Adopt digital learning to beat global crises

One of the earliest casualties of the new coronavirus disease, Covid-19, which is sweeping across the globe, is education. Many countries have shut down their school systems to minimise contact and halt the spread of the virus. Kenya has not been spared the havoc, which is why the government ordered all learning institutions shut indefinitely.

While the decision was timely and appropriate, it presents the country and, indeed, the world with an opportunity to take stock of the traditional learning method — congregating learners in a classroom under a teacher — and look into the possibility of taking advantage of the digital revolution to create a modern learning model.

The fact that nobody knows when schools will reopen, or when the virus will clear out, makes it all the more urgent to aggressively embrace online learning — not only to keep learners busy at home, but also to make up for lost time.

PORTALS
Granted, a number of universities and private schools have created education portals where learners can take digitised teacher instruction and also interact with their colleagues. Unfortunately, these are few and far between. At the universities, online learning is mainly focused on postgraduate students with the larger population, undergraduate learners, left out. Part of the problem is lack of investment in online resources by the institutions.

The pandemic has taught the world that schools should embrace online learning as a matter of urgency. Today’s classrooms must adopt the use of video, television, radio, social media and all other digital platforms to deliver learning. Such a situation does not belong to the future but the present.

The obvious drawback for e-learning is the digital divide. Most families have limited or no access to the internet. Fortunately, most have radios and a good number own television sets.

Although radio lessons have been available in the country through the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, the channel as an education medium is severely limited as it has not been upgraded to match modern times. Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development has a dedicated TV channel but it’s hardly used. The Education ministry should begin talks with telecommunication companies to enhance internet access to support learning.

Moreover, the government should implement the Digital Literacy Programme, which the Jubilee leadership promised in 2013 to equip every Standard One pupil with a laptop but which collapsed soon after.

While it is presumptuous to expect the traditional classroom model to give way soon, the country has to join the rest of the world in experimenting with different methods of curriculum delivery to cushion learners from the effects of the coronavirus and similar unpredictable pandemics.