President Uhuru Kenyatta to address school heads

Primary school heads follow proceedings during the ongoing conference at Sheikh Zayed Hall in Mombasa Monday.  [PHOTO: Omondi Onyango/STANDARD]

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

MOMBASA; KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Tuesday face over 10,000 primary school head teachers and is expected to roll out his Laptop for Standard One programme scheduled to start next year.

The teachers, meeting in Mombasa for their annual conference, said they support the multi-billion Information and Communication Technology roll-out in their schools but noted that they must be fully involved in implementation.

Speaking yesterday, Kenya Primary School Head Association (Kepsha) National Chairman Joseph Karuga said the project has already elicited excitement among the pupils in their schools and noted that school managers must be fully involved.

“We cannot delay any plan to empower our children for the future. And as professionals, we do not mind the cost of the project. All we want is an effective and well-thought-out implementation strategy,” he said.

Teachers’ input crucial

He termed ‘unfair’ any move by the government to involve them in the project at a later stage, warning that their input is crucial in ensuring success of the programme.

“These activities will happen inside our schools and the spotlight will be shone on us. It is only fair that we are part of the entire process,” he said.

“All we are pushing for is sustainable quality education. We do not want the project to fail,” he added.

Uhuru will face the ‘project implementers’ in schools for the first time since he made the promise to Kenyans.

Some 20,367 primary schools are targeted to benefit from the project starting January next year.

 The government initially proposed a phased implementation strategy, with 424,748 pupils targeted in the initial stage expected to cost Sh15.3 billion.

Another set of 7,000 pupils will be brought in during the second and third phases of the project in the second and third year of implementation.

The Standard has however established that all the pupils joining Standard One next year will be given new laptops.

Initial estimates showed the project might cost over Sh50 billion if it is implemented at once.

The government advertised an international tender early last month for the procurement of 1.3 million laptops for pupils, and projectors and printers for the schools. The tender closes on September 10.

Documents from the Ministry of Education indicate that digital content for Standards One to Three has been developed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.