Thanks Robert for sharing this from the conference. I am not an IT person but I believe in its immense value. I am struggling to help improve the physical infrastructure at a young community secondary school in my village which I and other community members have initiated this year- the first lot of Form one-students were admitted this year. I would like to from very early integrate IT in the learning process although we do not have electricity in the village, way out in Ndhiwa Constituency/District, but we are informed it will eventually be provided through the Rural Elecrification Fund. I am also keen to help the local community benefit from IT. I am currently using solar to help them with photocopy services and intend to start a computer training centre for them. I am looking for advise from you who are experts in this field on the best and most cost effective approach to empowering both the community and the school. William Oloo. 0722697927 --- On Mon, 8/15/11, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] National ICT Innovation and Integration Centre To: williamjanak@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Monday, August 15, 2011, 4:04 AM Hi, I had the privilege of attending the official opening of the National ICT Innovation and Integration Centre by Hon. Ongeri at the Kenya Science Campus. The investment is major and they seem to be forecast on their objective of integrating ICT into the primary and secondary school curriculum and administration. During the launch the Education Secretary in his speech indicated that the ministry was to set-up computer labs in 1021 schools, 5 in each constituency an issue the Minister picked during his off the cuff speech when he requested a clarification from the the Education Secretary as to the best of his knowledge the schools to be reached were supposed to be 1050. This raised an interesting issue, the reason was that there are actually constituencies in this country that have less than 5 secondary schools which might increase after the additional constituencies recommended. It was interesting how the minister was able to give a quick resolution by directing that the allocated computers must remain in the constituency and not reallocated elsewhere, a clear sign that there are effective leaders in this country. It was interesting to realise that there is a clear distinction between the various facets of education namely learning, teaching and management. The fact that the ministry and other stake holders have this clearly defined means that we are likely to see a more holistic implementation of technology. The initiative has also rolled out a portal called www.elimuportal.net, which was down as of this writing but is fortunately hosted locally, we hope they will also see it necessary to give it a .ke domain. From the presentation this portal will become the hub for teacher and student resources so we hope that the KICTB and the e-government have allocated them space in the forthcoming national data centre. It is interesting how much information you can gather at a government function, I now know and share some of the insights. 1. There are 265,000 teachers country wide but we still have a shortfall of 70,000 teachers. With the new directive that all teachers must have degrees it means that if we force all graduates to become teachers it will take us over 3 to 5 years to meet the 70,000 shortfall. If we have a demand growth of 5% per annum, cumulative, then it will take us forever to bridge the shortfall. The minister realises this and made a request that we look for innovative ways to deal with this shortfall which is where we come into the picture. Solutions such as radio and tv lessons (digital transmission) and the paradigm shift by initiatives like khanacademy mean that we have the tools and all we need is the will. 2. There are 8.6 million students in primary schools up from 5.9 million in 2005 with a transition rate of 72.5% up from 45% in 2005. The recommended transition rate from primary to secondary proscribed under MDG goals is 70%, this is a clear indication that we are making progress. I am sure many of you have this statistics at your finger tips as a result of the Open Data initiative but I still felt obligated to share what I learnt from spending my morning at the launch. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/williamjanak%40yahoo.co... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. 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