Teachers to benefit from TSC/Microsoft EA partnership

Sci & Tech

By Fredrick Obura

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Microsoft East Africa have created a social website, mwalimukenya, for teachers to promote online interaction among teachers across the country.

During the launch of the site, the two organizations said the forum would help teachers discuss issues affecting their daily work and share best practices for the betterment of education in the country.

“We would like to pass technology benefits to our education sector, through the forum teachers will be able to interact freely with colleagues and share learning materials created on the website,” said Mark Matunga Microsoft’s Regional Education Manager.

“We are also going to pass to teachers benefits such as direct communication with their employer without physically travelling to the headquarters in Nairobi, and ease sharing and storing documents online,” he said.

To activate an account, a teacher needs to log on to the site using their TSC number.

Matunga says an email account would be created instantly to enable teacher search for friends in the teaching fraternity, create a blog site and start sharing experience with colleagues.

He was speaking during the 7th Kenya Primary Schools Head teachers Association (KEPSHA) delegates’ conference in Mombasa last week where thousands of public primary school head teachers drawn from schools in Kenya have converged.

Joseph Karuga, National Chairman-KEPSHA- challenged the government to increase teachers salary to enable them have extra money to buy laptops and Internet for easier adoption of technology in schools.

Through various partnerships, a lot of progress has been made in infusing ICT in learning institutions.

Recent partnership between the Kenya Institute of Education, Kenya Literature Bureau, and Microsoft has enabled easier digitization of lower primary school learning materials.

The development makes it easier for teachers to now have access to a digital curriculum, the first of its kind in Africa.

To further make technology scalable to schools and bridge the digital divide, Microsoft has availed Windows 7 and Office 2010 products at a subsidized cost to the Ministry of education.

In addition, through a partnership with Safaricom and the Kenya Institute of Education, teachers across the country stand to benefit from basic ICT training, supply of computers, e-learning accessories and high-speed Internet connectivity through the Teacher Laptop Program.

In showcasing the latest technology solutions designed for schools at the conference, Microsoft displayed the recently launched Windows Multipoint Server 2011.

It is a Windows-based solution designed specifically to help educational institutions give every student individual access to PCs by allowing multiple users to simultaneously share one computer, each with an independent Windows experience.

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