Innovative teachers in Embu County are putting to use tablets distributed to schools more than a decade ago, giving rural learners a chance to build digital and computer literacy skills. Many of the devices elsewhere remain idle in stores or have been damaged.
In some schools in Mbeere North, learners take photos and record videos of school activities, including outdoor lessons, under the guidance of teachers with basic ICT skills who volunteer their time. This has eased learners' familiarisation with digital gadgets in rural schools where access to such devices has for years remained minimal, even as the use of Android smartphones deepens.
At Kiamuringa Comprehensive School in Mbeere South, two teachers went out of their way to start using the tablets and made them accessible to learners of all grades through forums they created. The devices, which would otherwise have deteriorated in stores where they remained for years after government distribution, are now used by teachers and learners to record events during school functions.
"I just decided to use my own innovation to start utilising the tablets by first guiding the learners on gadget safety and removing their inherent fear of digital gadgets, which is normally associated with the presumption that the gadgets could get easily damaged," one of the teachers said.
In most schools across Mbeere South, however, teachers say the tablets remain in stores, and many have been damaged after head teachers hesitated to allow interested teachers to use them.
A teacher who asked to be identified only as Kinyua, saying he has no authority to speak on behalf of the schools, said that in two schools where he has taught in the Kiambere area most of the tablets were damaged because of poor storage, and many were stolen.
"After the government distributed the tablets, they ended up in some schools lacking storage facilities, electricity and other infrastructure, and in most instances under head teachers hesitant to embrace digital gadgets for fear of their damage and disciplinary action by the government," Kinyua said.
He said that where teachers claimed to know how to use the tablets, the lack of electricity and safety measures led head teachers to withhold the devices from them.
Experts warn that while the aims of government ICT policies remain clear, uncoordinated efforts and weak links with other government organs have remained a drawback to their full adoption in education and other government services.
They say teachers' ICT skills remain low, and that trainers and lecturers employ little research and innovation. As a result, technology is not being fully used in educational institutions to support teaching, learning and management as anticipated, which has hampered the government's drive to integrate ICT in education, training and research.
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