Laptops face hitch in rural schools due to lack of power and trained teachers

Rural schools are the least prepared for the laptops in March.

Most of them do not have electricity, stores to keep the devices and teachers trained in computers, a Nation survey has shown.

It is so bad that teachers and unionists proposed that the laptops should not be given out until adequate preparations are made.

In Taita Taveta, Kenya National Union of Teachers executive secretary Rosalia Mkanjala said it should all be put on hold and priority given to infrastructure and staffing of schools.

She said that before implementation, the government must ensure that enough teachers have been posted, classrooms constructed to suit digital learning and electricity installed at every institution.

The unionist said a school like Zungulukani where classes are conducted under trees does not need a laptop but classrooms.

“We cannot start thinking of how children will use laptops when there is no electricity and teachers trained in computers. That is getting our priorities upside down,” she said.

Sending teachers for a three-day seminar is not a solution because computer training cannot be done in a short time like that and be expected to yield results, she added.

LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE

But Taita Taveta county executive member for education Jemimah Tuja said a three-day seminar being organised by the government in Voi at the end of the month is expected to prepare the teachers for the task ahead.

“It will succeed if all rural schools have electricity and the teachers undergo the three-day training next week,” she said.

Ms Tuja said she is optimistic it will work if it is introduced in phases.

In Nyeri, teachers have not been trained on using the computers.

Some schools lack electricity and a secure room for storing the computers.

Kiambuiri Primary in Nyeri County is one schools that has no electricity even though it was set up in the 1960s.

The school’s head teacher, Mrs Immaculate Kabutha, said they applied to be connected to the power grid but this is yet to happen.

She gave out names of four teachers to be trained in preparation of handling computer lessons but the training is yet to take place.

“We are psychologically prepared for the computers but our infrastructure is not up to scratch and out teachers have not been trained. We need a strongroom to store the laptops and of course we don’t have electricity,” Mrs Kabutha told the Nation.

EAGER FOR LAPTOPS
The school has enrolled 40 pupils for Class One and the young learners are eagerly waiting for their gadgets, although Mrs Martha Mwangi, their English teacher, said they were doing well without the computers.

At the neighbouring Kiamuiru Primary School, the head teacher said they were connected to electricity last year.

They have reinforced the wooden doors with metallic ones at the head teacher’s office in readiness for the laptops.

The head teacher, a Mrs Gichuki, said the school had enrolled 20 pupils for Standard One this year. She said they were still waiting for the training of teachers who will handle the computer classes.

She said she fully supported the introduction of the laptops and that the government should go ahead and implement it.

“It is time we went for technology but some schools, especially those in rural areas, are steeped in poverty. They don’t have electricity,” said Mrs Gichuki.

She said the Sh1,020 a pupil per year given under the Free Primary Education was insufficient.