615 Schools in Narok Equipped With Digital Learning Devices

Join Our Telegram Group

615 public schools in Narok County have seen digital learning devices installed under the Digital Literacy Programme (DLP).

The County Development Implementation Coordination Committee (CDICC) while speaking at a meeting held in NAROK, the officer in charge of the DLP in the county, Silas Ng’etich said that installation of the devices is ongoing in 60 new schools in the county. The 60 schools never existed during the initial installation.

The officer in charge of the DLP said that 34,349 student devices were installed while 1,230 teachers’ digital devices were provided.

“An additional 615 digital content server wireless routers and a similar number of projectors have been installed with every school getting one each,” said Mr. Silas Ng’etich.

The Programme started by the Government of Kenya four years ago in 2016 is in the final stages of its first phase as the second phase begun in July last year (2019).

In the first phase, the Programme with the theme “Learn to Use”, young learners (in grade three and below) are exposed to learner-friendly technology to encourage early adoption.

Public primary schools received various kinds of devices, which had pre-installed content for learners in the lower grades.

During the first phase, over one million devices were installed in more than 23,000 public schools all over the country.

Most of the devices supplied to schools were developed within the country. Some of the producers of the devices are assembly plants in Moi University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

The assembly plants have boosted the supply of the Programme devices together with the manufacturing priorities as indicated in the Big Four Agenda.

The second phase is themed “Using to Learn”, the objective was to expose learners to technological ideas as well as expose them to the ideas for learning and hence boost innovation and creativity. Shared Digital Learning Resource Centres are set in schools with the required infrastructure and tools. The implementation of this phase will run up to 2023 and targets pupils in grades Four, Five, and Six.

The third stage of the program is themed as “using to produce” the technology is intended to make learning start utilize the use of technology for creating employment and also mentor learners for development tertiary and universities.

In this stage, advanced laboratories having tools to enable designing and prototyping of products will be established. This phase targets learners in grade Seven and above and will be implemented between 2023 and 2029.

Many Kenyans still wonder whether the Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) is still ongoing but Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Innovation and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said in the past month that the program was still ongoing and that the computer laboratories were set to be delivered in the second phase. The computer laboratories were one of the deliverables of the second phase of the program.