Global digitization is shaking up many nations in Africa, and for this reason Kenyan kids are on the brink of a technology major scoop. The country is seeking to live up to its status as the technology hub of East Africa by providing laptop computers to primary school pupils. This is actually one of what could turn out to be the legacy of the new administration.
The country is taking a big IT leap and all these are expected to pay off in the near future. Giving computers to Standard One pupils is expected to help nurture talents from an early stage. This East African country has been projected as the ICT hub in the region and now all seem set to digitize the whole nation. The laptop project for the primary school pupils is a multibillion shilling development. Several local and international businesses are already jostling for the tender to offer the laptops for the children. An estimated 800,000 children are expected to benefit from the mini computers.
The laptop for Standard One pupils is expected to help nurture talents from a very early age that would help the country drive forward the wheels of its economy. Already, the country is constructing a multibillion shilling ICT city in the peripheries of the capital Nairobi. This technology city is called Konza and is tipped as one of its kind in east and central Africa.
In embracing ICT, it is only the public schools and the so-called informal schools in the country that are lagging behind. Most private schools in the capital have long embraced ICT and many pupils there as early as standard one can use laptop or desktop computers. It is this technological gap that the government seems determined to bridge.
However, there are opposing forces which either object to the giving of computers to primary-school pupils completely, or those who that think the project is ill-timed. The country is said to still have poor classrooms and poorly equipped ICT teachers. These are some of the reasons opposition is mounting against the laptop project for the Standard One pupils.
It is important to note that the types of laptop computers to be supplied are solar powered. This deliberately so given that the country is still not wholly connected with electricity. Therefore, solar powered devices would be still usable in the rural villages where electricity is not available. As if to facilitate proper electricity connectivity, a project dubbed rural electrification is being rolled out in most of the rural set up that are yet to be connected to the national grid.
There is another downside to this laptop for primary schools project. Majority of tutors in public primary schools are hardly computer literate. This poses a challenge on how the project would meet its object with such an ill-equipped human resource, and besides an unreliable human resource, there is also the problem of teacher shortage.
In the same category of ICT illiteracy among Kenyan kids are pupils in the so-called informal schools which are found in informal settlements around the cities. Such schools are mostly community-run and are ill-equipped and ill-funded. Unfortunately, pupils in informal schools are not part of the targeted beneficiaries in the free laptop project.
The country is taking a big IT leap and all these are expected to pay off in the near future. Giving computers to Standard One pupils is expected to help nurture talents from an early stage. This East African country has been projected as the ICT hub in the region and now all seem set to digitize the whole nation. The laptop project for the primary school pupils is a multibillion shilling development. Several local and international businesses are already jostling for the tender to offer the laptops for the children. An estimated 800,000 children are expected to benefit from the mini computers.
The laptop for Standard One pupils is expected to help nurture talents from a very early age that would help the country drive forward the wheels of its economy. Already, the country is constructing a multibillion shilling ICT city in the peripheries of the capital Nairobi. This technology city is called Konza and is tipped as one of its kind in east and central Africa.
In embracing ICT, it is only the public schools and the so-called informal schools in the country that are lagging behind. Most private schools in the capital have long embraced ICT and many pupils there as early as standard one can use laptop or desktop computers. It is this technological gap that the government seems determined to bridge.
However, there are opposing forces which either object to the giving of computers to primary-school pupils completely, or those who that think the project is ill-timed. The country is said to still have poor classrooms and poorly equipped ICT teachers. These are some of the reasons opposition is mounting against the laptop project for the Standard One pupils.
It is important to note that the types of laptop computers to be supplied are solar powered. This deliberately so given that the country is still not wholly connected with electricity. Therefore, solar powered devices would be still usable in the rural villages where electricity is not available. As if to facilitate proper electricity connectivity, a project dubbed rural electrification is being rolled out in most of the rural set up that are yet to be connected to the national grid.
There is another downside to this laptop for primary schools project. Majority of tutors in public primary schools are hardly computer literate. This poses a challenge on how the project would meet its object with such an ill-equipped human resource, and besides an unreliable human resource, there is also the problem of teacher shortage.
In the same category of ICT illiteracy among Kenyan kids are pupils in the so-called informal schools which are found in informal settlements around the cities. Such schools are mostly community-run and are ill-equipped and ill-funded. Unfortunately, pupils in informal schools are not part of the targeted beneficiaries in the free laptop project.
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