West Pokot County Government, in partnership with the national government, Raspberry Pi Foundation, and Frontier County Development Council (FCDC), has launched the digital literacy programme in primary schools.
The initiative aims at training ICT teachers for grades four to nine from 12 selected primary schools within the county to ensure learners acquire literacy in the digital world in the advent of new technologies.
Speaking during the launch, Idle Faarah, the Chief Executive Officer, FCDC said that the council has already piloted the programme in other counties within the FCDC and has finally rolled out in West Pokot.
FCDC is a consortium that brings 10 Northern Kenya county governments together, including West Pokot, to assist in the socio-economic growth and empowerment of the frontier of arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya in development, as well as peace and cohesion.
The organisation primarily works in the counties of North Eastern Kenya, which are characterised by environmental challenges, underdevelopment, and historical neglect.
“The initiative will help bridge the digital divide and that will go a long way to determine how much success is going to be achieved by the Competency Based Curriculum in our respective schools,” he added.
The deputy governor, Robert Komole, who led the delegation from the county government appreciated the initiative from the partners to help raise the digital literacy levels of learners.
Komole urged the national government to increase electricity and internet connectivity within schools because it is one of the requirements for the technological devices necessary for digital learning.
He invited more partners to come up with more such initiatives to foster the digitization of government institutions and ensure the county plays a big role in education by having the infrastructure in place for the programme.
Present at the event was Rachael Bennet, Managing Director, Raspberry Pi Foundation noted that the open computing curriculum project will support young people with knowledge, skills and confidence to learn and create with digital technologies.
The County Executive Committee member of Education and Technical Training, Rebecca Kide, lauded the efforts of the partner organisations for their efforts in training the pioneer teachers who will, in turn, use the knowledge to train other colleagues from the remaining schools.”
Daniel Ondingo, an ICT Authority Officer reaffirmed the Authority’s commitment to supporting participating schools in maintaining the digital devices.
Ondingo expressed optimism about upcoming investments to enhance internet connectivity and a reliable power supply in government institutions.
The teachers were supplied with new laptops to enable them champion the training of more colleagues and learners from various schools who were not fortunate enough to attend the inaugural training.
By Parklea Ivor
