The Kenya government has been keen to expedite the laptop project a key promise of the Jubilee government manifesto. The project referred to as the digital literacy program had stalled for several years despite budgetary allocations for its execution. The first step towards fulfillment of the process begun with the awarding of the tender for the supply of the devices to the consortia of Moi University– JP SA Couto and Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT)- Positivo BGH.
The consortia were then to conduct a pilot in 150 schools before the issuance of the devices to 23,000 schools across Kenya begun. Last week, this blog highlighted the steps involved in the issuance of the devices from these institutions to the schools. The process involves extensive training of the teachers before the eventual deployment of the laptops.
According to ICT CS, the government plans to issue 1.2 Million laptops by December 2017, to all standard one pupils across the country. The first batch of devices from China arrived in September and totaled 5,000 devices. The number of deliveries was set to rise to 30,000 devices weekly for subsequent delivery. The CS made the statement at the Innovation Africa 2016 Summit held at Safari Park Hotel.
The government is also taking the necessary measures to ensure they meet the annual demand for devices. This includes the partnerships being fostered with the institutions of higher learning such as JKUAT, which will locally assemble the devices. At the same event, the PS Ministry of Education said the government is working with book publishers in the creation of a cloud solution, which will see most of the content uploaded to a single platform for access. This would be both cost-effective for the publishers as they will no longer need to print revised editions of content besides making it easy for all to access content.
