Tata Wekesa, a teacher at St Augustine Academy is currently at the 40th hour as she is attempting to smash the Guinness World Record for the longest Science lesson by teaching 60 hours non-stop.
Held at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Wekesa began the marathon on Tuesday, February 13, and is scheduled to continue until Friday, February 16.
In a video doing rounds on the internet, Wekesa and her students are seen clad in white lab coats, fully immersed in the science lesson with an array of assembled apparatus.
Wekesa who was meant to teach for 50 hours, aims to extend the lesson for another 10 hours making it 60 hours.
In an interview before the event, Wekesa shared her motivation for the feat noting that she wanted to encourage students to love Sciences.
“I decided to do this because as a teacher I do not like how science classes are packed and many students end up not fulfilling their potential. I want to show the doable and interesting side of science. I want to motivate young ones in school who want to become teachers by showing a teacher can achieve greater things beyond the classroom,” Wekesa said.
Adding;
“Teaching is a noble career and teachers should be highly esteemed. I intend to use the platform and the record to reach out to bodies that make policies to do with education and advocate for reforms.”
“I have been working on building my endurance, I have a team behind me that has helped with the lesson plan. The past three days, I stayed awake for 44 hours to train my body to stay awake,” Wekesa told the journalists.
Longest Science lesson in history
According to the Guinness World Record, the record for the longest Science lesson was broken in 2008 by an Indian teacher, Kathiravan M Pethi and 36 students who were all Indians.
GWR says the lesson took 78 hours and 3 minutes.
The class was held at the Association of Physicians of India in Bangalore, India, spanning from October 31, to November 3, 2008.
