Techlit Africa in partnership with Amagoro Primary School alumnus has launched an initiative that aims at ensuring digital literacy becomes a reality for school-going children in the Amagoro area to boost CBC implementation and expose them to the global education world.
The timely move comes at a time when most schools in Kenya have started embracing online learning as a way to reach out to more students within comfort.
Speaking to the parents at the school during the commissioning of the ICT lab which is set to benefit over 700 pupils, Dr. Sheran Amai Oradu, who was the chief guest, said the implementation of this technology literacy computer lab was made possible by Techlit Africa in collaboration with Oradu Foundation, and the Amagoro Primary School alumni.
“To ensure our society is connected to the global opportunity in different sectors, I engaged TechLit Africa and provided 28 Macbook laptops for the lab as well as the curriculum for training,” Dr. Oradu noted.
Tagging along with the school alumnus and other stakeholders, the lab has become operational now for two terms equipping learners with basic programming skills, coding, python, and Excel skills.
“We hope that this initiative will help to equip our children with digital skills and enable them to be useful in society.” He said.
“In a bid to drive sustainability, we would like the parents to come along and pay a fee of Sh 200 per term per student towards the 50,000 per month that is needed to run the lab. This fee is paid directly to TechLit Africa, and it goes towards curriculum development, a teacher, and maintenance of the computers,” she added.
The sentiment was echoed by the school principal noting that the introduction of digital literacy skills will evoke interest in the learners and enable them to engage in activities like coding.
“The Kenyan education system has been at the forefront in digital literacy advocacy and that is why as Amagoro family we will champion it amongst our learners to equip them fully for the global market in future,” he said.
Former Busia County CEC Roads Gregory Epus who is also a 1988 alumnus of the school challenged leaders to emulate former top Kenyan politician the late Tom Mboya who embraced African socialism through mutual social responsibility.
The CSO Elizabeth Oloo and County Quality and Standards Officer Patrick Mwangi urged the community and school management to ensure the safety of the equipment so as not to be like the case of school tablets donated by the national government which were stolen in the past with Teso North sub-county leading in those cases.
“In the past days, we have received cases of theft of gadgets (school tablets) meant for digital literacy. We don’t want that to be replicated here,” said Oloo.
Techlit Africa operates in 28 countries and Kenya, so far Baringo and Busia are the first beneficiaries of the program.
By Absalom Namwalo
