Gov't Drops 'Failed' Laptops Project for Class One Pupils

The government through the Ministry of Education says it has suspended the digital literacy program that seeks to issue Standard One pupils with tablets.

Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang says that there is a policy change in the program and the Ministry will instead focus on setting up computer labs in schools for ICT integration.

“There has been a policy change in a program from one child-one laptop to the construction of computer laboratories for ICT integration,” Kipsang says.

PS Kipsang says that each of the 25,000 public primary schools in the country will get at least one computer lab under the new policy.

As part of his pre-election campaign pledges in 2013, President Kenyatta announced that all the 1.2 million Class One pupils across the country would get a laptop each under the digital literacy program.

However, educationists advised against the move and urged the government to instead consider setting up computer laboratories.

Due to cost implications, the government in 2016 announced it would issue the pupils with tablets instead of laptops.

Some schools received tablets in the first rollout but the project appears to have failed even after the government spent billions of shillings to procure the gadgets.

The one laptop per child idea aimed at entrenching ICT in teaching and learning in primary schools countrywide.