5th May, 2016
The delayed promise for 983,271 laptops for Standard One pupils has moved a step closer to reality with the selection of local universities to supply the gadgets.
An elaborate plan, being worked on by ICT Authority under the Ministry of ICT reveals that the first batch of the devices is expected to be delivered to schools in July.
A consortium of Moi University and JP SA Couto have already been selected to run pilot projects in 150 schools across the country, after winning the Sh17 billion laptop tender.
The schools are distributed evenly across the 47 counties with three schools picked – representing an urban, peri-urban and rural school. An additional nine schools are allotted to special education schools.
“The consortium of Moi University and JP SA Couto emerged the winner in two of the three lots which covers 26 counties whereas that of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Positivo BGH was awarded one lot covering 21 counties,” said a statement from the authority.
“The winning bidders will now proceed to demonstrate their proposals and feasibility in 150 selected schools across the 47 counties after which an evaluation will be made on whether they can start the full-scale roll out of the program across all public primary schools in the country.”
This means the winners will provide content for digital learning and digital devices for both learners and teachers, handle capacity development for teacher and implementers and establish local assembly for digital devices and related accessories, in addition to providing broadband connectivity.
This is after the completion of the evaluation process of the eight suppliers who had submitted their tender responses on January 8, 2016 for the supply, installation and commissioning of the Digital Learning Solution for the 22,000 public primary schools.
The eight companies or consortium that were evaluated were: Kenyatta University & BRCK Ltd/Guangzhou Institute of Technology, Symphony Technologies Ltd and Multimedia University/Equity Holding Group/Tsinghua TongFang Co Ltd, Hewlett – Packard EA Ltd and Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and Meru University of Science and Technology/Participatia Technologia
Others were Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and POSITIVO BGH, Moi University & JP SA Couto, S.A, Lenovo EA Limited, Trans Business Machine, Specicom and Ensure Services and the University Of Nairobi & Huawei Technologies Ltd
They were part of the 10 companies that had been issued with the RFP documents on November 27, 2015. The Expression of Interest proposals were opened on September 22, 2015 at the ICT Authority offices. In the opening, a total number of 25 companies or successfully submitted their proposals by the deadline.
The project is being implemented through a multi-agency approach that consists of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development, Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, The National Treasury and the Office of the Attorney General.
The ICT Authority is the lead implementing agency for the programme. Other agencies include The Teacher Service Commission, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Rural Electrification Authority, Kenya Power, Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association.
According to Phyllis Nyambura from the ICT Authority, the components have so far been delivered on schedule with the Interactive Digital Content for standard one pupils being launched on December 15, 2015 by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
The content is available on a universal platform on link http://kicdinteractivecontent.ac.ke. Additionally, the Ministry of Energy recently announced that they have almost completed connecting power to schools.
A total of 66,000 teachers have been trained on digital literacy and are awaiting a refresher course in the next few weeks.
