Students at Tech-hub | Source Dr. William Ruto (X account).
NAIROBI – The education system in Kenya is at a hard-to-understand transition. Moving from 8-4-4 system to Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) is not without serious challenges such as digital illiteracy
As envisioned in the system, digital literacy is at its core. However, a lot of discrepancies are threatening its good intentions. Kenya being a country which has fashioned itself as a tech-hub in Africa is yet to live up to its expectations, even though it’s not badly off.
The reliance on small and often few techhubs dotting the country is not panaceal to digital illiteracy.
Recently, President William Ruto has been on the limelight encouraging young people to take up online
jobs. Ruto’s encouragement is good, but we must not forget that the infrastructure that will fuel digital
jobs is in shambles.
It’s so common among form four leavers to take up a four-week computer course, something that many parents champions for. Unfortunately, knowledge acquisition at cybers and other small computer colleges is never enough to prepare them to take up online jobs.
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We all agree that early exposure of computer to children at younger ages sets them on a good path in the ever-changing world of computing and digital literacy.
In Nairobi alone, less than 40 per cent of schools have fully equipped digital labs, not to mention other parts of the country where even teachers have little to no knowledge on computer literacy, let alone pupils.
As we gear up for an Artificial Inchildrentelligence (AI) driven world, we must invest on the literacy of in
the same field.
Kenya has a 59% of internet penetration but only 29% of the population has basic computer skills.
Therefore the government must address the discrepancies in schools. So many schools across the
country have no computers labs yet we aspire to build a future driven by technology, how can we
achieve that? It’s high time break-free from the bubble wrap that is blindfolding us and deal with our
digital illiteracy.
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Let’s not be blinded by few individuals with cutting edge computer literacy in Kenya, to make us feel we
have reached at the pinnacle. We must learn from technologically advanced countries like India and
China. Their economies have grown exponentially thanks to automation fueled by digital literacy and
robust education systems.
As we contemplate on how to “press the computer to get money”, we should think of first getting the
knowledge of how to “press” it right.
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