From 0% to 87% in 36 Days: School Box Africa's First Case Study
In School Box Africa's first completed case study, Titus Musiwa, a 29-year-old learner in Zambia, went from 0% to 87% on the same 15-question agriculture assessment in 36 days — and learned to make his own fertiliser and natural pest spray, save seed, build a potting mix and use AI every day.
School Box Africa's first completed case study measured one learner, Titus Musiwa, before and after its AI-powered agriculture course in Zambia. On 15 July 2026 he scored 0 out of 15 on the entrance assessment. Thirty-six days later, on 20 August 2026, he scored 13 out of 15 — 87% — on the identical 15 questions. Along the way he learned to make liquid fertiliser and a natural pest spray from local plants, to save seed, to test soil and build a potting mix, and to use AI as an everyday tool — and he taught two friends to do the same.
The result at a glance
| Measure | Before (15 July 2026) | After (20 August 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Score on the 15-question core assessment | 0 / 15 (0%) | 13 / 15 (87%) |
| Answers marked "I don't know" | 14 | 0 |
| Time between the two sittings | — | 36 days |
The exact figure is 86.7%. Both sittings used the same 15 questions on the same School Box Africa platform, so the comparison is like for like: nothing was added, dropped or re-weighted.
Chapter by chapter:
| Chapter | Before | After | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — Plant basics | 0% | 100% | 2 |
| 2 — Composting | 0% | 100% | 2 |
| 3 — Seeds and nursery | 0% | 50% | 2 |
| 4 — Seed saving | 0% | 100% | 2 |
| 5 — Indigenous micro-organisms (IMO) | 0% | 100% | 2 |
| 6 — Soil and mycelium | 0% | 100% | 2 |
| 7 — Water | 0% | 100% | 2 |
| 8 — Pests and disease | 0% | 0% | 1 |
Chapter 8 carries a single question, so one missed answer reads as 0%.
Who Titus is
Titus Musiwa is a 29-year-old from southern Zambia who enrolled through Patience Pays Institute. Before the course he did casual construction work with no contract and no security. In his own words: "You are a phone call away from work or no work." He had never used AI and had no background in agriculture.
His starting point was a genuine floor. Across the eight real learners assessed by School Box Africa so far, the average entrance score was 16.6%. Titus was the only one to start at zero — one wrong answer and fourteen "I don't know"s.
Asked on camera after the course how much he had known about agriculture beforehand, he answered before he had seen his score: "I would say it was 0.0. I never had an idea."
What he learned to do
The course is practical. Every chapter ends in a hands-on assignment that learners carry out and film, and Titus's work is on record:
- Making his own fertiliser. He brewed a JADAM liquid fertiliser (JLF) from organic matter found around him, in place of buying chemical fertiliser.
- Making a natural pest spray. He prepared a JADAM herbal solution (JHS), a plant-based spray used to protect crops without synthetic pesticides.
- Saving seed. He scored full marks on the seed-saving chapter, which covers selecting, drying and storing seed from one harvest for the next.
- Testing his soil. He ran a jar test to read the layers of sand, silt and clay in his soil, then acted on the result.
- Building a potting mix and raising seedlings. He sifted and combined a three-part potting mix and sowed seedling trays.
- Composting. He scored full marks on composting and on the living-soil chapters.
On the most valuable thing he took from the course:
"I was able to make fertilizer from the things around my environment… What was in my mind was always buying fertilizer, but now I'm able to make fertilizer on my own."
AI became an everyday tool
The course is taught by an AI tutor, and it changed how Titus finds answers. When he met new terms, he looked them up with Google's Gemini. After the course, he described what happens when his friends ask him something:
"I'll just quickly go to AI, and AI will give me the answer. Then I'll share with them… So far I have two friends that I introduced to Gemini."
That second step matters. One learner who had never used AI came out of the course teaching others to use it.
In his own words
"I've learnt a lot of things that I didn't know."
"It is not everyone that has these smartphones. But if we can have resources that we can be using from our tutors… I believe we have a lot of students that want to do this course."
"Instead, you paid me the knowledge." — Titus, on being asked whether he was paid to take part. He was not.
His point about smartphones is exactly the problem School Box Africa is built to solve. Each School Box hub provides shared AI learning stations, so a learner does not need to own a device to take the course.
How we measured it
- Same instrument. The same 15 core questions, on the same platform, 36 days apart.
- Raw count. We quote 13 out of 15 correct (86.7%), not a chapter average, which would give 81.25%.
- One learner. This is a single, closely documented case, not a cohort average. We publish it because it is measured cleanly, with signed consent and filmed evidence of each practical assignment.
- No payment. Titus was not paid to take the course.
- Consent. Titus signed a consent and media release on 4 August 2026 and agreed to be named and pictured here.
What it means
The case supports the core idea behind School Box Africa: an AI tutor, paired with hands-on assignments, can take someone with no background to working, practical competence in weeks, not years. It also shows what a learner does with that competence: he replaced something he used to buy with something he now makes, and passed AI on to the people around him.
School Box Africa is now taking what this case taught us into the next version of the course and into its first container hubs.
Frequently asked
What is the School Box Africa case study? It is School Box Africa's first completed, measured case study. It followed one learner, Titus Musiwa, through the School Box Africa AI agriculture course in Zambia and assessed him on the same 15 questions before and after.
What did Titus Musiwa achieve? He went from 0% (0 out of 15) on 15 July 2026 to 87% (13 out of 15) on 20 August 2026, an improvement achieved in 36 days.
What practical skills did he learn? He learned to make liquid fertiliser and a natural herbal pest spray from local materials, to save seed, to test soil with a jar test, to build a three-part potting mix, to raise seedlings and to compost.
Did the course teach him to use AI? Yes. He uses Google's Gemini to look things up, and after the course he introduced two friends to it.
How was the result measured? With the same 15-question assessment on the School Box Africa platform, taken before and after the course, 36 days apart. The average starting score across eight learners was 16.6%; Titus started at 0%.
Was the participant paid? No. Titus was not paid to take part.
What is School Box Africa? School Box Africa is an AI-powered education company that turns repurposed shipping containers into off-grid, solar-powered learning hubs with AI tutors, starting in Zambia. It is registered in Zambia via PACRA.