The government of Kenya has announced plans to partner with Microsoft to align the education system with digital technology. Education Cabinet Secr
The government of Kenya has announced plans to partner with Microsoft to align the education system with digital technology.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu during a courtesy call by a team from Microsoft company said that the country is in the process of developing an open university, digital labs, and books integrated systems saying such gestures from digital companies will boost government initiatives. The CS revealed that the Ministry will map out all areas of partnership with the company in order to open a limitless digital space for the youth.
ICT hub of East Africa
“The Government wants to establish internet connectivity in counties, sub-counties, and eventually all over the country in order to open space for online jobs for our youth,” the CS said.
Microsoft’s Company Director of Education in Africa, Ms. Angela Ng’ang’a pointed out that the firm already have several paths of collaboration with the Ministry of education.
“We are not new to the ministry, we have worked closely with the Ministry before; we can only increase our areas of partnership. We have successfully worked with several agencies under the Ministry of Education in areas of digitization and automation. the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), and Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) are among the beneficiaries of the partnership,” said Ng’ang’a.
Kenya is the regional ICT hub of East Africa, with the country being a leader in broadband connectivity, general ICT infrastructure, value added services (VAS), mobile money, and mobile banking and FinTech services. The country’s ICT sector is set to account for up to 7% of the country’s GDP through IT-enabled services. Internet access has continued to spur economic growth which contributed to the government’s development of the Digital Economy Blueprint, a framework to improve Kenya’s ability to leapfrog economic growth in the region.