Samburu County has experienced increased enrollment of primary school pupils since the introduction of the Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) in 2016, area Chief Education Officer, Phillip Liruso has confirmed.
Liruso said enrollment of both boys and girls increased after the government issued 6,451 tablets to 112 primary schools in Samburu County.
“There were 22,136 girls in primary schools in 2016 and by 2019 the number had risen to 24,745 pupils while that of boys rose to 27, 746 in 2019 from 25,732 in 2016,” he said.
He noted that most pupils were eager to learn with the digital devices since the interest of individual learners is taken care of.
Liruso said DLP had been positively received in the county noting that two primary schools had received tablets from well-wishers hence boosting e-Learning in the county.
At Maralal DEB Primary School, most classes are congested after the school was issued with 270 tablets which boosted enrollment.
“Many pupils ran away from neighbouring schools and enrolled here while standard one intake doubled after the government issued us with tablets,” said Musa Abdille the School’s Headmaster.
He said the school has a population of 2,305 pupils among whom 205 are living with various disabilities.
During a tour of the school, KNA found class eight consisting pupils with hearing impairment using the tablets at the digital laboratory.
“We let the class eight consisting of hearing impaired pupils to interact with the digital devices so that they can have basic digital knowledge since the learning content is for class one pupils,” said Veronica Muthoni a tutor.
Muthoni said the class holds 40 students per lesson which is challenging given the large pupil population.
Abdille noted that the government needs to issue more tablets to the school, saying the 270 gadgets were not enough to adequately serve the students.
He further noted that there was poor network coverage in some parts of the county adding that more teachers in Samburu County need to be trained on the use of DLP, saying that most of those who were trained have since gone on transfer.
By Robert Githu
