The Digital Learning Program was an inspired vision. Not only is it good for the erstwhile standard one, now grade one pupils, but it is good for students all through high school and into higher levels of learning. To place a laptop in the hands of every student is to give them the keys to succeed in today’s rapidly growing digital economy. Nobody will argue against this very practically visible truth.

However, we must have a transformational discussion on how to meet this vision. Whereas the architects of the idea envisioned the government, with its largesse, buying and giving a laptop to every child, reality checks this design and its flaws.

First, a laptop is a personal device that students and their parents own and take care of. This is very different from putting up a building that is taken care of by government employees such as school staff. Also, a laptop and a textbook have very different requirements for handling and use with the former needing a lot more care.

Second, the age-old question of budgetary and financial ability of the government to supply every learner with a laptop comes to the fore. Of course, as with most public projects, this can partially be solved by having the proposed phased roll-out. However, the laptops needed today and those needed ten years into the future are completely different species. Students who need computing devices today need them today, that is just the reality.

The shift in thinking, therefore, must be underpinned by our national realities. Many parents would be happy to have their children get laptops for education and other developmental uses. However, our country is a notoriously cash driven economy. For most, lack of the full amount of money, in cash, to buy a computer means that they cannot acquire it. 

Is there a way where all school fees paying parents can get laptops for their children and pay for them slowly? Like they do for school fees or textbooks? Of course, one does not buy all the textbooks that their child will ever use in school on day one, but rather buys them as the years and terms roll out.

This is where government largesse should come into play. Government starts by leading the way in national thinking. Every school-going child must have a laptop. It also paves the way in piloting and getting the models right. Picking the right tools for the right jobs, so to speak. At the end of this, government should have clear results on what works and what doesn’t thus de-risking the way for parents and suppliers. Now every parent will be forearmed with minimum specification details before delving into the laptop-buying market. Just like they do before they buy textbooks.

The line ministries should then use their hard-working communication machinery to sensitize all parents on the importance of embracing technology for their children. This being our country though, big questions will come their way on how anybody can afford these important gadgets. Here is where we should tap the ingenuity of our enterprises. It surely cannot be difficult to engage banks and saccos by giving them a list of faithfully school-fees paying parents, can it? Showing that even though one device may cost tens of thousands of shillings in a one-off purchase, these parents can pay a fraction of that every term.

It will also be incumbent on the government to assure the suppliers, both of the devices and the finances, that there is a large enough market in Kenya to support their enterprises. There should also be tough measures taken on anyone dealing in stolen education devices as this is tantamount to economic sabotage, digital version. The government must then empower and encourage schools to share any information needed by the financiers to help establish credibility.

The icing on this digital cake will be the hundreds, if not thousands, of technical jobs that would open up around the country. These millions of laptops and computers would need a huge army, albeit decentralized, of maintenance and service technicians. Our youth, who many a time languish in unemployment, would have their first real chances at business or employment updating anti-viruses and fixing broken screens. This would have the ripple-effect in employability similar to the burger-flipping tales from the West, but that is a story for another day.

That said and done, it is still a duty for government to ensure equality in the country. While many parents will jump at the opportunity to provide laptops for their children where they make small payments every school term, there are others who simply cannot afford it. This is the area where government should play. It should provide the devices only for those who have no other way of affording them. This would be practical and logical use of the country’s budgetary resources. Even then, there will be need for clarity on whom assumes the cost of ownership: maintenance, updates, upgrades and security of devices bought by the government. 

With over 10 million students, the education sector can lead the way in digitizing our economy. Its sheer size and spread can support a large network of big and small service providers. These would in turn also benefit all other sectors of the economy making digitization of the entire nation more achievable. What we need is a realistic and viable plan. Facilitation of parents to buy, own, maintain and upgrade laptops and other computing devices affordably for their children. 

After leading with the piloting and creating an enabling environment for parents to acquire the devices, government should focus on what it does best. Continuously develop the supporting infrastructure needed for true digital learning. It is a bygone conclusion that every corner of the country must be blanketed with high-speed, broadband Internet connections. Nothing adds value to a computer like a connection to the Internet. This, of course, means that electricity connection either through the grid or through various renewable energy sources is not even up for discussion. We cannot talk of Internet-enabled computers that have no power and the same goes for digital learning. For us to succeed, therefore, let the government do its work, parents play their role and the indefatigable Kenyan enterprise players do their part.