[kictanet] [mixed-up tender-driven priorities] Education ministry abandons Uhuru's laptop project

Wed Feb 27 15:44:32 EAT 2019

Adam Lane, really? what does "entirely funded by GoK" mean exactly... are you saying GoK has ever had a balanced budget? When?
My facts are 100% in order.

:-D
    On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 3:20:14 PM GMT+3, Adam Lane <adam.lane at huawei.com> wrote:  

 Patrick, the tablet project has been entirely funded by GOK, not by aid or loans. please check your facts.

From:Patrick A. M. Maina via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>To:Adam Lane <adam.lane at huawei.com>Cc:Patrick A. M. Maina <pmaina2000 at yahoo.com>Date:2019-02-27 13:15:13Subject:Re: [kictanet] [mixed-up tender-driven priorities] Education ministry abandons Uhuru's laptop project
GG and listers,
I think the underlying subtext is that a NEW TENDER is coming up for "computer labs" that will be deployed in overcrowded, dilapidated public schools (some mud-walled, others open air) with dirty / unpainted classrooms, rudimentary and worn out / broken fittings (if any) and no (or poorly paid and demoralized) teachers... not forgetting, attended mostly by children who are not getting their basic needs met (balanced unpolluted diet; clothing; dignified shelter with clean water and toilet; access to competent healthcare; child-friendly neighborhood; physical safety and psychological safety) that are critical per-requisites to actual learning, because their parents are TRAPPED IN POVERTY due to historical policy-level factors that are beyond their control and not of their own making. What problem should be solved first? How do we set priorities as a country?

Here's an interesting puzzle that is by now familiar to most/all of us:

a. Is there money to pay decent wages to all teachersso they can all live a dignified life (and focus 100% on our children's development)? NO.
b. Is there money for "shiny thing" projects that will create a multi-billiontender opportunity for foreign MNC rent seekers? YES. Billions.

How does that work? Well, it turns out that aid money (mostly Loans) from "donors/aid partners" comes with usage restrictions that are designed to benefit the donor country more than the recipient country e.g. the aid money can only be used to fund projectswhich create export markets for the donor country's corporations, national industries and/or labor.
Basically aid is like a "nice" shopkeeper offering you "assistance", via a loan, to buy from his/her shop (and nowhere else), things that you don't need and cant afford e.g. dryclean-only clothes, when your children are malnourished and you can't maintain such clothes. The shopkeeper is not interested in clothing your children sustainably, he only wantsto profit off you and gain power over you via debt (so you can't freely deal with other shopkeepers).

Once you are totally dependent on debt, you will have to sing the shopkeeper's tune to make ends meet. This is why many African government programs and/or priorities don't make sense or benefit the majority. It's not Africans who are calling the tune.

quick_rant() {
Are we not worried that our persistent failure, as an African society, to solve relatively simple challenges is signalling low competence to the rest of world (and therefore entrenching long held racist stereotypes that could lead to some form of future oppression/apocalypse for our children/descendants)? 

I have seen modern-day debates by highly educated people (including some very high achievers and Nobel Prize winners in the scientific community) arguing that Africa's failure to recover from historical setbacks (as well as perceived failure to contribute to global progress) is "proof" that we are genetically inferior intellectually. 

Although the mainstream science community has aggressively rebuffed that narrative (i.e. in public - we don't know the private sentiments), it is ultimately politics (i.e. perceptions - not reality) that shapes the past and the future. Are we playing thepolitics of perceived intelligence and competence as well as we should? 

History shows that incompetent societies have had to peg their continued existence on the benevolence of other more competent societies - but that benevolence has not always guaranteed (so the existential prognosis for incompetent societies isvery poor). Does this not bother us enough?
}

Secondly there is new information that, at certain early ages (e.g. pre-school through lower primary), heavy reliance on technology causes MORE HARM than good:
 a. It stunts creativity by leaving nothing to imagination; 
 b. could trigger lifelong addiction problems - especially when imported, poorly vetted platforms are used;
 c. harms eyesight e.g. via blue light / small text; d. choice of wireless connectivity increases risk of cancers via long-term EMF radiation; e. excessive screen-time impairs the development of soft skills;
 f.  risk of brainwashing via thought-bubble algorithms; and
 g. turns connected minors into data generation products for corporate exploitation.

In fact, top technology executives and practitioners e.g. in Silicon Valley, are (and have been)LIMITING screen-time for their own children and sending them to TECH-FREE private schools (e.g. Waldorf), while their companies ruthlessly lobby governments globally to adopt harmful (by design) technologies in public schools so that children of low income parents (i.e. the majority) can use them, with no choice of opting-out, because it is part of compulsory education.

Will this new knowledge be factored in Kenya's "Phase 2" of digital learning? Will Government restrict screen-time for all children below 12 years (and totally ban poorly moderated addiction-forming platforms like Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, WhatsApp, youTube and gamified apps for under-age children)? Let's see what happens... :-)

====================================

On tablets, I was hoping that the strategy behind the tablets project was to develop local "manufacturing" (kit assembly) capacity for mobile devices and kick-start it with a gov procurement stimulus. If that was the idea, it looks like there was no proper ECOSYSTEM MASTER-PLAN to guarantee sustainability e.g. by developing a strong "demand side" - beyond our own gov. tenders...

Further the manufacturing project should have been run by a collaborating (not competing) consortium of multiple agencies:

1. The Industrialization & Trade ministry to work with indigenous hardware startups to do the assembly, distribution and sales of the devices (including robust demand generation across the region / continent - with the aim of having Government orders as just a small fraction of the overall sales).
2. ICT ministry to conduct business analysis, contextualized architecture design, develop an ecosystem of indigenous platforms and content development capacity - via indigenous startups.3. Education ministry to oversee local content and platform development by setting standards (via KICD) and vetting / approving content in line with economic master-plan.4. The Health ministry to oversee ergonomics and offer guidance on safety for device (e.g. screen specifications / EMF radiation), platform (e.g. algorithms / gamification) and content design (e.g. font size v/s eyesight risks).5. Ministry of energy to ensure provision of power.6. County governments for services like sanitation and water.7. Foreign Affairs ministry to help negotiate regional and international synergies.

Regional collaboration would develop and optimally leverage the comparative advantage of each constituent country.TakeEast Africa for example; 

a. Tanzania has a well developed content development industry; whereas
b. Kenya is good with apps, software platforms and hardware maintenance. It also hasexcellent distribution and marketing ability;
c. Uganda and Rwanda have comparatively lower wages - with hence perfect for assembly line setup.

If each country only did what it does best, and bought the rest from its regional neighbors, we would have built a sustainable regional ecosystem. But lo-and-behold, each country wants to dominate the entire value chain by itself, and then eventually is puzzled why they suddenly have excess capacity (and increased debt) but no markets and no demand other than from Government itself. :-)

Interested in hearing your thoughts on the above, as well as any alternative viewpoints.

Good day.
Patrick A. M. Maina.[Cross-domain Innovator | Independent Public Policy Analyst - Indigenous Innovations]

On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 9:23:08 AM GMT+3, Grace Githaiga via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Listers

Just incase you missed reading this one. KICTANet discussed this eventuality a while back. Read on!

The Ministry of Education has now suspended issuance of tablets to Class One pupils under the digital literacy programme, opting instead to build computer laboratories.

Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has said that each of the 25,000 public primary schools will get one computer laboratory.

“There has been a policy change in programme from one child-one laptop to the construction of computer laboratories for ICT integration,” Dr Kipsang told National Assembly’s Education Committee while presenting budgetary proposals.

https://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/Ministry-abandons-laptop-project/2643604-4997644-10p9jfgz/index.html

Best regards

Githaiga, Grace

--
Grace Githaiga
Co-Convenor, Kenya ICT Action Network

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