about its limits.
Real lessons, not guesses
Every topic comes with clear explanations, worked examples and the mistakes learners usually make, written to the CBE learning outcomes and checked by teachers.
A tutor that sticks to the lesson
Ask in your own words. The answer comes from the lesson, shows which one it used, and ends with a question to check you've got it. Off the syllabus? It tells you to ask your teacher.
Practice that's marked fairly
Quizzes are marked against answer keys, never by the AI, so a right answer is always counted right. Miss one and you get a hint first, then a full walkthrough.
Put to the test
We switched off the internet and kept asking questions.
On an ordinary Android phone, the kind a family might actually own, with airplane mode on from start to finish.
- 35/42
answers with every key fact right
- 9/9
off-syllabus questions it refused to bluff
- 1.7 s
before it starts answering, typically
- 1.8 GB
of memory at most, comfortable on a 6 GB phone
Tested on a Redmi Note 13 with Grade 7 Integrated Science questions, October 2026. Models run on the phone through QVAC; the full method is in our README.
Safe on a family phone
No sign-up. No tracking. No bundle.
A child's questions belong to the child. Mdarisi never asks who you are, and what you type stays on the phone.
- Open it and learn
No account, no phone number, no password to forget. It works offline from the very first launch.
- Questions stay private
Nothing a learner asks is ever uploaded, so no one can read it, sell it or train on it.
- Room for brothers and sisters
Coming soon: a profile for each child on the same phone, each with their own progress.
- No ads, ever
Children aren't an audience to sell to. Schools and sponsors keep Mdarisi running.
For parents
Before you hand over your phone
Will it work on my phone?
You need an Android phone running Android 10 or newer. Today it runs best on phones with 6 GB of memory; a lighter version for older phones is on the way.
How much data does it use?
One download, then none. The app is large, about 1 GB, because the lessons and the tutor live inside it, so download it once on Wi-Fi at school or in town. After that it never needs the internet.
Which grades and subjects?
We're starting with Grade 7 Integrated Science and adding the other junior school subjects next.
What if the tutor gets something wrong?
It can, like any tutor. That's why it only answers from teacher-checked lessons, shows which lesson it used, and says "ask your teacher" instead of guessing. Quiz marks never come from the AI.
Does it cost anything?
No. Mdarisi is free for families. Schools and sponsors pay so that learners don't have to.
Work with us
Families shouldn't have to pay for help at home.
We're starting small: a pilot in two or three schools, with learning measured before and after. If you run a school, fund learners or publish CBE material, we'd like to hear from you.
Schools
A small yearly fee per learner, sized for real capitation budgets. Coming soon: a teacher view that shows who's stuck on which topic, also offline.
Sponsors
Fund learners in rural areas and informal settlements. Every answer runs on the phone, so there are no cloud bills and your money goes to content and schools.
Publishers
Reach learners your books can't, offline. You're paid for every learner who uses your material, not a one-off fee.