John Karanja

Meet John Karanja, a teacher and Head of School at The Nairobi Academy, and one of the compelling voices at this year's IB Africa Education Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa...

Meet John Karanja, a teacher and Head of School at The Nairobi Academy, and one of the compelling voices at this year's IB Africa Education Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In his address, "Writing Our Own Name," John Karanja took delegates on a four-generation journey through education in Africa, from his grandmother tracing letters using a piece of charcoal on the ground to a world where students carry the entire world in their palms. His central argument was both simple and radical: the tools of education have always changed, but the deeper question is, whose names are we teaching our children to write? has never been more urgent.

John challenged IB educators across the continent to go beyond university placement and embrace education as a deliberate act of nation-building. He called for a decolonised, Africanized curriculum that reflects students' own histories, problems, and solutions, alongside a push for African universities to recognise the qualifications their own students earn.

With warmth, wit, and a deeply personal story, John reminded us that behind every pedagogical framework are the people who make it matter: the teachers who stayed late by kerosene lamplight, and the fathers who sold a gallon of milk to buy a child their first pair of shoes.

"Do not just build schools that teach children how to read. Build schools that teach them why they were born."

West Africa Association of IB World Schools (WAAIBWS) proudly celebrates the educators shaping the future of African education.