E-LEARNING IS THE WAY TO GO FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION IN KENYA.

Quite significant during President Kibaki`s launch of e-learning in schools on 29th of march 2010, at the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) was his bold message that traditional schools are not working as effectively as we would have wanted. With population explosion, live classroom-based teaching is becoming too costly and cumbersome. Every year there is an astronomical increase in the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of education. For instance investments to the education sector, through the two sister ministries within the 2009-2010 budget made up 18.6% of Kenya`s total budget. It is worth noting that the larger majority of this budget was under recurrent expenditures. This included things such as paying of personnel salaries and purchase of expendables. The Ministry of Basic Education’s budget went up by 16.2% while that of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology rose by 12.9 percent. Not withstanding the enormous strain that such an allocation has on the government`s annual budget, the two sister ministries are still unable to meet their rising recurrent expenditure, thus the need to come up with a more effective, cost cutting education mechanism that can achieve education objectives without the unnecessary attendant costs. This is where e learning comes in. To begin with, e-learning will definitely, reduce the government`s wage burden by significantly eliminating costs associated with instructors` salaries bearing in mind that fewer and fewer teachers and lecturers will be required because the Internet will be overflowing with accessible, multimedia presentations from experts in different disciplines. Secondly, and perhaps of more significance is the fact that the Kenya National examination Council (KNEC) will administer examinations on-line thus significantly reducing, if not totally eradicating instances of cheating in national exams. Thirdly, on-line education will provide a challenge for bright students, extra help for lagging students and alternatives for those who don’t function well in a classroom. This is because synchronous e-learning is self-paced. Fast learners are allowed to speed through instruction that is relatively easy while slow learners slow their own progress through content thus eliminating frustration with themselves, their fellow learners, the course and the teacher. In these ways, e-learning is inclusive of a maximum number of participants with a maximum range of learning styles. Even though there are those debilitators of e-learning who have said that e-learning will mean handing your kids over to a Robot teacher, the truth is that the magical bond between teachers and students will remain intact and it will perhaps be enhanced further. This is because, since lesson planning and delivery will move on-line, the few available teachers and lecturers will have more time to provide personalized support and mentoring to students. From the foregoing, since the advantages of e-learning far out weigh the traditional mode of education, the government must not fear venturing into this path. Whether we like it or not, e-learning is rapidly growing. Its clear benefits guarantee it a leading role in the teaching and learning strategy. The only drawback as for now is that the existing technology infrastructure in our country is inadequate to accomplish this very important goal. It is hoped that with more investment in technology, e-learning may just be the panacea to the problems bedecking the education sector in Kenya. TOME FRANCIS, BUMULA. http://twitter.com/tomefrancis