Stories of Change
Students at Kumpa Holy Mothers Primary School in Kajaido County, Kenya with their new laptops.
Embracing ICT for learning is still at its infant stages in Kenya. This is attributed to a myriad of challenges facing most schools in Kenya, key being poor infrastructural development that has resulted to a slow rate of adoption of ICT despite its promise and potential for enhancing student’s education.
Connecting students to digital learning
Kumpa Holy Mothers Primary School in Kajaido County, Kenya opened in 1987. The school now teaches 577 students: 290 girls and 287 boys. The CWS School Safe Zones Program has partnered with Kumpa Holy Mothers Primary School for years. Past initiatives have included setting up an irrigation system in the school’s garden as well as biogas and pit latrine projects. Each of these have helped to ensure that children have access to a sustainable and nutritious food supply as well as adequate sanitation while at school.
With these infrastructure projects completed, the most recent step in this partnership focuses on access to technology for the school’s students. In many communities, there exists a significant dearth of access to technology and digital learning tools for students. In order to ensure that students have the technological skills needed to take advantage of the modern digital world, CWS donated used laptops to Kumpa Holy Mothers Primary School in addition to other schools in the program.
Receiving the donation on behalf of the school, the head teacher, Mr. Nathan Kobaai said, “I am very delighted to receive these laptops that will not only benefit our school children in terms of practical learning, but also the Kumpa community as a whole, as our Information and Communications Technology center is open to the public for basic computer training.” Mr. Kobaai further thanked CWS for its relentless support to the school over the years, referring to the School Safe Zones Program as “a long term development partner.”
Through the School Safe Zones Program, CWS is helping to ensure that students have the infrastructure and supplies – including technology – that they need to succeed!