The Jubilee administration’s flagship controversial Sh374 billion school laptop project is likely to stall after its budget was cut by 75 per cent.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru and PS Jerome Ochieng on Thursday told a Senate committee that lack of funds is threatening the digital literacy programme.
“The budget issue has been our biggest headache. Last financial year, we really had a substantial budget but then going through the programme by the Treasury, the budget was cut by 75 per cent,” Ochieng told the Senate Education Committee.
“The amount of money that actually remained could not have really allowed us to continue with the programme as we had planned,” he added.
The PS said he had appealed to the Treasury for more funding to supply devices to the remaining schools to facilitate long-distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The costs of handling the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced funding for many non-priority programmes.
The controversial problem has also been dogged by delays and changes of tactics, such as deciding to supply tablets instead of more costly laptops.
The administration has also decided to focus on computer labs in some areas because of cost and problems of supplying devices to remote dilapidated schools and lack of electricity and internet.
The cost and feasibility have been questioned. Some teachers are not comfortable with the devices.
The project started in 2015 with a budget of Sh374.2 billion. It included Sh298.2 billion for acquiring the devices in phases.
The amount has already been spent. About Sh61 billion is supposed to be spent on devices in Phase II, with internet connections to all schools costing Sh15 billion.
According to a ministry report, 21,623 out of 21,729 public primary schools have already received devices, both tablets and laptops. Some 1,168,798 devices have been supplied.
“There are still 1,902 new schools that have not received devices due to budgetary constraints,” Mucheru said.
The reports said devices have not been supplied to 34 schools in Samburu, five in Marsabit, four in Turkana, two each in Mombasa, Meru, Nairobi, Murang’a, Nakuru and Tharaka Nithi and one in Narok county.
“The ICT Authority in addition to the distributed devices is in the process of acquiring additional devices for the remaining schools as well as devices for upper Grades 4-6 and more teacher devices [laptops],” the report reads.
The report says Kenya Power has disconnected 20 schools due to nonpayment of bills.
The CS cited lack of electricity and internet connectivity in those schools as a problem.
The committee demanded to know when the schools will be receive the devices to ensure no children are disadvantaged.
“What will happen with children in the marginalised areas, because some of the schools have not been supplied at all?’ committee chair Alice Milgo asked.
Mucheru said they are working to instal devices in all the remaining schools by December, adding that lack of funding has been a hindrance.
Devices for Grades 1 and 2 have been installed with the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) content.
The report shows 331,000 teachers have been trained on ICT integration, 218,253 teachers trained on CBC and other 93,009 teachers trained on use of ICT and device utilisation.
More training was conducted in December 2019 for 121,000 teachers in public and private schools.
In term of power connectivity, 22,927 schools have been connected; 19,042 public primary schools have been connected to the national grid and 3,239 public primary schools have been connected using solar energy.
(Edited by V. Graham)
