The laptops are back as government invests heavily in e-learning

The government is once again hoping to keep its pre-election promise to the millions of primary school pupils by allocating Ksh 17.5 billion for the laptop project that stalled last year due to procurement wrangles.

The much-talked about laptop project for the primary school pupils came back in the national budget.

The government, after failing to keep its promise to the Kenyan children last year due to protracted procurement wrangles, has allocated the Ksh 17.5 billion to the project, but will expand it into a comprehensive e-learning programme.

“This money will go to deployment of e-learning devices to schools, development of digital content, building capacity for school teachers and rolling out computer labs for class 4-8 in all schools throughout the country,” said Mr Rotich.

The laptop project is one of the Jubilee administration’s flagship project and has resulted to a tough political contest with the opposition accusing the government of promising what it could not deliver.

The free secondary education programme will receive an increased capitation to Ksh 32.7 billion, and Ksh 14.1 billion for free primary education.

Ksh 400 million will be used to supply sanitary towels for girls in schools and Ksh 1 billion to the feeding programme to ensure that no child misses school.

Ksh 2.3 billion has been allocated to recruit 5,000 additional teachers while Ksh 2.2 billion will be used for promotion of teachers.