Date Posted: 5/19/2013 8:20:13 AM
Posted By: fancy03 Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 1287
The Jubilee coalition in its campaigns promised to offer every child joining form one a solar powered laptop.In his first address to parliament,the president insisted on commitment to the pledge and said it was not just a campaign strategy.While this is a noble idea,it is possibly not the best time to implement it.Considering our country's third world state and the fact that some teachers are computer illiterate,the program will encounter too many challenges for it to achieve its intended mission.Instead of introducing laptops, the government should consider offering kindles to the standard one pupils.Kindles are small devices that are used for downloading, reading and storing books,journals,newspapers and other texts.They have a capacity of up to eight giga bytes of storage.They can therefore store a lot of books and journals for the child to read.Second, the kindle is small,light weight and is easily portable unlike a laptop which requires a separate bag.A kindle will fit into a pupils back pack with ease.Laptops can be easily stolen because of their large size.It will also be easier for a child to take care of a kindle than a laptop because of its awkwardness and bulk.Most primary school teachers are not well versed with computers so they may need extra training which will lead to further complications.A kindle however is easy to use and simple so one learns as fast.It is almost as easy as a mobile phone maybe less complex than some.This will make it much easier for the pupils and teachers to use them for learning.The cheapest laptop costs around twenty five thousand Kenyan shillings.This money can purchase three kindles and leave some change fro data to download the books with.Kindles and e readers in general are much more affordable and considering Kenya is not that rich,they would definitely be the much better option.They would also help to save on costs for software that will be needed to make laptops suitable for class one pupils.Considering the mess that came up when the IEBC attempted to use computerized technology for identifying voters,it is safe to say that our authorities are not ready for that kind of technology.Kindles however have been tested and tried in some parts of Kenya and are known to be working alright.There is a an organization called Worldreader that has been issuing kindles to pupils in remote parts of Kenya and their learning is improving.They have also partnered with local publishers like Jommo Kenyatta Foundation to provide relevant content to the pupils.A kindle has a battery just like a phone and can keep power for up to two weeks.It will thus be suitable for even the remotest of areas.The manufacturer is doing a test run of a solar powered kindle in Ghana and if it works,it will be rolled out in Africa because there is plenty of sunshine.This will be perfect for our country considering the amount of sunshine we get.A kindle has only one use while a laptop has multiple.Unless someone is an avid reader, a kindle will not be attractive to them.Offering them to pupils will thus avoid cases of theft and violence since they are less attractive.This will save resources as well as keep pupils safer.There is also the danger of the people responsible for distributing the laptops wanting to keep some for themselves.All e-readers will reach the pupils thus reducing corruption which is bound to happen in the case of laptops.Kindle are definitely a better idea than laptops as they have been tested and also have many other advantages.
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