Schools laptop project almost complete in Nyeri, says CS Mucheru

Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru has insisted that there is no turning back in the laptops project, as it would reverse the gains made in pushing the nation towards the digital ages.

Mucheru was speaking in Nyamachaki Primary school, Nyeri County after he kicked off an inspection tour of the laptops issued to several public primary schools in the area.

He said the call by opposition leaders to scrap the laptops project was archaic and would harm the progress

"We cannot go back to hard copy textbooks yet the world is moving towards smart devices, we need to develop IT skills in our children so they can be competent in a digital world," He noted.

Mucheru said 95,000 teachers have been trained in ICT across the country with 1160 teachers trained based in Nyeri County.

"We are working to push local universities to increase the number of locally assembled devices to 166,000," the CS said.

At least 383 schools in Nyeri County have been supplied with government laptops for Std one pupils under the digital literacy Programme which aims at delivering over 1.2 million devices to all public primary schools in Kenya.

The CS who is conducting a two day inspection of six schools in Nyeri County, said the one millionth laptop will be issued next week.

"So far the laptops project is 100 percent complete in Nyeri with over 300 schools supplied with laptops in the county, we are getting ready to roll out the next phase of the project," he said.

However The Standard conducted a random check on various public schools in Nyeri and confirmed that in some instances the laptops were available but not in use because they were not enough.

In one school in Mathira Constituency, the school has 160 Std one pupils but was only issued 30 laptops.