It is about embracing technology in which a switch to digital television broadcast is coming in soon starting with the capital Nairobi. Then thereafter Kenyan kids in public primary schools will be given free laptops. However, these devices are targeted at pupils entering standard one only.
In the media digitization front, the capital Nairobi is leading the shift which will then be extended to other cities and regions thereafter. While television broadcast shift has become a matter of concern, it is the laptop for pupils that is generating a lot of debates. The laptop devices for Standard One pupils are expected to truly turn the country into an ICT hub.
Already the country is considered the ICT giant of the East African region. The country is also constructing a digital city called Konza that sits just a few kilometers is from the capital Nairobi. Therefore, providing laptop for pupils in primary school does not seem far fetched.
Creating a techno-savvy generation looks like a daunting task but the benefits are incredible and this is the source of motivation to the new government that is pushing for the project. Providing laptop computers to school-children was one of the prominent promises made by the new administration. There has always been a desire to create a digital general and this is best captured by government policies and slogans hinged on the same.
This ambitious laptop project has attracted international and local ICT providers who are seeking for the tender to supply the devices. This is a multibillion shilling project that would be carried out each year as schools admit fresh Standard One pupils. The whole school ICT project is expected to create job opportunities for many unemployed people directly and indirectly.
The most prominent shortcoming of this project is that it excludes pupils from informal schools which are mostly community-run and situated in slums around the cities. Most, if not all of the pupils learning in the so-called informal schools come from very poor societies in which neither parents nor schools can afford to make available laptops of computers for their study. Equal ICT development cannot therefore be attained in the country if the children learning in informal schools are left out.
It has to be said that while ICT is scant among public primary schools pupils and the teachers, children in privately owned schools are way ahead in technology. Most pupils in private schools know how to use computers or laptops owned by their parents or which are available in school. This gap in ICT literacy is what seems to be pushing the government hard to bridge.
There are however downsides to this project as very few tutors in public primary schools are ICT literate. This is posing the greatest challenge because without human resource, the project could be dead on its arrival. The teacher crisis is also seen in the yarning gap of teacher to student ratio and this is one of the reasons the country has seen almost unending tassel between the government and teachers. This has sometimes culminated in weeks of industrial action, thus paralyzing learning the learning of Kenyan kids in public schools.
In the media digitization front, the capital Nairobi is leading the shift which will then be extended to other cities and regions thereafter. While television broadcast shift has become a matter of concern, it is the laptop for pupils that is generating a lot of debates. The laptop devices for Standard One pupils are expected to truly turn the country into an ICT hub.
Already the country is considered the ICT giant of the East African region. The country is also constructing a digital city called Konza that sits just a few kilometers is from the capital Nairobi. Therefore, providing laptop for pupils in primary school does not seem far fetched.
Creating a techno-savvy generation looks like a daunting task but the benefits are incredible and this is the source of motivation to the new government that is pushing for the project. Providing laptop computers to school-children was one of the prominent promises made by the new administration. There has always been a desire to create a digital general and this is best captured by government policies and slogans hinged on the same.
This ambitious laptop project has attracted international and local ICT providers who are seeking for the tender to supply the devices. This is a multibillion shilling project that would be carried out each year as schools admit fresh Standard One pupils. The whole school ICT project is expected to create job opportunities for many unemployed people directly and indirectly.
The most prominent shortcoming of this project is that it excludes pupils from informal schools which are mostly community-run and situated in slums around the cities. Most, if not all of the pupils learning in the so-called informal schools come from very poor societies in which neither parents nor schools can afford to make available laptops of computers for their study. Equal ICT development cannot therefore be attained in the country if the children learning in informal schools are left out.
It has to be said that while ICT is scant among public primary schools pupils and the teachers, children in privately owned schools are way ahead in technology. Most pupils in private schools know how to use computers or laptops owned by their parents or which are available in school. This gap in ICT literacy is what seems to be pushing the government hard to bridge.
There are however downsides to this project as very few tutors in public primary schools are ICT literate. This is posing the greatest challenge because without human resource, the project could be dead on its arrival. The teacher crisis is also seen in the yarning gap of teacher to student ratio and this is one of the reasons the country has seen almost unending tassel between the government and teachers. This has sometimes culminated in weeks of industrial action, thus paralyzing learning the learning of Kenyan kids in public schools.
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