Kenya project in English
Introduction
The Upper Secondary School of Forssa (Forssan yhteislyseo, later FYL) was established in 1899, thus being the oldest rural secondary school in Finland. FYL has now about 520 students, and they are 16 to 19 of age.
The Rotary District 1410 and two Rotarian clubs started with FYL the developing project with two Kenyan upper secondary schools in 2007. The project ended in 2010. Because the rotary clubs and Kenyan schools wanted to continue and extend co-operation, NGO Pro Kenia (Pro Kenia 2010, the home address of the society is FYL) was established in 2009 by key implementing persons of the background project. The Rotary District 1410, the raotarian clubs,FYL and NGO Pro Kenia started the new project in 2011.
The area
Anin secondary school is situated in Kerio Valley of Keiyo District in Rift Valley province of Kenya, about 350 km to the west of Nairobi. Anin represents typical rural village community in less developed rural areas of Western Kenya. Most of students to Anin school are coming from poor Kerio Valley area, where part of people still are living more in nomadic way. The background project was a catalyser to boost Anin to be connected to main power supply.
Consequently, the whole village was connected to electricity in 2008. The process continues in nearby villages. Anin secondary school accommodates 380 students, equally boys and girls, nearly all of them staying in the school dormitories over the whole semester. The school has 12 teachers. The school was established 20 years ago and has developed her facilities rapidly since that showing good commitment of the community behind the school. The background project provided 30 computers for the school. The school is within wireless connection and internet connection.
Chepalskei secondary school is situated in Rift Valley province Warreng District (previously Uashin Gishu) ten kilometres from Eldoret centre, only two kilometres outside of city border close to Nakuru highway leading to Nairobi. Due to good road connections and vicinity of Eldoret Cheplaskei is reasonably well developed as rural location (naturally not at level of urban communities). Main concern in the area is unplanned growth of population and municipality is growing without constructing proper waste processing or water supply utilities. The unplanned nature of fast urban growth in peripheries of Eldoret has created severe constraints for urban planning, including limiting the provision of essential services in water, sanitation, access roads and education facilities.
The engagement in ICT, therefore is aimed at increasing the contribution of participating schools in their physical planning efforts, and the partnership in provision of essential services, starting with water/sanitation as a pilot example on how planning could be enhanced. Cheplaskei secondary school accommodates 200 boys, nearly all of them staying in the school dormitories over the whole semester. The school is situated 10 km from Eldoret City centre and just 2 km outside the city border making the school privileged to city services. The school has 15 teachers. School was established in 1987. The school has well established facilities for education including a classroom with 30 computers provided by the background project.
Anin and Cheplaskei schools as well as most other schools in the area provide all the basic school facilities, including salaries of teachers, supporting labour, school infrastructure like buildings and electricity. Only total of two temporary computer teachers will be hired by the project funds, and only the costs directly related to computers and getting connected to modern IT-contacts, will be covered by the project. Consequently, vast majority of the costs related to the background project have been covered by the local communities. Salaries of teachers are covered by Ministry of Education of Kenya, this represents 30 % of total costs of the schools. The remaining 70 % is covered by the community and school fees of the students. An average annual school fee per student is 20 000 KSh (appr. 200 € ).
District Education Office, the responsible governmental body to supervise and instruct education at District level, both in Keiyo and Warreng Districts has expressed strong support to the Project concept and is encouraging the Project to continue her activities.
Political situation in Kenya in 2007
National ICT Strategy for Education and Training in Kenya stipulates how ICT will be adopted and utilized to improve access, quality and equity in the delivery of education services in Kenya. The Strategy is based on the vision that: “ICT is a universal tool in education and training”. The mission statement that inspires it is: “to integrate ICT in education and training to improve access, learning and administration.” The overall objective of the plan is to ensure that systematic efforts are made towards strengthening adoption and use of ICT in the education sector with appropriate attention given to education development priorities.
The background complied perfectly with these goals and, consequently environment to implement is favorable. National program is at the moment only taking early steps to meet her goals, and mainly well resourced schools in cities have been able to join the program. Therefore the proposed Project is complementing National program as the aim of the Project is to concentrate in less resourced schools in rural areas. The political situation in Kenya has been very unstable, and the corruption has been a big problem in Kenya. In 2007, the general elections took place in Kenya. In the “below international standard” elections, president Kibaki was re-elected. After the elections, the protest escalated into violence. Hundreds of thousands were forced off their land to relatives elsewhere in the country. For instance, two teachers of the Anin school had to leave the school. The future of the background project was unclear. In 2008, the conditions calmed when president Kibaki and Mr. Odinga signed an agreement on the formation of a coalition government. In 2010, the new constitution passed in a referendum. It has been assumed to be very significant result for the peaceful future in Kenya. The next parliament elections will take place in 2012. It seems to be probable that our new project will be acceptable by both big political parties. Thus, our project seems to be successful in spite of the results of the next elections.
