Grade four to grade nine learners in 12 public primary and junior schools in Isiolo county are set to benefit from a digital literacy program, tailored to enhance their skills acquisition in the Competency based Curriculum.
The Program is an initiative by the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), a regional economic bloc that brings together ten county governments in the arid and semi-arid Northern Kenya region, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and funded by the Raspberry PI Foundation.
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Schools in Isiolo identified through the Ministry of Education to benefit from the program include Mwangaza Primary and Junior, Shambani, Isiolo Barracks, Waso, Oldonyiro, Kiwanja, Ngaremara, Wabera, Kambi Garba, St. Kizito, Elsa and Kilimani.
Speaking during a training session for 15 ICT teachers who are set to impart the digital literacy skills to learners across the 12 public schools, Isiolo County Director of Education Caroline Mugo hailed the initiative as one that will revolutionize teaching and learning in public primary schools.
“During the pilot phase of the program which began from January to April last year targeting 10 schools, the impact of the program during those four months was evident.
The expectations are even higher now that the official roll out of the program has happened, with an addition of two more schools which brings the total number of beneficiaries to 12,”she said.
Mugo thanked FCDC and the Raspberry Foundation for donating laptop computers for use by the learners and teachers in the selected schools, some of which lacked the crucial ICT Labs prior to roll out of the program.
She noted that digital literacy was a crucial component of day to day activities in the modern world, therefore it was essential to equip learners with the required skills as early as possible, in line with the Competency Based Curriculum.
Isiolo County Government’s deputy County Secretary in charge of partnerships and NGO Coordination Mohamed Boru made an appeal to other organizations and the National Government through NGCDF to support FCDC and Raspberry Foundation in order to ensure that all public schools in the region benefit from the program.
All the 12 schools that are part of the program are in Isiolo Central, where challenges of electricity and mobile network connectivity are almost non-existent.
He called for a scale up of the program to reach out to learners in the far-flung sub counties of Merti, Cherab, Sericho, and Garbatula as well.
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“The County Government of Isiolo has also played a key role in the clamor for digital literacy, through establishment of the Youth Innovation Center in Isiolo town where young people learn basic ICT skills that enable them to earn a living,’ he said.
Representatives of ICT teachers from the 12 schools who have undergone capacity building training sessions from the time the pilot phase began last year also hailed the impact that the programme is already having on the learners, saying that it plays a key role in changing the mentality of learners to embrace computer studies from a young age.
“The foundation already laid, courtesy of the digital literacy programme will help the learners immensely especially when they transition to Grade 10 where they are encouraged to take the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Pathway,” they said.
The digital literacy programme is also being rolled out in all the ten counties under FCDC, which include Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Tana River, Lamu, Turkana and West Pokot.
By John Majau.
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