Teachers about to go very digital. Partnership btwn Mwalimu National, Tecno, Microsoft, Lenovo, Intel, Nakumat & Safaricom. #MwalimuDigital
— Shiko-Msa (@Shiko_Msa) 15 June 2016
Teachers. Who can ever forget them. Who can ever take for granted their very noble task of imparting education and moulding young lives. My mother was a teacher and as much as I did not follow in her footsteps, anything to do with teachers warms my heart and touches me to the core.
Today I witnessed the launch a partnership that I feel is a huge plus to secondary school teachers, and by extension to society. When teachers are happy, children are happy, parents are happy and society is happy no?
#MwalimuDigital to empower teachers in Kenya by providing access to affordable laptops through Mwalimu Sacco laptop Loans
— Intel East Africa (@IntelEastAfrica) 15 June 2016
Mwalimu National, Africa’s largest SACCO with over 70,000 members has partnered with Intel and other technology giants to equip teachers with tech knowhow, as well as affordable loans to purchase devices. In what aptly dubbed Mwalimu Digital Program, Mwalimu National will avail low interest loans for teachers to acquire modern computers. The partners in this initiative are Intel, Microsoft, Lenovo, Safaricom, Nakumatt, Tecno, and of course Mwalimu National.
Laptops will be bundled with free Office 365 for 1 Yr, extended warranties, digital teacher content from KICD #Mwalimudigital @Microsoftea
— BrownSkin (@LilianNganda) 15 June 2016
The devices under the Mwalimu Digital initiative will come preloaded with resources from Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). This digital teacher content is purchased by Intel and installed into Lenovo laptops and Tecno WinPads for this program. What’s more, the devices come with a free one year Office365 subscription from Microsoft. The devices under this program will be available in Safaricom shops and Nakumatt supermarkets countrywide. This way, teachers from both rural and urban areas will benefit.
This partnership plays into a number of positive developments in the education sector, first and foremost by complimenting the Teacher’s Service Commission’s digital transformation of schools. By making devices more accessible and affordable for teachers, this initiative complements the Government’s efforts on Digital Literacy in schools.
Equipping and empowering more teachers digitally will certainly translate to the teachers being able to pass the knowledge better to students. Considering that 50% of jobs today require varying degree of technology, and that demand for technology in jobs will jump to 77% in the next decade, equipping anyone and especially teachers with digital skills is one sure way of preparing students for the workspace of now and the future.
Way to go for Africa which is still lagging behind in the digital landscape.
