Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study. Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
This message was sent to: bitange@jambo.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke
---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"
---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
This message was sent to: bitange@jambo.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke
---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"