House committee grills Education CS Jacob Kaimenyi on stalled laptop project

NAIROBI, KENYA: Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has maintained that the laptop project was still on course despite a case lodged at the High Court by Olive Telecommunications Limited.

Kaimenyi said following the tender award to Olive Pvt Limited, the procurement process was put on hold after Hewlett-Packard Europe and Haier Electronics filed requests for review at the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.

"Based on the ruling of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board, the successful bidder, Olive Telecommunications Pvt filed a case in the High Court for direction," said Kaimenyi.

While appearing before Parliament's Education Departmental Committee yesterday, Kaimenyi explained that due diligence report prepared by information and communication experts from University of Nairobi, Strathmore and JKUAT was submitted to the Ministerial Tender Committee.

The tender committee awarded a negotiated delivery contract to Olive Telecommunications at a cost of Sh24.6 billion.

The education committee put to task Kaimenyi to explain teacher preparedness on the use of ICT and their ability to teach Class One pupils on laptop use once delivered.

The Education CS said the ministry, in collaboration with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), and has trained 150 national master trainers whose role is to undertake training of trainers across the counties.

In Nairobi County, 700 teachers have been trained and ready to use ICT devices for teaching and learning. Currently, teacher training is at the second tier of Trainer of Trainers (ToTs) where 3,000 have been trained at the county level.

"These ToTs are expected to carry out training of at least two teachers from each of the beneficiary schools where it is convenient and cost effective for teachers to commute daily to cut down cost," said Kaimenyi.

However, the MPs challenged Kaimenyi to state if the schools identified for the implementation of the project have been connected with electricity.

Reports from the Rural Electrification Authority indicate that progress has been made to ensure schools are ready to roll out the laptop programme and show that about 10,157 primary schools are already connected to electricity.

The committee also questioned Kaimenyi on why some school heads are still withholding candidates' certificates for various reasons including clearing tuition and other payments.