This is a complete guide on how to use Safaricom's free education bundles that were availed to give students access to educational content while studying from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On July 16, the telco giant's CEO Peter Ndegwa announced an extension of its partneship with Eneza Education, Longhorn Publishers and Viusasa to run until September 8, 2020.
Over 10 million education bundles have been redeemed to access e-learning platforms, whose content is approved by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
With school set to remain closed for an extended period of time as per Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha's directive, learners can access education content on Shupavu Web, Viusasa E-learning and the Longhorn E-learning portal through the Safaricom network at no data cost, up to 250MB per day.
How do you subscribe to Safaricom Education Bundle?
You can use any of the following USSD shortcodes: *544# or *100#
- Dial *544#
- Select option 7. Education Bundle
- Then reply with:
Option 1: Viusasa
Option 2: Longhorn E-learning
Option 3: Shupavu Web
You can also use the following procedure to access the same feature.
Dial *100# on your feature phone, smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer (if using your Safaricom SIM in a modem or router)
Select option 9: Buy
Reply with 98 to view more options
Select option 7: Education Bundle
Reply with 1 for Viusasa
Reply with 2 for Longhorn E-learning
Reply with 3 for Shupavu Web
Other awesome educational resources for you on Safaricom
For students currently enrolled into various colleges across the country, there's the Universities’ Educational Data Pass Service.
This Service provides university students and staff with an opportunity to acces educational content available on the various whitelisted E-Learning portals with affordable data bundles.
It is open to all university students and staff who are Safaricom subscribers and have data enabled devices.
How to Access Universities’ Educational Data Pass Service.
- Dial *544*60#.
- Select “purchase special education bundle”.
- You shall then be prompted to pay for the pass from your airtime or through M-Pesa.
- A message confirming successful purchase will be sent to you, including a link to the Educational Data Pass. The message reads, “Thank you for purchasing Special Education Bundle E-Learning Service. You have been awarded 10GB Internet Bundle for E-Learning Access.”
It is important to note that the Educational Data Pass will only be used to access the whitelisted Universities’ e-learning portal annexed to these Terms and Conditions ( Terms and Conditions are available on www.safaricom.co.ke.)
Should you choose to access non-learning institution portals, you will be charged at the current data rates if you have not subscribed to any data bundles.
You can opt out of the Educational Data Pass by dialing *123#.
The balance of your content pass is available on *544#.
Also, one cannot share the Educational Data Pass or transfer (data sambaza) to a third-party device or subscriber as it can only be used by the recipient's device.
However, this particular data pass can be tethered for use on one (1) other device, enabling you to work on two devices eg. your personal computer and your handheld device at the same time.
