Helb laptop plan will see new students embrace e-learning

There are plans to provide laptops to all First Year university students as the government prepares for the possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic may frustrate the resumption of face-to-face learning.

It has emerged that with the persistent rise in coronavirus cases, most universities may delay in-person opening for all students and instead continue with online teaching.

The Saturday Standard has established that the government is concerned that even though universities have embraced technology by digitising and uploading course materials to ensure learning continues, a number of students have fallen by the wayside.

Since March, when the institutions were advised to embrace virtual teaching, some students have been unable to attend online classes citing lack of laptops. More recently, vice chancellors revealed that learners were attending online lessons in bars and restaurants where they could get free wireless connections.

A survey by the Kenya Education Network – a non-profit organisation that supports research and education institutions – found that only 48 per cent of university students own laptops. This means that nearly 300,000 students do not own a computer.

Vice chancellors have said this is partly because parents and students have not fully embraced online lessons as a new and reliable mode of teaching.

In an attempt to bridge this digital divide, the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has proposed to supply laptops to all new university students at a cost of Sh5 billion.

Charles Ringera, the Helb chief executive said that for a start, the agency requires Sh2.5 billion to provide laptops for half of the 122,000 First Year students.

Needy students

The agency's data show that in every intake, there are at least 62,500 needy, marginalised and vulnerable students who join tertiary institutions.

"These laptops will be manufactured by the three universities currently assembling gadgets for the digital learning programme. It will be an effort towards 'Build Kenya, Buy Kenya',” Ringera said.

The government has already hinted that an initial Sh500 million will be used to provide laptops to disadvantaged university students. The plans are contained in the Sh929.5 billion National Treasury and Planning Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery Strategy.

"Change of learning mode from classroom to e-learning, which heavily relies on digital gadgets, has necessitated the need to facilitate the needy students to acquire laptops to ensure that they do not drop out of college,” Ringera said.

University heads are now pleading with the Ministry of Education to push parents to embrace digital lessons and buy computers for their children.

"We kindly request that you ask parents to endorse online learning so that their children can get laptops to enhance their learning,” said Njenga Munene, the Zetech University vice chancellor.

Parents have been accused of adopting a half-hearted approach to e-learning hence the reluctance to buy data bundles for lessons.

"We need to put excellence in online learning. This means that parents must also accept this mode of teaching and invest in it for their children,” said David Gichoya, the Kenya Methodist University vice chancellor.

Simon Nabukwesi, the University Education Principal Secretary said while the ministry supports the initiative, institutions should also draft internal policies on issuing students with laptops during admission.

Meoli Kashorda, the Kenet chief executive, said there are plans of bringing down the cost of laptops to enable all students access them.

Intel and Microsoft

"We have a laptops ownership working group that is working together with Intel and Microsoft. The cost of laptops will come down in one month,” Prof Kashorda said.

He said the prices will range from Sh30,000 to Sh40,000.

But even as students are struggling to buy laptops, it also emerged that lecturers who do not have the right gadgets to teach their online classes are using smart phones.

Some of the lecturers have not been trained on how to create and upload content while others do not know how to use online applications, which poses a challenge in managing their classes.

And despite the ongoing efforts to equip students with learning devices, not all universities have fully implemented online teaching and learning due to lack of requisite ICT infrastructure to support e-learning.

Strained online libraries resources and lack of a regulatory framework on the quality of online teaching remains a challenge in most institutions.