The Interior and Co-ordination of National Government Principal Secretary, Dr. Karanja Kibicho launched Digital Literacy Programme for Vihiga County.
During he launch, Karanja, distributed 102 learning digital devices, two teachers’ training devices, one projector and one server for class one pupils at St. Francis Hambale Primary School.
“The pilot schools earmarked for the digital project in Vihiga County have been identified and the ongoing installation work will be finalized by December, 2016,” said Dr. Karanja.
The PS said nine schools in the county have been installed with the digital devices while teachers have been trained on ICT in order to impact effectively to the public the ICT literacy skills and the education content.
“A total of 1,170 teachers have been trained in Vihiga County to support the programme and translates to about two to three teachers per school. The training will be recurrent and targets to reach all schools as planned by the government,” he added.
Dr Karanja said the government has employed ICT officers at the County levels to help the teachers in the implementation of the project, adding that the maintenance will be done by Moi University, ICT Officers at the field and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
“The Government has ensured that all public schools are connected to the power grid to enhance the success of the digital programme. Schools in some areas without electricity connection have been given solar panels and it also applies to areas where the last mile electricity connection has not been a success”.
“The content in the learner’s digital devices cannot be erased and stealing them for your own use will be a waste of time,” he added.
Dr Karanja who was speaking at Mbale town said the government will built storage facilities for the devices in all the primary schools. He was accompanied by Western Regional Coordinator, Chimwaga Mongo, and County Commissioner Akello Apollo among other senior government officials.