Set up your school in Takimu, step by step.

1. Sign in and understand where things are

Who this is for: school owners, principals and other staff who already have a Takimu account.

On a computer

1. Open Chrome, Edge, Safari or another web browser.
2. Go to takimu.co.ke.
3. Select Sign in in the top-right area of the website.
4. Click the Email address box and enter the email registered for your Takimu staff account.
5. Click the Password box and enter your password. Passwords are case-sensitive.
6. Select the green Sign in button.
7. If your details are correct, the school Overview page opens.

On a computer, the main sections are listed in the left-hand menu. Depending on your role, you may see Overview, Learners, Attendance, Academics, Announcements, Staff, Activity and Settings.

On a phone

1. Open your browser and go to takimu.co.ke.
2. Tap Sign in in the website header.
3. Enter your email address and password, then tap Sign in.
4. Use the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen for the main sections available to your role.
5. For additional options, tap Tools near the top-right of the Takimu dashboard.

If you cannot sign in: make sure you are using the staff sign-in page rather than the Parent Portal. Check the spelling of your email, confirm Caps Lock is not changing your password and ask the school owner or principal to verify that your account is active.

2. Create the school if it does not exist yet

Who can do this: the person who will become the school owner. Do this only once for each school.

1. Go to takimu.co.ke.
2. Select Get started.
3. Enter the owner's full name.
4. Enter an email address controlled by the owner or school. This will become the owner's sign-in email.
5. Create a private password of at least eight characters.
6. Enter the school's official name exactly as you want it to appear in Takimu and on reports.
7. Select the curriculum used by the school.
8. Select the correct academic year and current term.
9. Review the information carefully, then complete school creation.
10. Takimu signs the owner in and opens the new school workspace.

3. Complete school settings before adding academic records

Who can do this: school owner or principal.

Open School settings

1. On a computer, select Settings from the left menu. On a phone, tap Tools, then tap School settings.
2. The School settings page opens.
3. Under School identity, confirm the official school name.
4. Add the school email and phone number if available.
5. Add the school logo URL if you already have a publicly accessible logo link. This field is optional.
6. Enter the postal address or P.O. Box if the school uses one.
7. Enter the school motto if you want it to appear on official report forms.

Confirm the academic period

1. Scroll to Academic setup.
2. Select the correct curriculum.
3. Check the Academic year.
4. Select the current term: Term 1, Term 2 or Term 3.
5. Leave the timezone as Africa/Nairobi.
6. Select Save settings.
7. Look for the confirmation message School settings saved.

Why this matters: the year and term are used when Takimu prepares attendance, assessments, analytics and reports. Check these settings before beginning a new term.

4. Add staff and give each person their own account

Who can do this: school owner or principal.

Open Staff & access

1. On a computer, select Staff from the left menu. On a phone, tap Tools, then tap Staff & access.
2. Find the section titled Add staff member.
3. Enter the staff member's full name.
4. Enter an individual email address for that person. Do not share one account between several staff members.
5. Add a phone number if needed. This is optional.
6. Choose the correct role: Principal, Deputy principal, Teacher or Class teacher.
7. Create an initial password of at least eight characters.
8. Select Create staff account.
9. Wait for the message Staff account created.
10. Give the staff member their email address and temporary password privately.

If a staff member forgets the password

1. Return to Staff & access.
2. Find Reset staff password.
3. Select the staff member from the list.
4. Enter a new temporary password of at least ten characters.
5. Select Reset password.
6. The old password stops working and the staff member's other signed-in sessions are closed.

If an email is rejected as a duplicate: that email is already attached to another staff account in the school. Find the existing account instead of creating a second one.

5. Create classes and assign class teachers

Who can do this: owner, principal or deputy principal.

1. On a phone, tap Tools and then Classes & streams. On a computer, you can also open the Classes & streams tool from the Tools page.
2. Under Add a class, enter the class name teachers and parents already recognize, for example Grade 7 East.
3. In Level, enter the grade or level, for example Grade 7.
4. If the school uses streams, enter the stream name, for example East. This is optional.
5. If the class teacher's staff account already exists, select that teacher in Class teacher. Otherwise leave it as Not assigned.
6. Select Add class.
7. Look for the message Class created.
8. Repeat these steps for every active class or stream.

Assign or change a class teacher later

1. Stay on Classes & streams.
2. Scroll to Class teacher assignments.
3. Find the correct class.
4. Select the correct teacher from the dropdown list.
5. Select Save.

If a teacher does not appear in the list: first confirm that the teacher has an active Teacher or Class teacher account under Staff & access.

6. Add learners individually or import a spreadsheet

Who can do this: owner, principal or deputy principal.

Add one learner

1. Open Learners.
2. Select + Add learner.
3. Enter a unique Admission number.
4. Select the learner's class. If you are not ready to assign a class, leave it as Unassigned.
5. Enter the learner's first and last name. Middle name, date of birth and gender are optional.
6. If you already have the primary guardian's details, enter the guardian name and phone number. Email is optional at this stage.
7. Select the relationship, for example Parent, Mother, Father or Guardian.
8. Select Save learner.
9. If Takimu says the admission number already exists, find and edit the existing learner instead of creating a duplicate.

Import many learners from Excel or Google Sheets

1. First create all the classes you expect to use. The class names in your spreadsheet should match Takimu exactly.
2. Open Tools and select Import learners.
3. Select Download CSV template if you need an example file.
4. Open the template in Excel or Google Sheets.
5. Fill in the required columns: admission_no, first_name and last_name.
6. Add optional columns such as class, guardian name, guardian phone and guardian email where available.
7. Use dates in YYYY-MM-DD format. Use MALE, FEMALE or OTHER for gender.
8. Save or download the spreadsheet as a CSV file. The upload must be smaller than 5 MB.
9. Return to Takimu and select Choose learner CSV.
10. Select your CSV file, then select Import learners.
11. Review the import result. Duplicate admission numbers and invalid rows are skipped. Unknown class names are imported as unassigned so you can correct them later.

7. Prepare subjects, learning areas and teacher assignments

Who can do this: school leadership. Teachers can only work with academic assignments given to them.

1. Open Academics.
2. Open Subjects.
3. Create each subject or learning area used by the school.
4. Open the subject after creating it.
5. Assign the subject to the correct class and responsible teacher.
6. Repeat for every class where that subject is taught.

If a teacher cannot see a subject, class or assessment option: do not change their role first. Check the subject-to-class teacher assignment because Takimu intentionally limits teachers to their assigned academic work.

8. Final setup check before teachers begin

Before asking teachers to start attendance or marks, confirm all of the following:

• The school name, year and current term are correct in School settings.
• Every staff member has their own active account.
• All active classes have been created.
• Class teachers are assigned where required.
• Learners are in the correct classes.
• Subjects or learning areas exist and have been assigned to the correct classes and teachers.