[kictanet] Vision 2030: ICT and Other Sectors Converged (Day 2)

Wed Dec 14 11:07:58 EAT 2011

Thank you Bw. Kibati for your responses.

Thank you Grace too, for this forum.

To Bw. Kibati,

I'm looking at the abridged version of Vision 2030, Chapter 5 "The
Social Strategy: Investing in the People of Kenya", which points out
various sectors that will be invested in, in the realization of the
Vision.
My interest here is the Education and Training, specifically on the
flagship projects for this sector.
Reading through, I notice that the projects pointed out are directed
towards primary and secondary education. Beyond there, it remains in
the oblivion. However, my major concern is the adult education
sub-sector. About a year ago, the Directorate of Adult and Continuing
Education hired a paltry 880 adult education teachers against a
shortfall of about 20,000. Since they were not trained or inducted in
handling adult learners, the number of adult illiterates has not
decreased much.
The Vision 2030, in my view, focusses on Basic Primary and Secondary
Education. Where are the adult learners ( youth and adults) fitting?
My flagship projects for the sub-sector would be:
1. Establish one adult education centre  of excellence per sub-location  by 2012
2. Equip existing adult education centres with computers, books and
electronic gadgets (kindles for example) by 2012
3. Finalize and implement the National Qualification Framework by 2012
4. Hire qualified personnel to handle adult learners by 2012.

All these can be done through PPP model.
The reason as to why I'm generally concerned with this population is two-fold.
Adult learners are the voters in Kenya, thus in a position to
determine the course Kenya will take in the next few years. If they
are not informed, then they end up making wrong social, political and
economic decisions.
Secondly, in most of the documents that are reform-oriented,
specifically Education reforms, adult education has been neglected. In
the Task Force on Aligning Education Reforms to the New Constitution,
adult Education has been put on the periphery - it's only mentioned a
few times, while much emphasis is on Primary and Secondary Education.

Regards

Solomon

On 14/12/2011, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki at gmail.com> wrote:
> My queries are below:
>
> When it comes to Economics, we are lagging behind. We had a projected
> growth rate of 10%, however the World Bank estimates that we will (on the
> upside) have economic growth of 5% in 2012.
> http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/KENYAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22600594~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:356509,00.html,
> not sure how the 2030 secretariat is handling this.
>
> On the economic pillar, I have some issues with the BPO sector. As we
> approach 2030, our competitiveness will depend on either a weaker currency
> or somehow reducing our cost of labour (China currently artificially
> prevents it's currency from weakening to remain competitive in exports).
> How do we ensure that our growth does not kill the very sector we are
> trying to grow?
>
> We also need to ingrain a culture of eating our own dogfood, growing Kenya
> as a market for Kenyan produce (e.g. What we have done with tea). How can
> we spur production of GSM Infrastructure, have policy that supports local
> software as opposed to imported software (use of open platforms would save
> this country a few billion USD every year) e.g. It may cost more to
> maintain an Open Source software platform (e.g. Ubuntu), but it actually is
> cheaper than buying MS (basically, the money is kept in our local
> ecosystem, creating more employment for our IT graduates who maintain the
> system anyway), Belgium has actually implemented the model... We also have
> a model being piloted in the EU, the Living Labs concept,
> http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_lab,
> which can be used for community level innovation.
>
> The latest report by the ICT Board estimates total ICT expenditure at 700M.
> If we can prevent the outflow of a lot of this spend (in open information
> systems that have equivalent standards) we have the double edged sword of
> perfecting our developer ecosystem whilst saving the country in general a
> fortune...
>
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:00 AM, Grace Githaiga
> <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> Thanks Bwana Kibati for your well articulated responses. As you can see,
>> your responses have raised further queries on energy from Brainiac and we
>> look forward to your responses.
>>
>> A great point you raise on the fact that changing our value systems must
>> be a national collective effort if we are going to have social
>> transformation. We can have all the infrastructure but if we do not have
>> values, then there might not be much meaning to Kenyans.
>>
>> Barrack, Solomon and Harry, you now have it from Mr. Kibati.
>>
>> Harry, I do hope that you will take on the challenge to present the Vision
>> 2030 secretariat with a concept on energy distribution. This will be a
>> great outcome of this debate and I am sure Brainiac and other listers may
>> want to join you.
>>
>> Barrack, i think this is your opportunity to influence. Is it possible to
>> suggest how Vision 2030 can influence national values using ICTs?
>> Tusingojee serikali...:)
>>
>> As we reflect on the responses, *we also move on to Day 2. *
>> **
>> *The focus is on the three pillars of Vision 2030.  The vision is
>> grounded on three  piilars and we will look at the first one which is the
>> economic pillar.*
>>
>> The Economic pillar seeks to improve the prosperity of all regions of the
>> country and all Kenyans by achieving Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth
>> rate by 2012.  http://www.vision2030.go.ke/index.php/pillars
>>
>> The Medium Term Plan (2008-2012 identifies six targetted priority sectors
>> namely tourism, agriculture, wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, IT
>> enabled services and financial services.
>>
>>  Over to you listers. Please feel free to still raise concerns on the
>> vision or on Mr. Kibati's responses too.
>>
>> Sasa basi wakilisheni!.
>>
>> Rgds
>> Grace
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> If you have the strength to survive, you have the power to succeed. Life
>> is all about choices we make depending upon the situation we are in. Go
>> forth and rule the World!
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Warm Regards,
>
> Phares Kaboro Kariuki
>