48 mid-level colleges and tertiary institutions in Kenya are set to receive free Internet provided the Ministry of Higher Education through the Kenya Education Network (KENET). This announcement was made by Dr Salome Gichura, Director of Higher Education at the Ministry of Higher Education at the opening of UbuntuNet Connect 2011 conference in Nairobi.
The conference which started on Wednesday at Safari Park Hotel will run till Friday and brings together an associating of national research and education networks (NRENS) from Africa. NRENS connect educational and learning institutions and also supply them with internet connectivity.
Dr Gichura said that some colleges in Kenya have already been provided with connectivity while more would be covered by their scheme when funds are released in the 2012/2013 national budget. Connectivity will be provided through the Kenya Education Network (KENET).
"We recognise that unless our students are exposed to ICT, we shall not be equipping them to participate effectively in a knowledge economy," Dr Gichura said. The government has such mid-level colleges situated across the country including in marginalised areas not usually covered by universities.
Internet once supplied to institutions is usually accessible through shared computers situated in libraries and labs.
Dr Gichura also announced that the government had plans to establish an open university that would have centres all over the country. This will run along a government plan to establish universities in all 48 counties of the country.
Two colleges, Friends Kaimosi and Kisumu Polytechnic have already been connected and about three more, including Eldoret Polytechnic will be connected by mid 2012.
Professor Meoli Kashorda, Chief Esecutive Office of KENET said that his firm will provide bandwidth according to funds allocated by the government. He estimates that each institution will need a minimum of 5 megabits per second (Mbps ) of connectivity hence the whole project will require a minimum of 256 Mbps. "The problem is that they are in the rural areas and they need to be sustainable," he said.
The government is also equipping the mid-level colleges with technical equipment including fabricated labs in the colleges. The connectivity to the 48 colleges is especially meant to benefit the fabricated labs.
KENET plans use two strategies to connect the rural institutions. With almost all rural universities already connected to the KENET network, a wireless link will be used to link up other institutions within a 10 Kilometre radius of the university. Further isolated institutions are provided with a leased line from a commercial operator.
60 per cent of institutions on the KENET network are already connected on fibre. in April, KENET estimates that institutions it is serving have achieved a ratio of 6 shared PCs per 100 students, with the number skewed towards private universities which ratios as high as 20 PCs per 100 students. Meoli recommends a ratio of 10 PCs per 100 students.
A recent World Bank funded initiative saw public university students purchase laptops at subsidised prices, with 13,000 laptops purchased. Meoli however says it is hard to tell whether all 13,000 PCs are in use within the universities.
The government has also set up a team to establish two universities of technology focussing on research, innovation and science. The team is looking at how it can domesticate best practices from other places in the world, especially institutions like Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We do not want to just replicate, we want a university that is reflective of our aspirations and visions as a country," said Dr Gichura. She adds that plans for conceptualisation of the institutions will be ready in the next six months.