The planned full delivery of tablet to standard one pupils nationwide from next month could be delayed by four months due to logistics.
A senior ICT ministry official involved in the laptop project told the Star the logistical problems in the supply chain might cause delays in the delivery of the 600,000 tablets. The tablets were supposed to be distributed to 11,000 primary schools.
“The evaluation report preparation, followed by an official award and signing of contracts could be done around June 15 or after,” the source said. This means there will be changes to the first delivery schedule.
The pilot project was successfully concluded on May 14. One hundred and fifty schools across the 47 counties received the tablets.
The multi-agency coordinating committee is said to have started evaluating the capacity of two contractors to deliver. The drive began on May 23 and is expected to end on Friday.
The ICT and Education ministries are in charge of the Sh17 billion project, which is mainly steered by the ICT Authority. ICT PS Victor Kyalo said they have been on the ground in the last few weeks. “A New schedule of the implementation plan should be ready from the ICT Authority anytime,” he said.
ICT Authority acting chief executive Robert Mugo did not respond to an SMS on whether the project is still on schedule. The pilot project began on February 22.
It gave room for two successful bidders to prove their capacity to implement the project in all the 22,000 schools. “It is unlikely the contractors will have imported the devices to deliver on time,” the source said. Importation takes about a month. “This means arrival of the first delivery could be in late July or early August,” the source said.
