Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Enabling Impact through Digital Understanding (EIDU) a Non Governmental Organization to equip Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) learners with digital skills to enable them be innovators, critical thinkers and have the ability to solve problems with the aid of technology.
During the MOU signing, the Governor emphasised on the importance of exposing children to digital learning early in life because the current 21st century needs people who are tech savvy in order for them to be relevant in their daily endeavours.
“EIDU will greatly assist in collecting, analysing and keeping our data for learners safe and real-time for proper planning especially during policy formulation, since the statistics are key, especially during budgeting and assessing learner progress,” said Nyaribo.
The county boss confirmed that they have another partnership with Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET) which promotes nutrition for bringing up healthy babies to improve their cognitive and mental capabilities, thus boosting their retention of education content.
EIDU Government relations specialist Lilian Arugwi was excited that Nyamira county agreed to partner with them and will be the 27th county to accept their programme. She confirmed that they will invest Sh20 million for the first year which will comprise provision of hardware devices which are digital phones, operating software for teachers’ personalized training and monitoring and training curriculum books.
“We target to train 408 ECDE teachers and the programme implementation officers who will be cascading this programme to teachers’ courtesy of our partnership with the county government of Nyamira. After training, EIDU will provide the digital learning skills to 204 preprimary schools, which will encompass learners in PP1 and PP2 levels of education,” Ms. Arugwi elaborated.
“This programme is geared towards improving the learning outcomes of learners especially in numeracy and literacy, a scenario that has been evident in previous counties with which we have worked. The digital tools that we shall provide to the trained teachers will include structured lesson plans and real-time personalized assessment tools for teachers to monitor their learners’ progress.
Ms. Arugwi confirmed the county’s education department will equally receive support by providing a meta-base platform where they will access real-time data like school performance and strengthen the education management systems to enable data-based reports for policy formulation and budgeting.
She clarified that the EIDU aligns with Kenya’s education priorities and certification requirements, saying the contents of their digital learning have been approved by KICD and rationalized with the Curriculum Based Curriculum (CBC) system. They have equally been approved by the Information Communication and Technology Authority (ICTA) and Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) and therefore keen on data sensitization and its display, ensuring they adhere to approved regulations.
“We are looking forward to a close-knit collaboration with Nyamira County especially the education department to bring a turnaround impact to learners through the digital literacy programme not just for the immediate outcomes but also their future prosperity.” Ms. Arugwi.
By Deborah Bochere
