How can AI tools support teachers while respecting local contexts, infrastructure limits and professional expertise? This piece examines a TeacherMatic pilot in Kenya, where secondary school teachers explored AI-powered generators. By reflecting on practical challenges such as connectivity and curriculum alignment, the article considers how responsibly designed AI can enhance learning and promote inclusive classroom innovation.
TeacherMatic in Kenya: Insights from a One-Day Pilot with Educators
Author: Carles Vidal, MSc in Digital Education, Business Director of Avallain Lab
Kenya, August 2025 – In May 2025, the Avallain Lab, in collaboration with the Avallain Foundation, conducted a one-day pilot with Kenyan teachers to explore how generative AI tools could support them in their daily educational work. The initiative focused on TeacherMatic, Avallain’s AI toolkit for teachers, aiming to gain early insights on its suitability for the Kenyan context and identify potential improvement areas.
From Research to Pilot Design
In January 2025, Teaching with GenAI: Insights on Productivity, Creativity, Quality and Safety, an independent, research-driven report commissioned by the Avallain Group and produced by Oriel Square Ltd, was published. It explores how GenAI can enhance teaching and learning while addressing educational opportunities, challenges and ethical considerations. Building on this, the pilot translated the report’s themes into a series of sessions featuring hands-on activities for teachers. These sessions allowed participants to discuss and apply the report’s ideas in practical activities and add new perspectives to the conversation.
With this purpose in mind, twelve local secondary school teachers, representing both public and private institutions, were selected to provide a sample consistent with the previous study.
In preparation for the pilot, the Kenyan curriculum was incorporated into TeacherMatic’s curriculum alignment generation options so that the participants could use it to inform their content requests. Since a phased implementation of a new curriculum is currently underway in Kenya, both the existing and the upcoming versions were included to provide teachers with all possible options in this transition context.
The pilot was organised in three parts. It began with a focus group designed to capture participants’ initial impressions and existing knowledge of GenAI tools, while also introducing them to TeacherMatic. This was followed by breakout sessions, where smaller groups of teachers engaged in hands-on exploration of the tool. The day concluded with a plenary session, bringing everyone together to share insights and provide feedback.
Infrastructure Challenges
During the initial focus group, teachers described existing infrastructure challenges relating to both the availability of devices and the reliability of internet connections, as part of the general context of their teaching practices. Connectivity was identified as a critical barrier, with ‘slow or unreliable internet and, in some cases, complete service interruptions lasting hours’ being common in many public institutions. According to the group, while private schools tend to experience fewer connectivity issues, many public schools continue to face significant barriers due to their reliance on intermittent mobile networks.
Participants also reported limited access to devices, particularly in public schools, where ‘only a few computers are available and shared among all teachers’. Most public schools operate under centralised device policies, with limited computer labs and few, if any, classroom-based devices. In this context, mobile phones become the primary means of accessing tools such as educational technologies.
Interactive Breakout SessionsIn the breakout sessions, teachers explored a curated set of TeacherMatic generators, including ‘Lesson Plan’, ‘Multiple Choice Questions’, ‘Debate’, ‘True or False’, ‘Learning Activities’ and ‘Inspiration!’. Participants accessed TeacherMatic on computer devices, tablets and mobile phones and worked in Swahili and English during discussions and content generation.
During the sessions, the teachers engaged freely with the generators, exchanging ideas, debating approaches and sharing expectations and concerns. Participants expressed strong enthusiasm for the potential of using GenAI tools in their classrooms, viewing them as a way to enhance teaching resources and remain ahead of their students in adopting this technology.
After the hands-on sessions, participants reconvened for a larger group discussion to share how they perceived TeacherMatic and, more broadly, GenAI tools, including what aspects attracted them, what concerns they had and what support or training they would need for effective adoption.
Findings and Reflections
The final group discussion revealed a general agreement on the following areas:
- Time-saving benefits: Participants valued the speed and quality of the generated content and identified significant reductions in classroom preparation time, which they felt would allow them to improve the delivery of their lessons. As one teacher said, ‘If we can save time on planning, we can spend more time on students.’
- Curriculum alignment: Although both current Kenyan curricula were included in TeacherMatic, participants saw opportunities for even more detailed curriculum integration, highlighting the need for further content localisation down to the most detailed level of curriculum implementation.
- Creativity and pedagogical innovation: Teachers expressed a strong need for multimodal learner-facing content, such as clips or visuals, to help explain complex topics, ‘like 3D geometry’. With learners already using AI creatively, some felt that text-based outputs alone were insufficient. As one participant explained, ‘You can’t teach about the inside of a pyramid with text.’
- AI literacy training programs for teachers: Teachers also voiced the importance of receiving training in GenAI so that students do not outpace them in its use. As one teacher expressed, ‘Let’s take this AI to the classroom… show them that their teachers are also up-to-date.’
- Reassurance that GenAI tools are not a replacement for teachers: Participants stressed the importance of teachers retaining full agency in creating and delivering learning resources, especially when validating content intended for their students.
Early Insights and Broader Lessons
While this was only a one-day pilot with a small group of teachers, it offered valuable, early insights into both the opportunities and barriers to adopting GenAI in Kenyan classrooms. Some challenges, like limited devices and connectivity, may be more specific to the region and require systemic solutions, but others, such as the need for curriculum-aligned content and teacher training, echo what we have seen elsewhere.
These shared lessons show that even small-scale pilots can guide product development and spark ideas for making GenAI a meaningful, inclusive tool for educators, regardless of where they teach.
About Avallain
At Avallain, we are on a mission to reshape the future of education through technology. We create customisable digital education solutions that empower educators and engage learners around the world. With a focus on accessibility and user-centred design, powered by AI and cutting-edge technology, we strive to make education engaging, effective and inclusive.
Find out more at avallain.com
About TeacherMatic
TeacherMatic, a part of the Avallain Group since 2024, is a ready-to-go AI toolkit for teachers that saves hours of lesson preparation by using scores of AI generators to create flexible lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes and more.
Find out more at teachermatic.com
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