President Uhuru Kenyatta and  local leaders are shown products at  ICT  Integrated stand by Standard Eight student  of  Nairobi  Primary  School,  Stephanie  Ghatie  at the Sheikh Zayed  Hall in  Mombasa yesterday. This was during the official opening of this year’s 9th annual Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers conference.  [Photo: Maarufu Mohamed/Standard]

By PSCU

MOMBASA; KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta has disclosed that preparation for a rigorous, cost-effective and accountable procurement of laptops is underway, moving the implementation of his Jubilee administration’s programme closer to fruition.

President Uhuru said all public primary school managers will have to update their capacity to implement a technology-based curriculum as government rolls out the laptop programme.

“My administration has embarked on the initiative to supply children commencing primary school with laptops,” President Uhuru told the 9th annual conference of the Kenya Primary School Head Teachers Association at Sheikh Zayyed Children’s Centre in Kisauni, Mombasa.

He emphasised government's determination to raise a generation of Kenyans who will be equipped - at the earliest possible point in their lives - with globally competitive competencies.  This will give Kenya the edge it needs in innovation, service and industry to lead the region and continent, he said.

“The transformation has begun, and there is no looking back.  It is taking place in the classroom, we are serious,” the President said.

He pointed out that the laptops will usher in an era of interactive, student-centred teaching that will free teachers to mentor pupils and perform their core educational roles.

The President said the laptop programme will also bring electric power connection to many primary schools in the country for the first time.

In addition to the laptops project, the Jubilee administration plans to triple current electricity capacity of 1,600 megawatts to at least 5,000 megawatts in just three years.

“As far as child friendly initiatives go, nothing promises greater gains in our time.  The laptops usher in “new beginnings” and an “enormous birth.”  Please embrace them,” President Uhuru said, quoting from “the Mental Flight”, a book by famed Nigerian author Ben Okri.

Apart from imparting knowledge and skills, the President said the education system must focus on the quality and integrity of the citizen it is nurturing. The education system should inculcate intellectual probity and national cohesion that will curb corruption, tribalism and lack of civic-mindedness that have wrought unimaginable damage to the national fabric, he said.

“We require a system that honours competitiveness without demoting consideration for others.  The ethos of selflessness and service must find its way back into the classroom, somehow, and into the minds and hearts of our children,” the President said.

The primary school head teachers, led by the Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association (KEPSHA) National Chairman, Mr Joseph Kairu Karuga, supported the government’s laptop initiative, saying the issue is not if but when it will commence.

Mr Karuga said integration of ICT in primary schools will boost the learning environment and equip pupils with adequate skills.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), including chairman Wilson Sossion, also spoke at the conference. Mr Sossion called President Uhuru “a partner who well understands needs of our teachers. A man who has never let teachers down.”

Laptops for primary school children are at the heart of the Jubilee government’s education reform programme. It was clear on Tuesday that the programme would be implemented smoothly after the head teachers and the unions fully committed to its implementation.