Digital Learning Empowerment
One of the devices that has been installed with digital learning software.
On March 4th 2013, majority of Kenyans voted in Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto as president & deputy respectively. Part of their top six manifesto agendas was “creating meaningful jobs on a large scale and across the country is imperative.” This agenda was to be implemented through several ways of which one of them is better education system. Therefore the president and his deputy promised to issue laptops in all public schools, as part of Kenya’s curriculum. Nearly 7 years later and different curriculum in place, the ICT paraphernalia has either been mismanaged or never used by schools, but not AEF Ruben Primary.
Mid July this year, Denis Graham a principal from an Australian college who had been volunteering at the Ruben Centre helped tee up the ICT room. Recently, teacher Milkah resourced an IT company who has a program that has the current curriculum, previous curriculum and all national primary examinations from the year 2005. This program can be installed in any Windows or Android device and is called MsingiPACK. It was developed by Virtual Essence, which is a local company that aims to bridge the digital divide by promoting ICT through Education and training in line with the Vision 2030. They basically implement digital learning solution for primary, secondary and university institutions.
MsingiPACK has academic content that has been generated by subject panels of experienced and highly competent teachers. The content is engaging and interactive that appeals to a learner. The software covers and builds understanding across all subjects. The instructor can switch between grades, assign tasks and provides a highly motivating way of learning compared to traditional methods. A select group of teachers from AEF Ruben Primary underwent a rigorous training on the program and they all agreed on one thing, it is was an innovative and brilliant way of teaching.
Through close friends and immediate family of our Director, Br. Frank, Ruben Centre will see to it that the primary school gets this amazing deal. Loading a tablet would cost US $8 (ksh. 800) and we have a total of 402 of these devices. For the licensing, it will cost US $250 (ksh. 25,000). That will see to it Ruben Centre parts with US $4,020.56 (ksh. 402,056), inclusive of VAT.
The project will be launched officially start of the New Year (2020) and we believe it will lead to the improvement of our students’ performances apart from having a great learning experience. We would like to thank Denis Graham, friends and family of Br. Frank, teacher Milkah, donors and well-wishers for the support. We don’t know what we would do without you all.
By: GB