Revealed: Over 200,000 school tablets missing

 

Standard three pupils of Buyonge Primary School in Kisii County display their laptops after a science lesson on February 28, 2019. [File, Standard]

Schools are not able to account for more than 200,000 learners’ laptops that were supposed to integrate technology across all public primary schools.

The Standard has established that an audit by the Ministry of Education on learning institutions revealed some 242,053 tablets are missing.

The laptops were a brainchild of former President Uhuru Kenyatta and each learner in class one was to receive a tablet under the flagship project dubbed Digital Learning Programme (DLP).

The audit now reveals that out of the 1.078 million tablets reportedly distributed to public primary schools by the government, only 835,981 can be accounted for.

This means that some 242,053 tablets are missing, or cannot be accounted for - meaning the devices have either been spoilt, stolen or missing. The distribution of the laptops was done in 2016 and 2017.

The loss could deal a blow to the pursuit of integrating e-learning in Kenyan classrooms.

The details are contained in the latest school audit by the Ministry of Education titled Basic Education Statistical Booklet 2020. The Ministry, through its corporate communications office, dispatched the document last week to newsrooms.

In the report, the highest number of unaccounted devices is in Bungoma County, where 741 schools got 58,871 tablets. But data from the Ministry of Education shows that currently, there are only 40,930 tablets in the schools in the county.

Schools in Kakamega County, come second among institutions that could not account for the tablet devices with 14,817 devices missing out of the 66,404 distributed to 880 schools.

In Siaya, 10,457 devices remain unaccounted for; the county had received 31,746 tablets in 643 primary schools.

In Narok, 9,866 devices were unaccounted for, Busia (9,729), Kilifi (9,131), Homa Bay (8,677), Kisii (8,516), Kitui (8,007), Nakuru (7,256), West Pokot (7,182).

In contrast, schools in the counties of Taita Taveta, Lamu, and Isiolo had the least number of schools that could not account for the whereabouts of their tablets.

Taita Taveta

In Taita Taveta, out of the 7,025 tablets distributed, the Ministry of Education audit indicates there were 6,047 devices in schools. This means schools within the county could not account for 978 devices.

In Lamu, the number of unaccounted devices is 977 while Isiolo has the least number of unaccounted devices at (953).

In 2022, it emerged that some of the tablets meant for schools had found their way into Uganda after a post shared on a Facebook page of a seller advertising the tablets retailing for Sh4,000. In 2016, four schools in Bungoma County lost hundreds of branded tablets to thieves; 71 of the stolen tablets were recovered in Uganda in 2021.

According to the police, the devices were recovered after a Ugandan suspect carrying them on a motorbike was arrested at an unofficial border crossing. In 2017,46 tablets given to Mosobecho Primary School in Nandi County under the digital literacy programme were reportedly stolen.

In the same year, police recovered 33 tablets that had been stolen from Mwena Primary School in Kwale County. However, in the report, there is no explanation given on the whereabouts of the missing devices.

However, the fate of integrating ICT in teaching and learning in Kenyan schools remains hazy, with little to no advancement witnessed in rolling out the second phase of the programme. Besides the missing devices, the report notes that poor internet connectivity remains a major challenge hindering e-learning in schools.

It reveals that out of the 21,772 schools only 19.7 per cent of public primary schools with functional internet. “The internet access devices and bandwidth provided might not have the capacity to support school-wide e-learning,” the report reads.

The Sh24.6 billion ‘laptop’ project was touted as the answer to the missing piece of digital skills in schools. In 2016, the government through the Ministry of ICT reportedly began the distribution of 1.17 million devices to 21,772 public primary schools.

Out of this, data from the ICT ministry indicates, 1.08 million were tablets for learners, 43,240 teacher devices, 21,620 routers, 21,620 projectors, and 1,571 special needs education devices. 

During its inception in 2016, the government set out a plan to supply 95 per cent of learners in Class 1 with tablets. However, the implementation failed with only five per cent of schools affecting the use of the acquired gadgets.

In February 2019, the government put forth a spirited explanation that sought to discount the narrative that the laptops project is a total failure.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, in a brief to the national assembly committee on education, revealed that the plan to digitise teaching and learning in schools was laid out for execution in three phases whereby Phase I targeted young learners of Grades one to three.

This is the provision of tablets. Phase II was set for learners between Grades four to six and was to be conducted between 2019 to 2022; however, the progress of its implementation has remained sluggish while phase III targeted advanced learners of Grade 7 and above.

Kipsang announced that the Ministry of Education had abandoned the provision of tablets, and going into the second phase of the DLP, the State instead would focus on building computer labs in schools.

Instead, he revealed that each of the 25,000 public primary schools in the country would get one computer laboratory. Meanwhile, a proposal by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform seeks to revive the pursuit of e-learning in schools to support the delivery of the Competency-Based Curriculum.

In a document seen by The Standard, the reforms team has asked the government to lay the groundwork for ICT integration in schools.