Remote parts of Kenya have trouble attracting professional teachers. Some schools are using computers to compensate for the lack of human instructors. Despite the obstacles digital learning brings with it, the schools are pleased with the results.

Kenya’s digital learning experiment is expanding, with both the government and private sector championing its adoption. Digital learning – academic instruction using a computer – is often considered an advantage when distance is an obstacle to education. Schools in the drought-ravaged North Eastern Province are now deploying computers to cope not with distance, but an acute shortage of teachers.

Schools in northeastern Kenya often have trouble attracting teachers because of the harsh living conditions, poor infrastructure and constant attacks from Ethiopian militia groups. Most schools in the region, which is the least-developed part of Kenya, record dismal academic performances and are estimated to have a paltry literacy rate of 8.5 percent.

Given the lack of teachers, high illiteracy and poverty levels in this region, advocates of digital learning say the computers are filling a crucial educational gap. Take, for instance, Sakaba High School in Mandera West District, which has a teacher shortage. Sakaba’s principal, Shabure Haji, believes digital learning is a boon for his students.

“With computers, students are able to use the Kenya Institute of Education digital content”, said Haji. “Students are therefore able to learn and access vital information even in the absence of a teacher”. The school is currently awaiting the arrival of 11 computers the government is giving it as part of an economic stimulus plan. Until then, Sakaba’s 300 students have to scramble for time on the existing 22 computers.

Thousands of miles away, computers are helping educate the students at Turkana Girls Secondary School, located in the Turkana region which has been severely affected by drought. The principal of Turkana, Sister Florence Nabwire, agrees that computers hold the key to addressing the shortage of teachers.

(Source: AudienceScapes)