Hope for KCSE candidates in Laikipia, as ministry launches E-learning pilot project

Laikipia County government has partnered with the Ministry of Education in piloting an e-learning system targeting this year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates in the region.

This comes as hundreds of candidates in the rural areas are struggling to catch up in their preparations for the national examinations.

Schools were shut down across the country following the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving learners especially from rural areas with no learning options.

Education executive Tabitha Mbiriri said the system developed in collaboration with the Teachers’ Service Commission will help the candidates to revise for the exams.

Already, teachers have been tasked with uploading the content for revision to the Moodle system, which will later be converted into a user-friendly module for revision.

“Students will have to be enrolled into the learning system for them to be able to access the revision content which will be monitored and assessed by the respective subject teachers,” Mbiriri said.

While the system is automated and a learner can proceed at their own pace, it has been programmed to limit them to follow a certain sequence of activity as will be determined by the teacher such that they must perform the first activity before proceeding to the next one.

The county is encouraging Form Four students to enroll and download revision materials using an android mobile phone, desktop or laptop computers. The system administrator will also be generating a progress report of each learner periodically.

Piloting of the system is ongoing at Gatero Girls High School, Thome Boys’ and Ngenia Secondary Schools, while Karaba Secondary School in Laikipia West sub-county is currently hosting the server.

By last week 52 per cent of 179 students at Gatero Girls, 17 per cent of the 52 students of Ngenia and 56 per cent of 68 targeted students from Thome Boys had enrolled for the e-learning. 

Roll out of the programme will be done after the pilot ends in a month to accommodate all Form Four candidates both in public and private institutions.