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Kenya has demonstrated a commendable commitment to education in recent years, marked by substantial investments that surpass both regional and global averages. A significant milestone was reached in 2005 during President Mwai Kibaki’s tenure when Kenya allocated 7% of its GDP to education.
Despite these investments, Kenya faces challenges in narrowing the digital divide, particularly in education. Issues such as limited infrastructure access, connectivity barriers, insufficient digital skills training, and widespread poverty, impede the broader population’s participation in digital initiatives. Existing innovations and solutions often exacerbate disparities between the privileged and the marginalized, rather than bridging them.
Achieving the global goal of universal education remains elusive until fundamental educational needs are adequately addressed. The digital gap is conspicuous in various forms, including disparities in skill levels, limited access to learning resources, inadequate foundational literacy and numeracy, and inequalities in educational opportunities for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Infrastructure
Through projects like the National Optic Fiber Backbone infrastructure, the government has partnered with telco Companies to expand broadband access to underserved areas. From their project aim, the goal is to ensure maximum utilisation of capacity and connectivity in all districts in the country. Consequently, the implementation of the National Terrestrial Fibre Optic project is divided into three main components that will include the Central, Western, Coast and North Eastern regions of the country. When implementing tech projects in schools, connectivity stands out as a major challenge. For instance, according to GSMA 2023 reports Internet penetration in Sub-Saharan Africa currently stands at 25.9% while that in Kenya is 32.9% (GSMA, 2023). Working on the infrastructure will go a long way in facilitating tech adoption in schools and bridging the digital divide.
From the project, internet penetration increased from 10% in 2009 to 47% in 2013, with a reach of 40 persons in every 100. The goal to connect the regions was successfully achieved with most government services migrated online according to the Auditor’s report in 2013. Recently the government has worked on harmonising fee payment through the e-citizen platform though met with some resistance and school population data has been captured effectively through the National Education Management Information System NEMIS.
Device Accessibility
A major hindrance to the adoption of ed-tech is the lack of or minimal access to smart tools for use in the classroom. As mentioned earlier, the government of Kenya, through the Digital Literacy Program, distributed devices to all public schools. The program has faced a lot of growing pains that saw the delay of the second implementation of the program. While in some schools, some adoption has been seen, the majority are struggling with challenges like device maintenance. The ability to build solutions that can be used in the devices is a challenge since the OS is an older build. Affordable device options and solutions that are simple and offline will be a great way to ensure the inclusion of tech solutions as we try to meet the changing needs in the hardware landscape.
The program successfully equipped primary schools in Kenya with digital devices, with sufficient follow-up and infrastructure development, the program will be able to start a digital revolution in Kenyan education. The schools currently are benefiting from the devices which have mostly been used for administrative purposes and in some cases for learning purposes.
Digital Literacy Training
Non-governmental organizations in partnership with the Teachers Service Commission have partnered to equip teachers with digital literacy skills to prepare them with 21st-century skills. Organisations like 1 Million teachers have trained thousands of teachers through their self-paced online courses which equip teachers with timely skills for the global world. Teachers are continually being introduced to new technologies, like AI and gamification, which they are adapting to their day-to-day teaching to improve learning outcomes. There is a rising trend in teacher communities of practice where teachers are exchanging knowledge and mentoring each other which has been instrumental in the digital migration happening in schools over the country. Platforms like WhatsApp have been leveraged to engage teachers on a day-to-day basis to track new trends and have conversations around the same.
In the Knec Midline report for 2021 among form 2 secondary school learners, , it was observed that Increase in the use of computers in teaching. The majority (75.4%) of the teachers indicated that they adopted ICT in teaching while 72.1% of principals reported the adoption of ICT in teaching in their schools.
• The percentage of students reporting the use of computers in teaching was low as evidenced by 19.1%,
15.4%, 12.7%, 11.9%, 8.6% and 5.8% of students reported use of computers in teaching Biology,
Physics, Chemistry, English, Kiswahili and Mathematics respectively.
• The study established enhanced utilization of TPAD in the assessment of teacher performance with 92.0% of the teachers reporting to have been appraised using TPAD.
Contextual content
The private sector working alongside the government and book publishers has created solutions that provide approved educational content. Platforma, like Loho Learning, Snapplifly and Kenya Education Cloud by KICD, provides accessible content for learners. For digital content to be adopted for educational purposes, it has to go through an approval process by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development KICD. The shift from hard copy books to digital format books is promising, specifically in the cost-effectiveness and longevity of books. Learners can access books in one click. The content is not exposed to wear and tear and if the devices are well maintained, the cost of hardcopy books can be made affordable through subscription models which is more affordable than print books. Distribution of academic content can be effective and any updates can be made in real-time.
Sectoral engagement
The government through the Ministry of Education and other partners have made technological investments which have been a significant push to ensure tech adoption is part of day-to-day classroom learning in 2013 through the DLP project, the government distributed Learner Devices and Teacher devices (Laptops, Tablets, Projectors, SNE devices and Content Access Points) to boost tech adoption in schools. Through Affiliate Departments like KICD, the government set up the Kenya Education Cloud, which hosts digital content accessible to all learners country-wide and was installed on the devices.
Granted that these ambitious programs are a major step towards globalising education in Kenya, the implementation of the programs has faced significant challenges which are multisectoral and which inform the basis of this article. The Competency-based Curriculum introduced in 2017 has mandated schools to have a technological outlook. Incorporating activities in the classroom that require tech has ingrained the need for tech adoption in schools in Kenya.
From these efforts, it’s recognisable that Edtech can be a bridge to the digital divide and even the academic divide in Kenya. A multi-sectoral approach addressing Infrastructure, Accessibility, Affordability, Content availability and Digital literacy training, will ensure the efforts are established.
From the examples above, a multisectoral framework can be adopted to ensure scalable adoption of ed-tech in Kenya. Solution providers in partnership with the government stand a greater chance of bridging the gap.
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