More parties join laptop project team
- Education News
The Government is now seeking to bring on board stakeholders who had criticised the manner in which it was rolling out the Standard One laptop project. The inter-ministerial secretariat formed to oversee the implementation of the project is now reaching out to other players in the education sector including the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the school head teachers association.
Knut was among the groups that had joined the Opposition in criticising the roll-out of programme, terming it a misplaced priority by the Government. The project under the banner Digital Literacy Programme, is geared towards the delivery of education to primary school pupils through the use of ICT.
In a Ppress briefing yesterday, ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, to whose docket the project was transferred by the President, said a new implementation plan had already been drawn. He said the implementation of the project will be guided by four pillars, namely development of digital content, power supply to schools, adequate ICT training of teachers and the accessibility of content through multiple platforms.
Universal platform “We not only want to deliver the laptops, but we want to deliver content as well. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development has already developed interactive digital content for Standard One to Three and are now in the process of converting the content to a universal platform,” he said. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology will be responsible for training teachers on the technologies to be used in the project.
Dr Matiang’i pointed out that 61,000 primary school teachers have already been trained. The CS said the Rural Electrification Authority intends to connect all 22,175 public primary schools to electricity by December 2015.
The implementation secretariat comprises the ICT Authority, Cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries from the Treasury, Industrialisation and Enterprise Development, Education, Science and Technology, Energy and Petroleum and Devolution and Planning ministries. Other stakeholders that have been roped in include Knut, the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya Primary School Heads Association.
Knut Chairman Mudzo Nzili, who also attended the press briefing, called on Kenyans to support the project.
Reference : standardmedia.co.ke