Rationale for introducing laptop project in Class One
Class One pupils at Shauri Moyo Primary School in Kisumu with a laptop. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
- It is at a very young age that learners begin to acquire digital skills which they increasingly use to explore and exploit the world of information and to craft that into knowledge.
- The introduction of laptop in teaching and learning in class one is well grounded in educational psychology.
- Most changes in the educational system anywhere are phased.
A key feature of the government’s plan to integrate ICT in teaching and learning is that the integration will begin in Class One.
The government has laid out an elaborate programme that will culminate into the actual delivery of laptops in primary schools ready for use in curriculum delivery come January 2014.
Well-meaning parents and newspaper readers have suggested that the laptop project could be best introduced in Form One and not in Class One.
The choice of Class One was thoughtful.
Behind the push for the laptop project in teaching and learning is a policy and legislative framework that aims reforming education and training sectors in Kenya in line with the Constitution and Vision 2030.
Sessional Paper No. 14, 2012, provides a framework on Education and Training and it notes in part: “ICT is a major vehicle for teaching and learning from the earliest years.
STUDENT CENTRED
It is at a very young age that learners begin to acquire digital skills which they increasingly use to explore and exploit the world of information and to craft that into knowledge.
ICT facilitates the opportunity for more student centred teaching, more self-learning and more peer teaching.
It also provides greater opportunity for teacher-to-teacher, and student-to-student communication and collaboration and access to the worldwide web and the learning resources contained thereon.”
The introduction of laptop in teaching and learning in class one is well grounded in educational psychology.
Educational psychology for laypeople is the study of how humans learn in educational setting, the effectiveness of educational interventions and the psychology of teaching.
It is also concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities.
INTERGRATE ICT
The technical committee has looked at all conceivable variables that might impair effective implementation of the project and factored them in the project.
As we have observed earlier, the introduction of ICT in Class One is strategic. Most changes in the educational system anywhere are phased.
The government introduced the 8.4.4 system of Education we now have from lower classes.
It introduced subsidies to basic education by starting with Free Primary Education in 2003 and graduated to the Free Day Secondary Education in 2008.
The government aims at achieving meaningful integration of ICT into educational practices.
It wants to bring deep changes in attitudes among teachers ad students and get the most out of the huge investment it is about to make in education and training of learners.
By KENNEY BUHERE, a communications officer in the Ministry of Education.
This article first appeared in the Business Daily.
