Survey: Kenyans want more teachers, not free laptops

Pupils from Mikindani Primary School display their tablets at the school. [PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD]

The Government's effort to connect primary schools to electricity and distribute e-learning tablets seems not to have impressed Kenyans.

A new survey by Ipsos revealed that a majority of Kenyans instead prefer that the Government hires more teachers, buys books and improves infrastructure in public institutions.

According to the survey released yesterday, when Kenyans were asked what they think will 'most help' improve learning conditions in primary schools, only one per cent said tablets.

This was the same case with 'adding more bursaries', with electricity getting just two per cent.

But 43 per cent cited more or better teachers as the cure to the country's education sector.

According to Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), the country has a shortage of 83,000 teachers.

Some 20 per cent want more supply of books while 12 per cent of Kenyans call for improved infrastructure with more and improved classrooms, according to the survey.

"By region, only North Eastern does these improvements attract a slightly higher proportion of mentions. This is perhaps surprising, given the widely-publicised shortage of teachers in this region due to security concerns and a dearth of locals with suitable qualifications," reads the survey.

This scenario replicated itself in the secondary school level where 34 per cent of Kenyans suggest more teachers, more books supply (14 per cent) and 12 per cent suggesting better buildings.

Other needs cited as essential in improving the conditions in schools are improved water supply, better communication with parents, changing the school's leadership and providing food.

At least Sh29 billion has been spent in connecting some 22,000 primary schools across the country to pave way for the Jubilee Government belated laptop project.

The Ministry of Education and that of Information Communication Technology have already embarked on distribution of tablets to schools with over 80,000 teachers trained on the devices.

The Government's target was that by December 2016, 1.2 million devices should have been distributed through the Sh17 billion project.

In the survey, despite a majority of the 2,507 people polled indicating that the 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education performance was poor (78 per cent), 77 per cent were confident that the results were credible.

This is even as Knut has called for an audit of the results citing disparities in the way girls and boys performed.