The Government is committed to developing content for the on-going second and third phase of Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) for schools, in order to ensure the programme takes root in the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
Speaking to the Media, the officer in charge of the Digital Literacy programme in Narok County, Mr. Silas Ng’etich, said the DLP programme was on course and designs for the implementation of the second phase of the programme have already been for the school grades Four to Six and is being implemented and learners are receiving it well.
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Mr. Ng’etich said the Fourth and Fifth graders were already going through their course outline and the course outline for the sixth grade was well in progress in compliance with DLP programme for schools.
He revealed that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), had provided content for various content image development on the CBC and E-books among other materials needed for the Digital Literacy Programme under this new curriculum.
In Phase one, the Programme themed “Learning to Use” young learners (in grade three and below) are exposed to friendly technology and encourage its early adoption.
The public primary schools received various types of devices which have pre-installed content for lower grade learners.
About 615 public schools in Narok County have been installed with digital learning devices, to help learners develop early adoption to technology in the learning process.
Ng’etich said 34,349 devices have been installed in the 615 schools in the County while 1,230 teachers’ digital devices have also been provided.
A further 615 digital content server wireless routers and an equal number of projectors have also been installed, with each school getting one of each of these two important devices.
The Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) that was initiated by the Government in 2016, is in its second phase, whose implementation started in July 2019.
During the first phase of the Programme, over one million devices were installed in over 23,000 public primary schools in the country. Most of the devices were locally assembled at the Moi University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT assembling plants.
The setting up of device assembly plants to supply the Programme devices has immensely helped to boost Kenya’s manufacturing priorities as stipulated in the ‘Big Four’ Agenda.
In the second phase themed “Using to Learn” the technology was rolled out from July 2019.
The objective is to expose learners to technology’s ideas concept for learning, to enhance creativity and innovation.
In this Phase Shared Digital Learning Resource centres are being set in schools with appropriate infrastructure and tools. Its implementation runs up to 2023 and targets learners in grades Four to Six.
The third phase of the programme which is themed “using to produce’’ the technology, aims at making learning to start making use of technology for employment creation, mentor learners for development tertiary and universities. During this phase, advanced labs with tools to enable designing and prototyping of products will be set up. It targets learners in grade Seven and above and will be implemented in 2023 to 2029.
DLP is Kenya’s national ICT programme that aims to improve learning and build 21st century skills among primary school students through the use of digital technologies in education. But Ng’etich said it was facing teething problems such as theft of the devices and reluctance of elderly teachers to embrace technology.
Successful implementation of the Digital Literacy Programme, will depend upon the capacity of primary school teachers and education managers to fully harness the power of technology to enhance student learning.