Head teachers of junior public secondary schools in Mvita Sub-County, Mombasa, have been urged to ensure the safety, proper maintenance and sustainable use of interactive smart boards and laptops introduced under the Digital Literacy Programme.
The nationwide programme is being spearheaded by the ICT Authority through the Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project (KDEAP).
In Mvita Sub-County, interactive smart boards have been installed in 11 schools: St Augustine Junior School, Sparki, Mbaraki, Bahari, Sacred Heart, Bondeni, Tom Mboya, Star of the Sea, Majengo, Mombasa and Ganjoni Junior Schools.
The programme aligns with the government’s digital transformation agenda, as outlined in the Digital Superhighway pillar of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). It comes at a time when the world is experiencing rapid technological advancements.
Through the initiative, learners in junior schools will be introduced to technology at an early age, helping them develop digital literacy skills and nurture innovation amid emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Parents and teachers expressed excitement about the interactive smart boards during a digital classroom session at St. Augustine Junior School in Mvita Sub-County, where a trained teacher conducted a live Grade Seven lesson.
The teacher, alongside ICT Authority staff, demonstrated the boards’ capabilities, including handwriting and shape recognition, annotation, wireless projection from the teacher’s device to learners’ devices, multi-window functionality, and video conferencing through the board’s camera and microphone array.
Mvita Sub-County Director of Education Ali Buthul confirmed that 11 schools had received and installed the interactive smart boards.
He said teachers and learners had already interacted with the devices and were enthusiastic about the initiative, which has made learning more interactive and seamless.
“It has helped in the teaching and learning of content, where teachers can get content from the internet and then use it to teach learners. The learners have also accessed these gadgets and learned how to use computers because the device functions much like a computer,” said Buthul.
He added that teachers and learners were always looking forward to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) lessons because of the opportunities provided by the new technology.
“There is no lesson that the learners will miss when they are told to go to where the gadget is. It is an important initiative that the President is launching, and we welcome it. We expect this programme to be rolled out in all our junior schools across the country,” he said.
Buthul urged teachers to store the devices in safe places, away from rain and the scorching sun in the coastal city, to ensure they remain functional for a long time.
“It will help our learners who are in school and also those learners who will be coming to this school in the near future,” he said.
St Augustine Junior Secondary School head teacher Rhoda Katana said the school received the devices last term and that learners had been using them since their installation.
She said the school had designated a room where learners could access the interactive smart board and use it as a learning laboratory.
“The learners usually go there and learn a lot. We are happy in this 21st century to integrate technology into learning in our school using this gadget. We are also happy that the school has been chosen to be in the national cluster in Mombasa County,” said Katana.
The head teacher added that two teachers had undergone training on how to operate the devices and were already using them to support classroom instruction.
“We have two teachers. They have been trained to use the gadget, and they normally use it in our school. We have even prepared a timetable for learners to go in there and use it,” she said.
By Sadik Hassan
