Student housing key to reopening conversations

More than 60 per cent of schools worldwide have been closed due to the coronavirus. This has altered the way learning takes place in a big way. Consequently, many schools have taken advantage of the digital technologies available in the market and shifted to online learning.

Many primary and secondary school students have embraced online education to avoid a total shutdown. Universities have not been left behind either. Some institutions of higher learning in Kenya have gone as far as asking students to log in online and sit their papers from home. This adaptation to digital learning, laudable as it is, presents a challenge to the segment of the population not connected to the Internet. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics census report, only one in five Kenyans have access to the Internet, and only 20 million own mobile phones. This alienates a significant majority of the student population from online or mobile learning.