Education technology (EdTech) stakeholders recently held a summit where they discussed promotion of digital literacy in schools.
EdTech East Africa held its 3rd Kenya EdTech Summit 2024 in CEMASTEA, Nairobi where the experts also deliberated on how the private sector and government can work together to identify gaps in the EdTech space and provide solutions.
The event brought together key stakeholders across the EdTech ecosystem in East Africa to reflect on past successes and collaboratively shape the future of technology-enabled learning supported by the Mastercard Foundation and EdTech Hub.
The organization’s CEO and Kenya Co-Lead at EdTech Hub, Jeniffer Cotter-Otieno said the stakeholders provide critical evidence that guide developers in providing tech solutions to make the education system more effective using technology.
The Summit also celebrated ten years of the institution’s transformative impact in the EdTech sector.
“This Summit gives opportunity for people to have conversations on how to direct integration of digital resources and find evidence that supports what works and what doesn’t work and how we can make it work,” said EdTech East Africa Collective Action Lead Joan Mwachi.
Mwachi said they are working with partners to create conducive digital environment for children to thrive now and in the future through implementation of evidence-based policies.
“Everyone should embrace appropriate tech or be left behind, the world is moving forward, prepare for the future,” she said. “During covid-19 many people including teachers moved to digital space and EdTech is now advocating for resilience in uptake of technology.”
She said that they are building capacity of parents to also increase capacity of teachers and in turn support their children in adoption of technology.
In 2023, Kenyan startups got Ksh183 million to boost digital learning outcomes. The programme is expected to reach at least 2 million learners by 2026.
Francis Karanja from Ministry of Education, National ICT Innovation and Integration Centres, said the government will allocate more resources and enhance learning to ensure no learner is left behind when it comes to edtech.
Karanja, who represented PS Dr. Belio Kipsang, there are more opportunities sin the education technology field and they must be embraced and implemented.
Suraj Shah, Lead, Government and Strategic Partnerships, Regional Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Mastercard Foundation said technology cannot be removed from classrooms and stakeholders must make sure learners adopt quickly since technology is taking over all sectors.
“Personally I can rate Kenya as one of the top 4 countries in Africa in adoption of technology in education, many innovations took up during covid-19 to make sure learning continued,” he said.
Mastercard Foundation runs Edtech Fellowship Programme in partnership with iHub where innovators receive funding to equip learners with relevant and quality education through the use of technology.
Technology is rapidly taking over in all sectors, including education.
EdTech East Africa, which is a community of innovators and enablers, has been using technology to improve access, quality and relevance of education and to produce more inclusive, effective and resilient learning across East Africa.
By Obegi Malack | obegimalack@gmail.com
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