Government to establish citizen digital literacy training hubs across the country
The government has announced plans to establish 1450 Village digital hubs for citizen digital literacy training, film production and public access to government services across the country.
The recommendations are contained in Kenya’s Digital Masterplan 2022-2032 unveiled at the ongoing Connected Summit 2022 in Diani, Kwale County.
The document will guide the structured delivery of ICT infrastructure, services, and the development of skills. It also gives a 10- year roadmap to the country on ICT initiatives to guide investors while planning their priorities. It identifies 19 flagship projects, that the government will focus on, to accelerate the digital transformation of the country.
To enable the citizen and public servants to effectively utilize technology in their businesses and work, the masterplan proposes digital literacy capacity building for all citizens starting with 20 million citizens, training of 300,000 public servants and building adequate technical support through training of 10,000 ICT professionals.
The programme will give them ‘’…the necessary IT proficiency to be able to deliver services effectively to the citizen to be able to utilize technology in their businesses and access to government e-services’’ the masterplan reads.
The Digital Literacy Programme was first initiated by the Government in 2016 with the implementation starting in July 2019. During this first phase, 1,169,000 digital learning and teaching devices assembled locally at JKUAT and Moi University plants were installed in 21,638 public primary schools representing 99.6 % for both regular and special needs education.
‘’This program aims at transforming our education sector by making digital literacy universally accessible to our young learners from the onset. ‘’ Mucheru said adding that plans are now underway for the implementation of Phase II of the Programme targeting upper primary and connectivity to all schools to reliable internet services.
A total of 331,000 teachers were also trained on ICT integration with an additional 218,253 teachers trained on CBC while 93,009 teachers were trained on the utilisation of ICT devices. The Presidential Digital Talent programme also trained 2,100 IT interns in specialised areas which has since had a positive impact in the delivery of service to Kenyans.
‘’Our aspiration, as a country to implement all these ICT initiatives is drawn from national and global commitments as codified in various instruments such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Africa 2063 Agenda, Vision 2030 and the Constitution of Kenya’’ Mucheru said.
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