eKitabu, an East African e-book provider in collaboration with Intel Corporation challenged the Kenyan government to prioritize digitizing education in the country.
Danie Steyn, the General Manager of Intel East Africa exhibited a sample of the programs of Math and English subjects that could be inculcated in the school computers. He said that since the world has now gone digital, such programs should be considered in the school curriculum along side the use of text books.
Mr. Lawrence Njagi, chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA), in agreement with Intel East Africa GM said that digitizing education is now a necessity and no longer a debate. He however said that the e-books publisher should ensure that the programme should make it more local.
“When an illustration is made in the e-book it should show what is available in the country. If an illustration says Matthew slide in snow, the local version should be Kamau, or any other local name, slide in mud. That will make more sense to the Kenyan child because teaching comes from the known to the unknown,” said Njagi.
The Mr. John Temba director of ICT, Ministry of Education confirmed that the ICT development in the education sector is being worked on.
“we are working n improving the ICT situation in the sector, we have advised the cabinet secretary though a memo, on how to implement the software material in the system and are waiting for response which had been delayed by the teachers strike,” he said
Temba added that added that training of the teachers will also enhance ICT growth as well as acquiring the learning resources in the education sector.
Lawrence Njagi also said that ICT growth is beyond laptops for class one but involves computers for each student. This he said will help students to grow intellectually
“Students from such schools in most cases have higher literacy skills as compared to their counterparts with no computers in school,” he said.