Too costly - Kenya shuts down computer labs

Kenya is probably the richest nation in East Africa with an annual Gross National Income GNI per capita of $550 (Ethiopia $170, Uganda $300, Rwanda $220, Tanzania $350, compare also: Ghana $510, Guyana $1150, Serbia $4010, Hong Kong $29,404, UK $40,500). Kenya has to plan her ICT investments in education carefully so that they are sustainable. Yearly costs of ownership tend to be overlooked.

from: The Nation News by JACOB NGETICH June 2010
Why MPs shot down computer labs

In his 2009-2010 Budget speech in Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister and minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta allocated Sh1.3 billion (US $16 million) for the Mobile Computer Laboratories Project for use by high schools students.
However, months later, a member of the Finance Committee and MP Shakeel Shabbir rubbished it, terming it a deliberate attempt to make money and cheat the taxpayer with an unsustainable project. ... Mr Shabbir claimed then that sub-standard buses had already been bought from India for the project. The Ministry of Information would provide broadband or satellite connection, while the Ministry of Education was to scout for teachers and meet the operational cost. ...
The amount allocated for the project by the Treasury was only meant for capital expenditure, with operational expenditure derived from CDF. “Under the initiative, the CDF was to buy and fuel the bus that would go round and also cater for the two teachers,” explains Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary ICT - photo.

Read the full story here

To close the digital divide systematically,
see: ICT-IT harmonised
see: Nationwide Visualisation Project 

..................

In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.
The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.
How to explain 'radar'? Below, the use of radar, one off the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

Step up: "In which three ways radar is used in this visual?"