By Paul M. Mbuki
The laptop project inaugurated by the Jubilee Government in 2017 is a fiasco. The Government implemented their campaign pledge by supplying every grade I pupil with a tablet computer. However, the project has stalled in most of the public schools and especially in the rural areas due to the following:
Lack of appropriate physical facilities is a major hindrance.It will be remembered that prior to the roll out of the project, every public school was allocated a paltry Sh60,000 to renovate one of the existing classrooms into a computer room. The schools did only what was possible with the little money.The rooms, are therefore, barely safe for the gadgets to be kept therein. Most school administrators have resorted to keeping the computers under lock and key in the offices instead of exposing them to theft.
The second hurdle is vandalism of school electric meters. Besides renovating the rooms, the Government made an effort of connecting most of the school with electricity or installed solar panels (where electricity is unavailable). However, most of the meters were vandalized as soon as they were installed. It will be noted that most schools employ only night watchmen. The schools are unguarded during the day.
Yet another hitch is lack of trained personnel. It is true that most primary school heads and lower primary teachers were exposed to a week’s Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) but the tutors were hardly conversant with the computer keyboard when the programme ended. Of course this was far from enough exposure to enable the teachers handle the gadgets with any degree of confidence. No wonder, many teachers freeze at the mention of the computers.
Political rebellion also is an impediment. The inception of the project took place at a time when the country was bleeding with political polarity. Some regions would have wanted to have nothing to do with anything remotely related to the Government of the day. Besides, since the launch, there has been no political good will on the project from the Government.
The other concern is the new curriculum. Since the inception of competence based curriculum for the lower classes on piloting basis, new instructional materials have been developed and published. The materials are yet to be uploaded in the computers. Additionally, neither the old nor the new curricula have a clear teaching programme for ICT lesson (s).
It is, therefore, unfortunate that unless something is done, the multi-billion project will become another white elephant, another dungeon into which tax payers’ money is dumped.
The authorities should try the following remedial actions:
They should allocate money for the project. The Government should allocate enough money for computer labs in schools for proper training of ICT teachers. Alternatively, the Government may consider employing ICT teachers who should use the facility to teach computer literacy to all the pupils in the school.
Then there is the security concerns. The Government should also purpose to beef up security in schools to curb vandalism.
Other concerns are time tabling. Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should consider allocating time for Computer Studies in the primary school curriculum besides uploading the most current curriculum materials in the computer programmes.
Lastly, the Government should consider re-launching the tabletproject and come up with a policy to support the programme in schools.
Paul Mbuki is a Masters student in Education at KeMu.
