ICT Challenges in Education Sector In Kenya

 

ICT in Kenya

ICT has been one of the sectors growing at an alarming rate over the past 10 years In Kenya , it has made an impact in the world of communication and development. 10 Years ago communication depended on face to face communication, today things are very different, you only need your mobile phone, a computer or any other communication device to send/receive a message from anywhere in the world only by pressing a button.
What is ICT?
       ICT stands for Information Communication Technology, it is often used as an extended synonym or an umbrella for IT(information Technology),  but this is a broad term that stresses the  role of unified communications and integration of telecommunications( telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middle-ware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
     ICT have been widely used in the education sector to better the success of scholars,  this includes use of projectors and e-learning which has been  widely used by institutions of higher learning.

Common ICT challenges in Education Sector in Kenya
Despite the positive impacts that ICT has brought in the community, there have been challenges hindering it's success in the education sector, some of the challenges are:

1. Lack of qualified teachers to teach ICT in schools.
2. Lack of computers.
3. Lack of electricity to power the computers.
4. High cost of computers in Kenya.
5. Broken down computers and delays in repairing them.
6. Burglary of computer hardware.
7. Fear of the computer administration. Most school heads think that maintaining computers is hard and expensive. They fear failing to be able to maintain the computer labs
8. Lack of internet or slow and poor network connectivity.
9. Lack of initiative by the community leaders. The computer projects need passionate individuals to drive them.
10. Obsolete and sub-standard computers being introduced in schools.
11. Increased moral degradation through web and internet. Parents and teachers fear introduction of computers might open up immorality like pornography.

These are some of the challenges that has faced the education sector in Kenya, they need to be curbed by ICT officials in Kenya for better chances of success in the ICT sector.

By Biffon Momanyi, Information Scientist, Moi University,Kenya.

3rd world Countries vs 1st

Traffic, Population & Development 

Nairobi Kenya, 
A good example of the 3rd world countries city is Nairobi.
The picture beside shows the beautiful City of Kenya, the picture can easily draw your attention, have a look at it once more. It has beautiful and attractive tall buildings that makes the face of Nairobi CBD, but the true story i hidden within the daily commuters of Nairobi and its environs.

Kenya's Capital Nairobi is one of the biggest and the busiest city in Africa,it represents many 3rd word cities, with a population of about 5 million people and 3 million vehicles both private and P.S.Vs. Development and job creation has always been one of the most concentrated agenda among-est the current leaders of Kenya, this comes despite them being aware of the dangers in the growing rate of population with less jobs, the current condition in the city has become even worse as more vehicles are registered every day compared to other counties in the Country, this means at least every Nairobi citizen is trying their best to own a vehicle.

Traffic in the city
 Its not bad to own a car, its good for personal transport and personal businesses, but look at what will happen if the roads are not expanded to serve all the vehicles at a go, the picture on the right shows what will happen to the worst extent if the current road's condition is not solved with immediate effect. This is one of the picture of what awaits the Nairobi vehicle owners everyday to and from the central business district.


The Thika Super Highway was constructed with the aim of reducing congestion for the Nairobi-Thika road users,it is the most expensive road in Kenya, thanks for the good road but less to our expectations, check what is happening in the biggest road in the country. Congestion and Traffic jam is the daily routine for the road users.

Population

Nairobi has experienced daily population growth, this is because more Kenyans move to the city for reasons best known to themselves, this reasons includes job seeking, schooling or other reasons, due to such reasons the city remains like this(in the image on your  right).
The population increase within the city has had several negative impacts to the Nairobians since crime rate is also increasing due to lack of jobs to the youth, now this also needs a solution with immediate effect for the benefit of the citizen.

Development plans
Development is what most Kenyan citizens would like to see in their everyday life, but remember that will include time saving yet traffic is one of the things that has interfered with peoples time, getting home from town is a story to tell and vise versa, this will of course alter the development plans that every one is trying to achieve,  Development will first be easily accomplished if people can get to working destination in time, and if the Kenyan schools can produce job creators and not job seekers, 

If the Kenyan roads could be compared to this, bullet train transport in China and other 1st world countries, then there could be less to doubt about development. Otherwise, third word countries still have more challenges to face in terms of development, traffic within cities being one of them.

This pictures on your left should act a motivation and the driving force for many 3rd world countries, The 1st world countries have gone no the extent of producing the bullet trains that travels at a speed of up to 300 miles per hour , they are as comfortable as you can't imagine, this has even given the citizens of such countries enough reasons why they should not own a vehicle, This trains are very cheap and time saving, good examples to mention are China and Japan.

Time
As it has always been in the minds of many, TIME IS MONEY, this is absolutely true to say, without enough time you cant be able to catch up with your daily target and plans.
For 1st world countries, its easier to safe time compared to 3rd word countries, this is due to the strategies and measures they are putting in place, it is high time for the 3rd word countries to borrow ideas and work hand in hand with 1st world countries for their own benefit.

This picture on your right shows an example of a well developed City in a 1st world country, Beijing,China. China has the largest population but they are much ahead in terms if development, transport is not a problem at all.

Other good examples of a well developed City are Las Vegas Nevada and New York City in the USA.
This image show the New York City.  From the above story you can easily tell that in 1st world countries, technology and development is part of the daily life.

Story Created and produced by Biffon Momanyi, Information Science Student Moi University, Kenya.