The Ministry of ICT has announced the launch of a pilot phase of the laptop for schools project. The schools laptop project will be eventually launched in 22,000 schools but the pilot will involve 150 schools.
The pilot will test the supplier’s ability to deliver the required devices and on schedule and also test the content. It will last for 12 weeks and will cover 150 schools in all 47 counties in Kenya.
The ministry announced the two successful bidders i.e. Moi University and JP Couto, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Positivo BGH from a pool of 10 companies which were shortlisted. In the pilot, Moi University will cover 26 counties, while Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology will cover 21 counties.
To support the project, digital content has already been created and is available here and the Ministry of Energy has connected almost all primary schools to the power grid. Also, a total of 66,000 teachers have been trained on digital literacy.
Additionally Safaricom has stated that it will provide all the schools involved in the project with Internet free of charge. They will begin by providing the 150 schools in the pilot phase and later extend the same to the other schools. Stephen Chege, Director of Corporate Affairs at Safaricom had to this to add about their support “Safaricom believes that the transformative power of the internet can enrich the Government’s on-going efforts to deepen knowledge in primary schools across regions and break down traditional infrastructure barriers. In particular, providing free internet connectivity to public primary schools, in line with the Government’s Digital Literacy Program, will go a long way towards providing our children with access to a wide variety of content.”