National ICT in Education Vision
National ICT in Education priorities are obtained from the following policy documents:
- Kenya Vision 2030
- Kenya constitution 2010
- Education Act 2013
- Sessional paper no.14 of 2012
- National Education Sector Support programme Draft documents
- National ICT strategy
- National ICT master plan
Background
Kenya produced its first National ICT Policy in 2006. Its vision is a prosperous ICT-driven Kenyan society, while its mission is to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans by ensuring the availability of accessible, efficient, reliable and affordable ICT services. This policy was guided by the need for infrastructure development, human resource development, stakeholder participation and appropriate policy and regulatory framework. It focuses on IT, broadcasting, telecommunications, postal services, radio frequency spectrum, universal access and institutional framework for implementation. The country has not updated this policy for close to eight years, a period when the world has witnessed various technological developments and many changes have taken place in the ICT sector in Kenya. The policy therefore needs to be updated to take into account the changes including Vision 2030; the Constitution; new sectoral strategies; and other realities that have emerged since 2006. The ICT State Department has developed a draft ICT policy which needs to go through the various stages of policy development and finalised as soon as possible.
Current Vision
The vision of the Ministry of Education (MoE) is to facilitate ICT as a universal tool for education and training. In order to achieve this vision every educational institution, teacher, learner and the respective community should be equipped with appropriate ICT infrastructure, competencies and policies for usage and progress. It calls for recognition of the fact that ICT provides capabilities and skills needed for a knowledge-based economy. It also calls for transforming teaching and learning to incorporate new pedagogies that are appropriate for the 21st century MoE’s mission is to facilitate effective use of ICT to improve access, learning and administration in delivery education programmes and services.
The principal objective will be to integrate ICT in the delivery of education and training curricula.
Challenges facing ICT integration into teaching & Learning
- Access to ICT facilities is currently one of the major challenges in Kenya;
- limited and uncoordinated approach to imparting appropriate ICT skills and competencies to teacher’s remains a major barrier in the integration of ICT in education in Africa generally, and in Kenya in particular;
- Unavailability of ICT teachers, and
- Gender disparities;
- Relatively high costs of ICT components and;
- Limited access to electricity are other challenges that continue to hamper adoption of ICTs in most parts of Africa and particularly so in education sector;
- Overcrowded classrooms;
- High pupil teacher ratios (PTRs) particularly in densely populated and semi-arid areas;
- Although not adequately equipped in all subjects, teachers are required to teach seven (7); subjects of the primary school curriculum. ICTs can contribute considerably to addressing these challenges;
- High cost of learning and teaching materials and persistent poverty in some areas.
Encouragement from KICD to persevere with integrating ICT into teaching and learning
The video below from Julius Ouma Jawa of the Kenyan Institute of Curriculum Development outlines how curriculum reform is reshaping what we teach so that ICT plays a more predominant role.
Julius Ouma Jawa Talks About Curriculum Reform and ICT from Andrew Moore on Vimeo.