By Hilton Mwabili
Use of technological tools in teaching is increasingly becoming the new norm for teachers and learners in private Early Childhood Development Education centres in Mombasa’s informal settlements.
Some schools have introduced a new mobile App-based learning that is changing digital learning techniques for learners in the PP1, PP2 and Grade 1 classes in line with the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
EIDU App, which was piloted by a German company, is installed with Mathematics and English lessons.
According to APBET National Secretary General Juma Athman Lubambo, the application enables autonomous, personalised preschool learning of children aged between 3-5 years to develop cognitive abilities on their own.
Athman Juma Lubambo says the programme is filling the gap left by the government in the provision of Tablets to learners in schools. Many of the Schools in the informal settlements have adopted the programme.
Speaking during a training session for over 100 teachers at Wesley Hall in Tononoka, Lubambo said 201 teachers from private schools in Nyali, Likoni and Mvita sub-counties had been trained on the programme.
“The new digital programme is targeting about 700 schools in Mombasa informal settlements. The aim is to ensure digital learning in vulnerable schools is fully implemented,” said Lubambo.
Max Dohna, head of Growth Africa EIDU, said the programme piloted in Kibera in 2015 had also been adopted in Lagos in Nigeria and there are plans to extend to Ghana and Uganda.
“The App has a simple, child-friendly, language-free interface. It is easy to use for parents and teachers. It also provides feedback to parents and teachers on each child’s progress,” said Dohna.
Teachers said it is convenient as it can be downloaded from Google Play. Some of the learners expressed their joy of gaining knowledge through mobile phones.
“We have distributed about 500 digital gadgets in various schools in Mombasa. It has cost us about 7 million Euros to distribute the teaching gadgets and train teachers and directors for free,” said Dohna.
Among the Schools that have adopted the APP is New Shamy, a private School in Tononoka.
According to the School director Shadrack Atick, the digital learning started this year and is progressing well. He said all teachers had been trained on digital literacy courtesy of the EIDU programme.
“The App provides the children with knowledge to use it themselves without supervision. It is made for self-learning. They also learn better critical thinking when solving problems on their own,” he said.
Hellen Dzombo, a Grade 1 Teacher at the school, said the main challenge was the shortage of the gadgets.
“The biggest challenge is that we only have one gadget in the entire school. If we can get more gadgets we can make digital learning easy,” said Dzombo.
