Young entrepreneur unveils phone-connected school bell

                                    Young entrepreneur unveils phone-connected school bell

By ERIC MATARA

In Summary

• Using a smartphone, a teacher can set an Android-based bell ringing gadget to go off at selected times.

When Amos Keter was in primary school, he was a bell ringer; a task he did not like much. It was time-wasting.

Mr Keter has now sought to help schools do away with bell ringers, ensuring all pupils focus through lessons and stay in class. Using a smartphone, a teacher can set an Android-based bell ringing gadget to go off at selected times.

Mr Keter who graduated from university in October says ringing bells manually saw him lose focus and time as he had to keep looking at his watch and leave the classroom.

“The idea was triggered when l realised that a lot of time was lost in ringing the bell manually,” Mr Keter told Enterprise.
He plans to sell the automated time management gadget to schools for Sh30,000.

The automated gadget, he says, consists of a timer which sends a signal at specific intervals to ring the electronic bell.

The software monitors lesson schedules and automatically triggers the bell to ring when the teacher leaves the classroom.

“Some of my classmates used to tamper with the school clock to end lessons they did not like before the scheduled time. Others would hide the bell to extend break-time and games lessons,” he says.

The automated bell also has an emergency trigger and a power backup.

“The system is not cumbersome and can be easily installed as it only requires a low-power electric connection and a phone using the Android-operating system,” he says, adding that it can work 24 hours a day round the year without fail.

Mr Keter’s love for technology started when he was in primary school. In Standard Seven, he says, he used to help his friends and relatives repair electronic items like watches, TV sets, mobile phones at a fee.

“I will offer my first digital bell to my former primary and secondary schools,” he says.