The Jubilee government’s class one laptop project has yet again been slammed as a ‘joke of the century’ by Nyamira Senator Mong’are Okong’o.
Mr Okong’o who was issuing computers to Don Bosco Secondary School in Kitutu Masaba on Tuesday said the project should be suspended, and the resources diverted towards equipping computer labs in secondary schools.
The Senator blamed the government on what he termed as ‘poor’ strategic planning, and challenged the Ministry of Education to instead equip computer labs in secondary schools before embarking on the laptops project to class one pupils.
“I am not opposing digitalisation of our education but some projects such as the laptop programme for class one pupils are just a joke of the century. It shows how the Jubilee government lacks proper strategic planning which is dangerous in promoting our education system. They should have prioritised equipping computer labs of various secondary schools first,” he said.
He said equipping computer labs for secondary schools would be easy due to their less numbers, and that all students would be able to access computer training once they join Form One in a shorter period.
“I will be cheap for the government to equip labs because those computers will be retained by specific schools and that will serve many students in future unlike when you give a laptop to a specific student. We also have few secondary schools which can be served urgently and benefit all candidates who join secondary schools annually,” he said.
He called for employment of more computer teachers in high schools saying some institutions were still hiring private teachers at expensive rates.
“It’s not just about equipping our secondary schools; we still need TSC to absorb more computer teachers to effect the plan. Hiring them would create more jobs than the proposed training of primary schools teachers who are already under government payroll to affect the laptops project,” he said.