Lower Internet Costs To Enhance E-learning In Our Varsities – Gicharu.
Mount Kenya
University founder Dr. Simon Gicharu
has called for increased investment in digital education as a means to tackle
the challenge of lack of enough physical space for students
transiting from secondary schools to our Kenyan universities.
In an exclusive interview, Gicharu said that it was high
time Kenya re-thought its educational strategy to cater for the thousands of
students who met the minimum university entry grade each year but were still left
behind for lack of vacancies.
He said that expansion of the existing education
infrastructure called for building of more classrooms, hostels, living
quarters, and hiring of more lecturers as well as provision of other vital
services and materials which may not be applicable in a short term basis.
It was for this reason that he suggested the advancement of
technology and more innovative ways to expand available spaces for education at
the institutions of higher learning. In this way, the need for physical
facilities and the huge outlay of capital required to set up such
infrastructure will be reduced significantly.
“Thousands of students have graduated by undertaking their
programmes online and thousands more are pursuing their studies. A Kenyan
student does not have to go to the US, for instance, to study in one of its top
universities. All you need is a reliable, fast and affordable internet
connectivity,” he said.
However, for virtual education to thrive, Gicharu noted that
there were some fundamental conditions that had to be met that included among
other things, affordable internet connection. African countries, Kenya
included, still paid heavily to access the internet making e-learning an
expensive affair.
He therefore called on all the relevant players to discuss
how to bring down the internet charges with a view to lowering the cost of
education.
He added that Kenya particularly, had a huge opportunity to
be a regional leader in e-learning since it enjoyed relatively cheaper internet
access in East Africa. The fiber-optic cable has terminated the use of the
expensive satellite services.
He said that Kenya Education Network, which provides
bandwidth services to universities, needed to be revamped in order to play its
role more effectively.
“Widespread access of the internet
enhances education acquisition. However, there is still need to find innovative
ways to lower these costs,” he concluded.
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