ICT Infrastructure for the Uptake of One Laptop Per Child Project in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

The study was investigating the status of ICT infrastructure in preparation for the launch of Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) in public primary schools in Homa Bay County. Mixed approach research design was adopted. A total of 845 public primary schools were eligible for study. In addition, 845 public primary school head teachers and 6529 teachers were also targeted for interviews. The study randomly picked 85 schools, 6 head teachers and 12 primary school teachers for the study across the six sub counties of Homa Bay. The major findings showed that the general ICT infrastructure was low; however, majority of schools had computer laptop safes (79.9%), electric power (74.8%) and power sockets (90.0%) in readiness for DLP.  The study concluded that ICT infrastructures were inequitably distributed in Homa Bay County and a lot was still needed to be done for the DLP rollout to be a success. It was recommended that the government through its line ministries of ICT and energy to improve on both electric power and internet supply to make the project a reality.

Keywords: Infrastructure, Information, Communication and Technology, Digital Literacy Programme, One-Laptop-Per-Child

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-32-09

Publication date: November 30^th 2021