KENYA · GUIDE 0622 · EDITION 4.2
Primary mathematics tutoring in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
Guardians whose children need help with a specified mathematics topic. The offer to test is: Support primary mathematics using concrete examples and a short sequence of assessed skills.
Plan primary maths tutoring around the child's actual concepts and school context, agreeing guardian expectations, practice format, and a small set of understandable learning goals.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Assess one skill such as place value before offering a small, clearly scoped lesson block.
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Keep initial strategies, errors, explanations, prompts, independently solved examples, learner reactions, and the specific conceptual changes that should guide the next planned tutoring session.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Ask the learner to solve a fresh problem and explain their reasoning using objects, drawings, or words, checking understanding beyond copied methods and memorized answers. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Plan primary maths tutoring around the child's actual concepts and school context, agreeing guardian expectations, practice format, and a small set of understandable learning goals. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Use a clear topic menu and parent-approved referrals rather than fear-based advertising. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | The child solves a comparable task without copying, with progress reported privately. |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. Tutoring underperforms when repeated worksheets improve speed but conceal misunderstanding of place value, operations, or the meaning of the problem being solved by the learner.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Fictional NUM-122 is a guardian-authorised 45-minute lesson on equal groups. Original task: distribute 24 drawn beans equally among six circles; each circle receives four. Reverse check: six groups of four total 24. Independent exit task is 18 shared among three circles, answer six. Deliverable records representations and support used, not a grade prediction.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | Observe sharing rather than guessing an answer. |
| Output to inspect | Use safe supervision and no diagnostic labels. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | Unequal groups |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Count each circle separately.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.