[kictanet] One subject, varying quality - We lack an accreditation system for ICT courses

Wed Jun 24 16:30:46 EAT 2009

Hallo David,
Last week there was furore in this forum about media misrepresentation of the Kenyan situation. The article that you make reference to in today’s Standard (24.06.09) may be accurate in the areas that you have highlighted. However, I wish to take issue with a few points raised in the article. http://www.eastandard.net/education/InsidePage.php?id=1144017693&cid=316

 ‘Unlike other academic fields, very little has been done to train most teachers in ICT skills. Currently, no primary teacher training college offers comprehensive pre-service training in information technology.’

Anyone with a modest interest in education in Kenya would not miss something as obvious as a subject in the national curriculum when reporting in a national daily. Prior to the year 2004, a few colleges had ICT skills courses for pre-service teachers based on in-house curricula that were independently developed by each college. The Primary Teacher Education (PTE) ICT curriculum developed by the Kenya Institute of Education has been in force since the year 2004 and ICT is taught as a compulsory subject in all primary teacher training colleges.  It is examined internally at the end of the first year and all students must pass in the subject, among other subjects, in order to proceed to second year. There are several implementation hitches in this programme arising from the fact that ICT is being taught as a discrete subject in the curriculum and has yet to be mainstreamed in the other subjects in the PTE curriculum. The debate around ICT- pedagogy
 integration in education and how to operationalise it right from curriculum development to classroom level implementation continues in the education circles. 

 ‘In-service training is often provided by trainers who are just barely literate in computers’

In my knowledge, this has happened especially in instances when some hardware providers ‘dangle’ teacher training as an additional offer to the institution. TTCs used to hire ICT technicians to teach the course, but in the last 2 years, the Teacher Service Commission has posted trained lecturers of ICT to a number of TTCs. There have also been some highly professional training offered to college lecturers by Microsoft (in conjunction with the Institute of Advanced Technology - IAT) and the Kenya Technical Teachers College. Computers for Schools Kenya and the Nepad e-schools teacher training programmes have also reached teachers in selected secondary schools. Lack of co-ordination (as with the rest of the ICT initiatives in Kenya ), lack of clear training targets and time-lines have compromised continuity and impact of some of these training programmes.  

 ‘The entire ICT education is in tatters’
An interesting analogy there. But I see a sector that is struggling with what some scholars in educational reform have called an ‘implementation dip’ – that for a number of reasons things normally tend to get worse before they can get better.  There are lots of difficulties in implementing large scale ICT initiatives in the education sector world over. In our country, there have been positive efforts by the Ministry of Education, the KIE and a number of stakeholders in education, and these do count. On the other hand, there has been the tendency (by education leaders) towards elaborate policy documents, ‘ICT networks’ and trust funds whose mandates remain indeterminate. All these need to be researched and accurately presented.

Accurate reporting by the media and objective analysis of both the positives and difficulties are important in helping the public target their attention and effort. Besides the inaccuracies, the use of expressions such as ‘in tatters’ ‘the situation is bad’, ‘alarmed professionals’  ‘obsolete hardware’ to describe ICT in education in Kenya sounds to me fairly sensational.

Betty   

--- On Wed, 6/24/09, David Otwoma <otwomad at gmail.com> wrote:

From: David Otwoma <otwomad at gmail.com>
Subject: [kictanet] One subject, varying quality - We lack an accreditation system for ICT courses
To: ogange at yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 9:32 AM

.....universities offer many degrees but their quality and market demand differ......

Although nearly all universities offer degrees, only the University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Strathmore have Master’s programmes and only UON and Jkuat teach at doctoral level.
There is a diminishing number of staff with PhDs in ICT departments. According to Prof Rodrigues, UoN has the highest number of full-time lecturers with PhDs in ICT that stands at eight of 18, while Jkuat has three of six, which is the same number for Strathmore. 
Kenyatta University has nine full-time but none of them have a PhD or an equivalent qualification, while none of the Kabarak’s eight lecturers have a PhD. Two of six of United States International University has doctoral degrees.
Many lecturers have no experience as ICT professionals as engineers, software developers or in the emerging area of computer and network security.

See http://www.eastandard.net/education/InsidePage.php?id=1144017693&cid=316&  for full story 

-- 
David Otwoma,
Chief Science Secretary,
National Council for Science and Technology,
Utalii House 9th Floor,
Mobile tel: +254 722 141771,
Office tel: +254 (0)20 2346915,
P. O. Box 5687 - 00100, Nairobi, Kenya
email: otwomad at gmail.com & otwoma at ncst.go.ke
www.ncst.go.ke

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