CC image courtesy of Lubuto Library Project on Flickr
Kenya’s Nyeri County has embarked on a programme to train primary school teachers in IT skills ahead of the roll out of the government’s plan to provide free laptops for standard one pupils.
The training programme began last week in Mathira constituency, according to a report by Business Daily; with the programme specifically designed to equip teachers with basic IT skills as quickly as possible, said Mathira constituency member of parliament (MP) Peter Weru.
“The course outline is designed in such a way that, after the successful completion of the programme, the teachers can comfortably apply their IT skills in the classroom,” Weru said.
The training programme in Mathira is set to run until April 2015, with graduations to be held in June 2015.
During the the programme, the participants will be also required to complete school-based training, to complement skills-based learning.
“At the end of this period, the programme aims to produce a well-trained, skilled and computer-literate teaching force capable of applying their knowledge in IT in a classroom situation,” Weru said.
There are 798 public primary school teachers in Mathira; however most rural schools in Nyeri county do not have electricity and computer facilities to include IT-based learning – such as envisioned in the one laptop per child policy – in teaching practices, Weru said.
HumanIPO reported in November 2013, Kenya’s government announced 150,000 teachers had already received IT training to oversee e-learning in public schools, while a further 300,000 teachers had been earmarked to receive the training.
