Numbers are no longer an issue taking into consideration the current momentum of e-leaders in our amidst:

Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centers - 29,500

Primary Schools - 19,890

Secondary Schools - 4,125

Tertiary - 3,200

ICT as an means....

The challenge is to increased access to Secondary Education which currently stand at 60% transition (i.e. percentage of class eight graduates to Secondary education). Big question then is, Does ICT provide answers to such an issue? Yes.... Thus need for prioritization of ICTs targeting Secondary Schools and Community Learning Centers to allow youth out of formal schooling to access Secondary Education.

Research also indicates that PC presence in schools, especially in Primary, have some influence on grade performance (sciences and mathematics). Primary schools with ICT infrastructure can benefit from huge knowledge-base and variety of digital content (largely Universal) available.

For digital villages and e-schools to succeed, the following have to be prioritized:

Content: appropriate content which supplements or complement current curriculum. Thanks to Mr. Sammy Kirui (Telkom) for identifying this need in ICT for Development Expo speech. This is the number one case: Without appropriate content, ICT becomes a luxury and hence no school management committees can justify ICT in education investment. Will there be some significant change in school performance after investment? Can school retention of students (against dropouts or transfers) be sustained? Will the syllabi be better delivered than is the case now?
Capacity building: yes digital content can be in place and infrastructure and all software we need to have envisaged e-institutions. Without training to manage the resources and utilized them, the investment will be run down within no time. Challenges of security (antivirus: experience we are observing in the NEPAD e-Schools), malfunctioning of hardware (physiological differences of our landscape - dust, heat, wind/ power access and physical security) and social threats of Internet introduced in our schools. Definitely, training is key. follow-up training is critical as well.
ICT Integration: This is an activity that involves integration of ICT in each subject area, making ICT a media for instruction, tool for delivery and channel for information access. e.g. if you're a biology teacher, we expect you to take students to a computer lab twice a week to teach some topics which require animation for better comprehension. If one teaches Kiswahili, we expect some lesson in "Ngeli na sentensi..." to be done in the lab... using Swahili version of software... This is what will demystify ICT from being a preserve for tech teachers to being a tool for every teacher every student rather than for computer students.
ICT Infrastructure access: the Numbers, yes, 30,000 Schools as indicated would require some resources. For an e-school to be effective, assuming two students will share a PC in our schools, a 45 Student stream class would use 25 PCs per lab. If the school is three streams, then you require a minimum of two labs. To have sharing of materials and resources done effectively and efficiently, a LAN is definitely required.
National and Regional ICT Support Centers: to act as institutions where issues are resolved as they arise in our e-institutions. Could it be content? Repair? Training follow-up? Replacement etc. Support centre should provide some helpdesk services.

Connectivity comes to add value to all interventions, especially when an e-institutions realize they have content that require others to access or they would require access to shared resources in some portal. In some cases, Internet might be supplementary to the above key points. Yes, we know Internet is a resource where the learner and info-seekers would benefit. It still lies with having content (appropriate content and security), capacity building (on sites, portals) and Sustainable connectivity options. Thanks to Kai and others who're sounding an alarm for provision of this treasured resource to our esteem education institutions (for Free!). With launch of various products by service providers in the recent past, it is expected that connectivity will be available in most parts of our country / continent! (CEO Safaricom and CEO Celtel -> ICT for Dev Expo quotes). I will be more observant to see demos of these products in a few e-institutions.

Thanks to PS InfoCom and all of you working to make eMado (Madaraka) PC a reality. I hope we have other players thinking on content (especially for e-education/e-learning) for various target groups; that will indeed make the eMado attractive.

Kind regards,

B. K. Sang

ICT Department

Ministry of Education

P O Box 30040-00100

Nairobi

----- Original Message -----

From: Alex Gakuru

To: bksang@education.go.ke

Cc: David Owino

Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 5:51 PM

Subject: Re: [kictanet] adopt a school

Whoaa... 30,000 Kenya schools?

Gakuru

Kai Wulff <kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke> wrote:

Hello,

we are willing to ADOPT the connectivity to all the schools for free!

Kai

----- Original Message -----

From: Rebecca Wanjiku

To: kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke

Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 15:09

Subject: [kictanet] adopt a school

Adopting Schools

It all started with “Adopt a light”, an ambitious city lighting project. Now, Manu Chandaria, industrialist cum philanthropist wants to apply the same concept in ICTs.

Speaking at the ICT for Development Expo opening ceremony on February 7, Chandaria challenged Kenyans to adopt schools and make sure they can access computers.

“You can change the face of your village school. Just go there and donate a computer. You can change the face of Kenya,” Chandaria said.

He also disclosed that he will finance a digital training centre in Mariakani. The centre will be expected to act as a base to establish digital villages in coastal area. One digital village will cost approximately shs 140,000 (USD 2000).

ends

Rebecca Wanjiku,
journalist,
p.o box 33515,
Nairobi.00600
Kenya.

Tel. 254 720 318 925

blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/

Get your own web address.
Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.

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