Garissa: At least 120 teachers from the frontier counties are benefitting from a digital literacy-training program, which they will in turn impart on the more than 34,844 learners in different schools in the counties.
According to Kenya News Agency, the program, which is sponsored by the Education Technology Easy Africa Organization (EdTech) and other partners in the education sector, is aimed at helping the teachers and learners in marginalized areas to access digital services and adopt technology in their classrooms.
Peter Wairagu, the Country Manager for Raspberry Pi Foundation, one of the partners in the program, stated that the trained teachers will become digital champions in their schools and will train their colleagues with the knowledge acquired. “We have seen the ripple effect that when you train one teacher, they also go to their schools and teach their colleagues because the current world is ICT integration for every subject, and we believe that before long, we shall be able to cover all the schools, reaching all the learners in the frontier counties,” Wairagu said.
The stakeholders aim to inspire young learners at an early age to venture into the ICT sector and become innovators by introducing technology in schools. During a press briefing in Garissa, EdTech CEO Jennifer Otieno emphasized the importance of creating a platform where different stakeholders can come together to create solutions for challenges facing the adoption of technology in schools. “We are a community of EdTech enablers and innovators coming together to see how technology can solve the challenges in the frontier counties to improve the effectiveness, inclusivity, and resilience of education,” Otieno said.
Otieno highlighted that their community includes policymakers, teachers, researchers, digital infrastructure providers, entrepreneurs, and community-based leaders. “The challenges in education are complex, and no single actor can solve these challenges alone,” she added. Since the program’s launch last year for frontier counties, there has been significant improvement in integrating ICT into the teaching process.
Abdullahi Maalim, the Regional Lead for Education and Governance in the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), expressed regret over the historical marginalization that has led to poor access to education and digital literacy in the counties. Maalim urged the Ministry of Education to provide more learning tablets to schools in the region, as many previously distributed tablets have broken down. He also noted that some areas lack network service or electricity, which are crucial for sustaining ICT learning, and called on development partners to address these challenges.
“The FCDC counties have undergone a lot of historical marginalization that have been caused by the whims of climate change, underdevelopment, and as a result, we have been performing badly in the developmental matrix, including education and digital literacy,” Maalim stated. “However, all is not lost. There are deliberate efforts by the National Government, the counties, and the development partners to ensure equalization and equity provisions, opening up the region for opportunities,” he added.
Other stakeholders in the program include the Ministry of Education, Unicef Kenya, AI for Education, and the MasterCard Foundation.