welcome remarks, prof. kobia (e learning conference)

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PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

WELCOME REMARKS BY PROF. MARGARET KOBIA, PhD, CBS,

CHAIRPERSON, PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, DURING THE

OPENING OF THE 2014 e-LEARNING CONFERENCE ON

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIES HELD

ON TUESDAY, 29TH JULY 2014, AT SAFARI PARK HOTEL, NAIROBI.

Dr. Fred Matiang’i, CS, Information, Communications and

Technology,

The Conference Chair Dr. Penina Lam,

The Conference Co-Chair Dr. Lydia Kaume,

Members of the Organizing Committee,

Distinguished Guests,

Conference Presenters,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year’s Conference on e-learning towards transforming

education systems, the employment market and economies

comes at a most opportune moment in the developmental history

of this country. First, it fits within the greater development

philosophy of the Jubilee Government on “Digital Governance”.

Indeed, ours is the only Digital Government on the African

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Continent. Second, e-learning systems and investments on the

enabling infrastructure feed into Kenya’s Vision 2030 agenda on

leveraging Science, Technology and Innovations (STI) in fostering

economic growth and social development to middle income

status by the year 2030.


A stock take on Kenya’s education and training sector shows that,

for the most part, teaching, learning and training processes remain

largely driven by traditional approaches. Even where innovative

approaches such as continuing education, distance education

and open learning exist, institutions are yet to fully integrate e-

learning to maximise its cost and efficiency benefits. Despite these

uptake constraints, considerable efforts by both private and public

sector players have gone into content and infrastructure

development for e-learning platforms.


In the just ended 11th forum of the Commonwealth African Heads

of Public Service, which I had the privilege of attending, Heads of

Public Service made the strongest case for e-Government for

inclusive and sustainable development. Indeed, the nexus

between e-learning and e-government spaces is both mutually

reinforcing and complementary. In my view, it is the convergence

between these two spaces where Kenya’s planned investments in

the use of laptops and digital content in primary schools comes in

handy. The project promises to mobilize an e-ready pool of

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primary school leavers thus, effectively strengthening the demand

side for both e-learning and e-government.

In addition, increased investments in the use of technology in

education, research and innovations similar to those found in the

business innovation and incubation centres at Kenyatta and

Strathmore Universities, and the new digital school at Kenyatta

University are small but significant steps that will be instrumental in

elevating Kenya’s economy to the knowledge-driven pedestal.

On the economic side, there is compelling evidence that strong

supply and demand sides that support both e-learning and e-

readiness have major economic growth and social development

benefits. By placing new information, knowledge, skills and

competencies within the reach of our youthful population, e-

learning seeks to equip this segment of the employment market

with the missing half that our education system has struggled to

impart on graduates. Specifically, such new skills and

competencies will easily lighten the unemployment burden by

helping fresh graduates identify new start-up business

opportunities. In addition, targeted e-learning platforms will help

eliminate marginalization among the hard to reach segments.

Content targeting such groups can help improve overall

economic productivity through focus on agriculture, health and

entrepreneurship.

It transforming education, e-learning promises to revolutionize the

way learning content for new knowledge and skills is delivered.

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Overall, e-learning promises an education and training system with

content delivery and learning efficiencies of unprecedented

proportions. In such systems, institutions are able to cost-effectively

deliver content while learners are able to undertake training at

own convenience with least disturbances to their daily economic

and work place routines.

As Government and public sector, we remain most committed to

investments on all forms of innovations, improvements and reforms

whose combined contribution will be efficiency improvements in

Kenya’s public service. By cost-effectively imparting new skills and

competencies to public officers, while keeping disruptive staff

movements at their lowest levels, e-learning becomes the silver

bullet of our generation towards public sector efficiency goals.

In terms of human capital development, a high penetration rate

of e-learning in employing organisations will, among other things;

provide consistent, world-class training; reduce delivery cycle time;

increase learner conveniences; reduce learner information

overload (learners can work at their own pace); improve tracking

(e-learning tools can automatically keep records of who has

undergone training, what test scores were obtained, among

others). For the Public Service to meet the needs of a dynamic

citizenry and remain an employer of choice, given the speed of

current change, we need to respond to these trends now so as to

stay ahead of the wave of change and new trends.

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As I conclude, and having clearly identified the transformational

and the legacy economic benefits of present e-learning

investments, in my view, it would be equally helpful to establish the

challenges we face in this area. This, I believe, will be a critical

approach to establishing where we are and what needs to be

done to improve both publicly and privately supplied e-learning

systems in away that optimizes both the e-learning market and its

anticipated social and economic benefits.

On the supply side, both public and private sector efforts to

provide content and systems for e-learning remain parallel and

uncoordinated, with mixed results. On the demand side, e-learning

still faces “last mile” constraints where the potential learners lack

either basic end-user infrastructure or the functional literacy to

access and use content. Owing to such challenges, it is not

uncommon to see very great e-learning platform concepts

become unsuccessful.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, efforts to optimise the economic

benefits of e-learning will have to concentrate on providing

solutions for content, infrastructure and the “last mile” constraints

that separate the supply side from the demand side.

Ladies and Gentlemen; with those remarks, I wish to welcome you

all to Nairobi and trust that this conference affords all participants

an opportunity to chart a new course for leveraging e-learning in

transforming education, employment markets and our economies.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, may I now introduce to you our Chief

Guest:

CITATION

Dr. Fred Matiang’i is the Republic of Kenya’s ICT Cabinet

Secretary. Prior to his appointment as Cabinet Secretary, Dr.

Matiang’i was a Senior Programme Advisor, contracted by the

World Bank, to support the Kenya School of Government’s

programme development and inter-agency liaison on capacity

building for devolved Structures. He was the Chief of Party and

Country Director of the USAID and DFID-funded Kenya

Parliamentary Strengthening Project, implemented by the Center

for International Development, State University of New York

(SUNY/CID), Albany, New York. Dr Matiang’i has also served as the

Chairperson of the Governing Council of the KCA University. For

about fifteen years now, Dr Matiang’i has served in senior research

and programme implementation positions in various civil society

organisations in Kenya, and conducted research and training for

the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World

Bank Institute, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

(CPA), the East African Legislative Assembly and a number of

parliaments in Africa. As an academic, Dr. Matiang’i holds a

Master of Arts Degree in English and a PhD in Communication and

Comparative Literature from the University of Nairobi.

Welcome CS.