Primary schools don't need laptops, but more desks would be welcome

What you need to know:

  • The evidence pointing to the futility of providing tablets as a way to promote better cognition is very strong.
  • Government data shows that the number of desks available in primary schools is far short of the total number of learners.
  • Education policy in Kenya has been based on hiring teachers, keeping them on the same salary scale for most of their lives and arbitrarily selecting a few for promotion every year.

It is understandable, for an administration whose campaigns were run on the image of being hip and connected to modern thinking, that confronting evidence which shows the major pillar of the “digital campaign” was mistaken, and continues to prove uninformed and wrong-headed, is difficult.

The "major pillar" refers to Jubilee's campaign promise to provide a digital gadget for all learners entering the first class of primary school in 2014.

As misguided and uninformed as this promise was, I believe that its promoters made the undertaking in good faith.

In spite of the good faith, it’s clear now that it is time to dial back on this promise and divert the enormous investment being made here to alternative policies that would be more useful for Kenyan pupils.

One more study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has confirmed that the provision of computers to pupils is not only ineffective but probably causes a decline in cognitive development.

The evidence pointing to the futility of providing tablets as a way to promote better cognition is very strong.

To announce a rollback of this ‘laptops and tablets’ policy will definitely result in raucous response from political opponents, but an administration that is confident in its policy teams as a hotbed of good ideas would come up with better ideas.

Implementing bad policy ideas just to thumb noses at your opponents is irresponsible.

Granted, the reversal of this grand ‘laptops and tablets’ policy has costs beyond the temporary goading that would come from supporters of minority coalition.

Among the immediate losers would be the selection of public universities that have been lined up to design and manufacture tablets that will probably not sell outside government.

They should be compensated for their time and asked whether they wish to proceed with the project knowing that the schools laptop project has been terminated.

There are three alternative policies which would provide immense opportunity for Kenyan children to benefit from this expenditure, if they were adopted.

Government data shows that the number of desks available in primary schools is far short of the total number of learners.

This not only means that many students share a single desk, but also that some must sit on the floor due to the lack of a flat surface to write on.

Yes, it’s clear that a visit to any typical classroom would show that these students require more desks in advance of any notebook computers or tablets arriving.

These may not be high tech gadgets that show Kenya is entering the digital age, but their arrival in schools would find very active use and help many children who have to write on the floor with curved backs throughout the day.

ARBITRARY PROMOTION

They will not lead directly to creating a Silicon Savannah, but will benefit children and teachers.

Because none of the school desks will cost anywhere close to a unit of the digital gadgets, there will be substantial change left of the Sh20billion that has been set aside for the first phase of the digital gadgets project.

The rest of the money could be used to provide an incentive for students to stay in school by dedicating an amount each year as the student’s saving.

What this does is encourage every pupil to stay in school and reduce the dropout rate of close to 30 per cent for both boys and girls.

Again, this is not a very complex policy, like providing a value chain to manufacture laptops.

The sheer number of children in public schools means that even a saving of Sh200 per child would result in a small but significant addition to the net national saving.

The third policy initiative that could be supported with the change left over from abandoning the laptops policy is to inspire good teaching with it.

Education policy in Kenya has been based on hiring teachers, keeping them on the same salary scale for most of their lives and arbitrarily selecting a few for promotion every year.

It’s not clear that there is dedicated data in Kenya on what makes one individual a good teacher and another one a less effective one. Kenya needs a programme to identify its best teachers in every subject and provide them with an award for their dedication and results.

A small grant could be made to a random number of teachers to record their teaching methods in order to identify the most effective methods that could be spread to other teachers.

These three ideas are bound to be effective but are unlikely to find prominent space in any election manifesto.

Kwame Owino is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Kenya), a public policy think tank based in Nairobi. Twitter: @IEAKwame