Is Education Technology the great equalizer? Lessons from Kenya
Category: Education
By: Oscar Ochieng, Winnie Ogejo,
In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic plunged the world into an unprecedented education crisis that left 1.6 billion learners out of the classroom, from pre-primary to college. This situation forced countries to find alternative modes of delivering education. The World Bank estimates that 53% of learners in Low-Income-Countries have no reading proficiency by age 10. Prolonged school closures are likely to magnify the already existing inequalities. Literacy, digital, and general skills gaps widen and further threaten the academic and professional prospects for young people. According to a Save the Children report, over 9 million children could miss out on education permanently due to the pandemic.
Education Technology (EdTech) in Kenya
In response to the education crisis, countries like Kenya are leveraging technology and remote learning to continue education amid school closures. Education Technology (EdTech) is a combination of IT tools and educational practices used to facilitate and enhance learning. With the growing reach of mobile technology in Kenya, EdTech has the potential to reach out-of-school children and youth. It provides opportunities to learn under challenging circumstances. EdTech can help empower young generations, bridge gender gaps and prepare students for the workforce. The EdTech industry has been rapidly gaining ground in countries like Kenya and India. In these countries, efforts to improve the failing education system have led to a spike in digital learning solutions. The sector is predicted to triple in value worldwide to $ 350 billion by 2025. The breadth and depth of the transition to distance education have been immense. Although the majority of students are engaged in remote learning, many households encountered challenges. Access to appropriate digital devices, good internet connections, electricity and proper study spaces are some of them. Also, there is a significant disparity between rural and urban households.
Less than 10% of pupils in Kenya have access to digital learning materials, such as computers, iPads and laptops. Only 18% have access to the internet for learning, and only 26% have access to electricity in rural areas. The numbers show blatant disparities in home learning. Even when the infrastructure for remote learning delivery is available, acceptance from public schools’ students is low. This situation has to do with insufficient technological capacity and lack of educational and instructional design for effective learning methods. Radio is still the only medium that reaches rural areas more effectively than urban ones. Access to computers, television, and the internet is considerably lower in rural contexts.
Innovation thanks to the pandemic
In the wake of the pandemic, the Ministry of Education took a number of steps to promote continuity in learning. This included education programmes broadcasted via television and radio, as well as on YouTube. In partnership with the Kenya Publishers Association, the government made electronic copies of textbooks available for free on the Kenya Education Cloud. Key notable innovations in education in the past year were:
– The Kenya Education Cloud: a government initiative aimed at offering comprehensive basic education virtually;
– Ubongo: is a multi-platform education content that helps kids learn, and leverage their learning to change their lives.
– Eneza Education: a phone-based platform for students and teachers to access and use learning materials;
– e-Limu: a mobile-app created to reinforce learners’ literacy skills through videos and games;
– Tusome: a national literacy programme which uses digitized teaching materials and a tablet-enabled feedback system.
– M-Shule, eKitabu, and Longhorn Publishers’ e-learning platforms have also been implemented.
Through the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and in partnership with Telkom Kenya, the Government of Kenya also deployed Google’s Loon Balloons carrying 4G base stations over Kenyan airspace. These are all noble measures designed to make sure that no student is left behind. Yet, access to these services is patchy and not enough children benefit, neither in urban nor in rural areas.
Despite governmental efforts, the ongoing school closures are deepening educational inequality. It is evident that learners from well-off families can cope better with the challenges posed by the crisis. They have access to the Internet and can afford to pay for virtual tutors. For others the situation is bleak. That includes students with learning disabilities, who were already marginalized before the outbreak and never included in digital learning strategies, and those living in remote areas.
How to close the inequality gap?
So, how can Kenya support already marginalized learners during school closures to enable them to keep up? If the country cannot solve this puzzle, the inequality gap in education will only widen further.
To reach the most vulnerable and excluded children, Kenya must adopt multiple learning modalities, ranging from television and radio to mobile technology (WhatsApp/SMS), that are available to all. With over 59% of the population having access to radios, it would be possible to reach learners left behind by new technology if lessons are provided through this medium.
Besides, there is need to have high level of collaboration between the private sector and the government where the latter can offer internet providers (Safaricom, Telkom, Airtel, Zuku) and mobile device manufacturers (Tecno, Huawei and Samsung) with tax incentives if they support equity in access to distance learning for the disadvantaged portion in the society and this can only be restricted to educational platforms. Low digital and literacy skills, plus the low number of mobile phone ownership, limit mobile internet adoption.
Key stakeholders in the education sector, such as teachers, learners and parents, need to be trained in the new learning modalities. With the recent move to EdTech solutions, teachers must upskill and reskill continuously.
School closures and home confinement have fundamentally transformed how students, teachers and parents engage with education and learning. It has prompted the world to reimagine teaching and the organization of learning.
Yet, we have also realized that human contact is at the heart of education. Technologies cannot replace the experience of being in school and the human interaction it is based on. It will take a while for technologies to supplant traditional knowledge-based teaching. Teachers remain central to the educational process. Beyond the usual curricula, there is meaningful learning that happens in schools, such as play, sports, art, and extracurricular activities. Much of this personal development and social learning cannot be delivered remotely. As a human experience, learning is rooted in social interaction and processes.
This is a re-publication from Southern Voice
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Is Education Technology the great equalizer? Lessons from Kenya
| Post date: Wed, Apr 21, 2021 |
| Category: Education |
| By: Oscar Ochieng, Winnie Ogejo, |
In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic plunged the world into an unprecedented education crisis that left 1.6 billion learners out of the classroom, from pre-primary to college. This situation forced countries to find alternative modes of delivering education. The World Bank estimates that 53% of learners in Low-Income-Countries have no reading proficiency by age 10. Prolonged school closures are likely to magnify the already existing inequalities. Literacy, digital, and general skills gaps widen and further threaten the academic and professional prospects for young people. According to a Save the Children report, over 9 million children could miss out on education permanently due to the pandemic.
Education Technology (EdTech) in Kenya
In response to the education crisis, countries like Kenya are leveraging technology and remote learning to continue education amid school closures. Education Technology (EdTech) is a combination of IT tools and educational practices used to facilitate and enhance learning. With the growing reach of mobile technology in Kenya, EdTech has the potential to reach out-of-school children and youth. It provides opportunities to learn under challenging circumstances. EdTech can help empower young generations, bridge gender gaps and prepare students for the workforce. The EdTech industry has been rapidly gaining ground in countries like Kenya and India. In these countries, efforts to improve the failing education system have led to a spike in digital learning solutions. The sector is predicted to triple in value worldwide to $ 350 billion by 2025. The breadth and depth of the transition to distance education have been immense. Although the majority of students are engaged in remote learning, many households encountered challenges. Access to appropriate digital devices, good internet connections, electricity and proper study spaces are some of them. Also, there is a significant disparity between rural and urban households.
Less than 10% of pupils in Kenya have access to digital learning materials, such as computers, iPads and laptops. Only 18% have access to the internet for learning, and only 26% have access to electricity in rural areas. The numbers show blatant disparities in home learning. Even when the infrastructure for remote learning delivery is available, acceptance from public schools’ students is low. This situation has to do with insufficient technological capacity and lack of educational and instructional design for effective learning methods. Radio is still the only medium that reaches rural areas more effectively than urban ones. Access to computers, television, and the internet is considerably lower in rural contexts.
Innovation thanks to the pandemic
In the wake of the pandemic, the Ministry of Education took a number of steps to promote continuity in learning. This included education programmes broadcasted via television and radio, as well as on YouTube. In partnership with the Kenya Publishers Association, the government made electronic copies of textbooks available for free on the Kenya Education Cloud. Key notable innovations in education in the past year were:
– The Kenya Education Cloud: a government initiative aimed at offering comprehensive basic education virtually;
– Ubongo: is a multi-platform education content that helps kids learn, and leverage their learning to change their lives.
– Eneza Education: a phone-based platform for students and teachers to access and use learning materials;
– e-Limu: a mobile-app created to reinforce learners’ literacy skills through videos and games;
– Tusome: a national literacy programme which uses digitized teaching materials and a tablet-enabled feedback system.
– M-Shule, eKitabu, and Longhorn Publishers’ e-learning platforms have also been implemented.
Through the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and in partnership with Telkom Kenya, the Government of Kenya also deployed Google’s Loon Balloons carrying 4G base stations over Kenyan airspace. These are all noble measures designed to make sure that no student is left behind. Yet, access to these services is patchy and not enough children benefit, neither in urban nor in rural areas.
Despite governmental efforts, the ongoing school closures are deepening educational inequality. It is evident that learners from well-off families can cope better with the challenges posed by the crisis. They have access to the Internet and can afford to pay for virtual tutors. For others the situation is bleak. That includes students with learning disabilities, who were already marginalized before the outbreak and never included in digital learning strategies, and those living in remote areas.
How to close the inequality gap?
So, how can Kenya support already marginalized learners during school closures to enable them to keep up? If the country cannot solve this puzzle, the inequality gap in education will only widen further.
To reach the most vulnerable and excluded children, Kenya must adopt multiple learning modalities, ranging from television and radio to mobile technology (WhatsApp/SMS), that are available to all. With over 59% of the population having access to radios, it would be possible to reach learners left behind by new technology if lessons are provided through this medium.
Besides, there is need to have high level of collaboration between the private sector and the government where the latter can offer internet providers (Safaricom, Telkom, Airtel, Zuku) and mobile device manufacturers (Tecno, Huawei and Samsung) with tax incentives if they support equity in access to distance learning for the disadvantaged portion in the society and this can only be restricted to educational platforms. Low digital and literacy skills, plus the low number of mobile phone ownership, limit mobile internet adoption.
Key stakeholders in the education sector, such as teachers, learners and parents, need to be trained in the new learning modalities. With the recent move to EdTech solutions, teachers must upskill and reskill continuously.
School closures and home confinement have fundamentally transformed how students, teachers and parents engage with education and learning. It has prompted the world to reimagine teaching and the organization of learning.
Yet, we have also realized that human contact is at the heart of education. Technologies cannot replace the experience of being in school and the human interaction it is based on. It will take a while for technologies to supplant traditional knowledge-based teaching. Teachers remain central to the educational process. Beyond the usual curricula, there is meaningful learning that happens in schools, such as play, sports, art, and extracurricular activities. Much of this personal development and social learning cannot be delivered remotely. As a human experience, learning is rooted in social interaction and processes.
This is a re-publication from Southern Voice
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Kenya’s National Budget: A Matatu Ride Reflecting Fiscal Volatility and Structural Inefficiencies
Introduction The matatu metaphor can be used to analytically frame Kenya’s budget as a system that is subject to binding constraints, evolving expectations, and continuous adjustment to shocks. Like the matatu sector, fiscal policy reflects a balancing act between efficiency and quick action seeking to respond to public service delivery while constrained by competing sector […]
NTSA Should Not Regulate Public Service Vehicle Fares
Introduction Imagine paying the same fare to travel at 6 a.m. as you would at 6 p.m., even though the matatu is half-empty in the morning and packed in the evening. At 6 a.m., there may be more seats available than passengers willing to pay for them. By 6 p.m., the situation is reversed. Hundreds […]
What Would It Mean for a Hypothetical Listing of Space X On Nairobi Stock Exchange?
Absurd hypotheticals are useful precisely because they stress-test a system until its constraints become visible. This note asks what would break first if SpaceX, now a public company following its record-breaking Nasdaq debut in June 2026, with a post-IPO market value of approximately US$ 2.5 trillion, sought a secondary cross-listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. […]
The Arithmetic of Ambition: What Kenya’s First-World Dream Really Requires?
Kenya’s proposed post-2030 Vision commits the country to high-income status “within a generation.” One positive issue that should be emulated is that the document seeks to solve the most important policy decision and the foundational problem in economics, which is to expand output and labour. Skeptics ask the most important question, why would this plan […]
Kenya’s Debt: Borrow Today, Pay Tomorrow
According to the Annual Debt Report 2024/25, as shown in Chart 1 below, Kenya today is such that for every one hundred shillings the Kenyan government raises in tax revenue, approximately ksh71 goes directly into servicing existing debt before a single hospital is staffed, a classroom is built, or a kilometre of road is constructed. […]