Laptop court ruling offers a chance to rethink the whole project

We have, in a previous blog, debated and extensively discussed the laptop project. The recent take by Daily Nation business columnist Jaindi Kisero is one other critical view of this project.

Now that the courts have ruled against the award of the tender to supply the one million laptops to Standard One pupils, this might be a good time for the government to review the whole strategy.

Providing laptops to primary school pupils could be viewed from many angles. A simple one is of course political, where the Jubilee government promised to deliver the laptops to pupils during their first year in office. 

This view is quite narrow and places more emphasis on delivering the laptops rather than the expected value proposition that such laptops would present to the children of Kenya.

Politics being a zero-sum game, one would expect the opposition to mount pressure on the government by citing failure to deliver the laptops as just one more digital lie from the Jubilee administration.

Now that the courts have made it impossible to deliver the laptops inside Jubilee's first two years, this may be an opportunity to reboot and reconfigure this digital promise into the right path towards transforming Kenya’s education sector.

READ: High Court nullifies tender for free laptops

Surprising as it may be, procurement is actually the smallest challenge facing this project. Distributing a million laptops across various primary schools in 47 counties and keeping them safe and working is actually the bigger problem. 

The court ruling allows the ministry of education to consider issuing the tender in lots or batches such that the top two bidders could perhaps share the load of distributing laptops across the country. 

'CHALK AND TALK'

This may also indirectly eliminate the problem of the next cycle of losers running to place an injunction in court against the winners – tying up the project in a perpetual deadlock.

The other challenge is that quite a big number of the primary schools lack electricity. Powering up these laptops would require significant investments in wiring up and subsequently transmitting power.

With the recent activities from the Ministry of Energy aimed at doubling our power generation over the next five years, the laptop project maybe the only reason, if not the only excuse, to provide power to remote sectors and villages in Kenya.

But logistics and supply are not the only challenges. Adoption of ICTs and their use in teaching and learning by teachers are likely to be the biggest hurdles for the project.

Even at university level, you will find many lecturers resisting technology, preferring to remain in their comfort zone of “chalk and talk” while making use of the infamous “yellow notes”.

EXPENSIVE TOYS

Training in the use of ICT in education may help, but by and large, coercion in the form of annual appraisals with corresponding reward or punishment for ICT adoption in teaching may eventually be necessary. Otherwise nothing will stop teachers from considering these laptops as expensive toys to be enjoyed by pupils during their break time.

The court ruling also gives the ministry time to review and ask the hard questions. Should we be buying laptops, tablets or desktops?  Better still, must we buy them? Shouldn't we be first assembling and then manufacturing them in the long run?

Is primary school the best entry point for ICT in education or would there be better returns if we targeted secondary schools and universities?

Indeed, the court ruling must be music to opposition ears. But for the Jubilee administration it should be time to have a fresh start, with ample time for better planning and execution of a potentially life-changing, transformative initiative.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Twitter:@jwalu