In an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human   capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode, the Government of India has launched in 2001-02 an ambitious programme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), an initiative for universal elementary education. SSA aims to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group by 2010. Many a times, state  interventions are seen as alternatives to market forces. When  market fails, the state is requested to intervene. As a broad strategy of SSA programme, the state governments are undertaking reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system. The scheme encourages the states to use ICT and the satellite EDU AT to provide distance education within states to supplement school education with a curriculum base. States too seem to be struggling hard to pitch in making the ICT education integrated to the schools, with a gradual shift of their focus from elementary education to secondary education level. Digital Learning has tried to encapsulate the voices heard from the state heads of the SSA project and the education secretaries, who are marching with the mission of getting kids enrolled and to provide them with the education with innovation.

Dr Alok Shukla, the Education Secretary of Chhatishgarh says, ‘We have many schemes for using IT in education. Under SSA we have  started a scheme called “Eklavya Computer aided self learning”. In this  scheme fully animated multi-media software has been created based on  textbooks of classes 6 to 8. This has been loaded on touch screen  computers, and has been kept in the school corridors for easy access by children. Under Indira Soochna Shakti Scheme, free computer education is being given to more than one hundred  thousand girl students at secondary level with the help of NIIT. Interactive radio broadcast is being used for teaching-learning of English language  at primary level. We have already started using the facility provided by  EDUSAT in 50 schools in Koria district. We intend to extend it further  to other districts.’      Under the SSA scheme, Rajasthan has embarked on a large-scale education initiative. The initial pilot would have computer learning centers in all state districts to provide elementary education to students. Kerala too is trying to bring in IT in very big way. IT is in the curriculum for students in 8, 9, and 10 standards. For secondary level examination IT is one of the  optional subjects, which interested children can opt for. The state  provides education to schools in rural areas through EDUSAT. It has also  prepared CDs on various subjects, which are meant for middle schools  and high schools and is organising  live classrooms by telecasting lessons from expert teachers. Jammu too has a multi-dimensional strategy to implement ICT and make  ICT a vehicle for transformation of school education. ‘One programme is  run under vocationalisation of  secondary education and the other is innovative IT component in SSA. We are trying to provide computer labs to  higher secondary schools. By the end of the year we must have covered  around 350 higher secondary schools,the focus will be to teach computer  education as a  subject in class 11 and  12. Second is, to provide a cumpulsory computer literacy to  every child in higher secondary school, irrespective of whether he/she  has taken computer education as a subject or not. We will have acomputer familiarization programme.  Initially it will begin from primary classes, and expose them once in a  month to common computer practices. And fourth is, computer-aided education and to make that more  attractive in primary classes’, says Mohammad Manzoor Bhat, the  Education Secretary of Jammu and  Kashmir. While the obligation of  universalisation of education programme is on state governments, a  few NGOs, and some foundations of IT companies too have come forward partnering with government in this  direction. Azim Premji Foundation has set up 12,000 computer aided learning  centers (CALCs) across India. The Foundation provides curriculumbased learning in the form of multimedia packages and CDs. West  Bengal has tied up with IBM to take ICTs to students. IBM is providing  the necessary IT infrastructure,  education services, IT support and project management for 400 schools  initially. Each school is equipped with 10 computers. The schools are  expected to train more than 150,000government is also thinking on  imilar
lines; teacher training and the  development of curriculum and examination system is developed with  support from MNCs including Intel and Microsoft. The Rajasthan  government is rolling out the UN’sGlobal e-Schools and  ommunities  Initiative (GeSCI) along with  technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco. Satyam’s  Byrraju Foundation, Airtel’s Bharti Foundation and some other players  are very keen in this sector, states like Kerala, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Rajasthan being proactive in making such partnerships. The programme calls for community  ownership of school-based
interventions through effective  decentralisation. This is to be augmented by involvement of  women’s groups, Village Education Committee members and members of  Panchayati Raj institutions. The Programme is having a community  based monitoring system. The Educational Management Information System (EMIS) will  correlate school level data with community-based information from  micro planning and surveys. Besides this, every school is encouraged  to share all information with the community. K.M.Ramanandhan, Kerala StateProject Director, SSA, says, ‘Now we are taking the assistance of  Panchayati Raj Institutions and we are taking the cumulative planning to  school level. Then we have school level work committee member who is  very much involved in the planning process. Then we have PTA (parentteacher association), which also help  in planning at school level. Once it  is  done at school level, we consolidate at the panchyat level.  Here is a planning and monitoring committee headed by the  Grampanchayat president. This  committee approves the panchayat  education plan.’ But Lida Jacob, while placed as the  Education Secretary in the Kerala state, said, ‘To the Education Department and to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan we give academic support and training. Whether this training is giving them advantage or not has to  be monitored. Panchayats can play an important role, but I think we need to  make it more systematised. Most of  the Panchayat members are graduates and their commitment to education is  very high among the elected members  of Kerala. We need to channalise it into monitoring the classroom activities. They can provide support to the teaching facilities and  infrastructure. SSA is providing funds, trainings, etc. We are trying to   ensure that all these funds and programmes are implemented properly  and we want to ensure that local bodies play an important role in  this process.’ While describing the community role,  the state came up with another dimension of implementing SSA programmes effectively. ‘In Kerala, we  have started a initiative under the modernising of government  programmes called ‘Social Audit’, through community initiative, to improve quality education. Under this  scheme, we want schools to conduct  their individual self-assessment. Teachers themselves can evaluate  their schools in terms of students’ performance, teachers’ performance,  infrastructure of the school, etc.’, said Jacob. SSA recognises the critical and  central role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs.  Setting up of Block Resource Centres/Cluster Resource Centres,  recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher development through participation in curriculum-related material development, focus on classroom  processes and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to develop  the human resource among teachers. Shyam Shankar Prasad, the Jharkhand  State Project Director, SSA, commenting on how the teachers’  training programme in the state works, says, ‘We train teachers through  Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). We have District  Institute of Training where we provide training to teachers for 20-30 days.  The regular teachers are trained in English language too.’ Considering teachers’ capacity building as the biggest challenge in the direction of  integrating ICTs into the education system under the SSA programme, other hurdles like the problem of connectivity  for the last mile in rural areas is also emerging. Despite the market  buzz around connectivity for the next billion, not much is happening  in rural areas, which still grapple with low teledensity, poor Internet  access, etc. For Prasad, ‘The problem is faced  more in hilly tracks and in forests areas in Jharkhand, densely  populated by the tribal people. We face the difficulty in establishing  centres in such places because of lack of infrastructure. We have to  shift the schools sometimes to some urban places or most habitated places,  may be due to lack of road or lack of school buildings or else to ensure safety to the girls. The difficulties lie  with the geographical areas in some  districts, which are really difficult to  manage with.’ Telecom companies, which have  ushered in the mobile revolution in India prefer to stick to cities and tier  two towns for broadband access since they find it easier to recover the costs of heavy licensing fees in cities  which enjoy a larger subscriber base.  There is no incentive for these companies to venture into the hinterland. The Central government’s  State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) policy brings a ray of hope to  overcome such challenges. This envisages broadband access at the  district and block level to solve the connectivity gap. The very success of SSA in getting  kids enrolled, and the demographic patterns of India, induces a surge in  demand for schooling with a renewed capacity, education with innovation,  and making ICT@schools happen.

In conversation with Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human  Resources Development, Govt. of India

India has been a major learning seat in the world for centuries. While it has some of the best educational centers and institutions in the world, it  still has to deal with challenges in its primary education, strive to reach 100% literacy, and struggle to bring in any innovation to the whole education system. For the country the need of the hour is to try integrating ICT in the existing education scenario to catalyse the change process and to reduce the skew in education and knowledge dissemination. Ministry of Human Resource Development in India while implements the central government’s responsibilities in educational matters, also coordinates Information and communication initiatives that are geared towards development of the education sector. Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resources  Development, Government of India, in a face-to-face conversation with Rumi Mallick of Digital Learning shares more of such responsibilities, challenges and visions, which are part of the country’s attempt to give a new dimension to development through education with innovation

? What is the most pressing educational challenge India is facing?
The current challenge to education in our country is three fold that of access, equity and quality. At the level of secondary schooling, only about 40% of the children with the age group of 14 to 18 are in school.  Access to secondary education is not available everywhere in the country;  there are still pockets and long distances that need to be covered.  Secondly, every section of society
needs to be equally represented in the educational system, where they  participate equally- this is still not addressed in India. The isadvantaged  sections also need to be brought into  the education sphere. The enrollment rates of girls are much lower than the  boys and physically disabled section is also not represented well.  Then of course quality of education is a major challenge, which needs to be  addressed on a priority basis. All the three aspects are interlinked. If there is no quality then parents wi  feel discouraged to send their children to schools. So when they feel that after this much education, their children are not well qualified to enter in a job market, they would rather send their children to the job market  without education. That is why quality is important. If quality is good  then of course participation rate will improve.

? How have we progressed in last 10 years?
We have progressed to a large extent. More students are in schools in numbers and also in terms of percentage. But it is not satisfactory.  We need to insure this at the very first stage that everybody from standard  one to eight aged six to thirteen should be in school. Actually it is  desirable to extend it till the age of 16 so that from class 1 to 10 they have  skills to enter in the job market. Now the challenge is to bring it to a kind of satisfactory level. At first stage we are  hoping that by 2010 most of the  children up to 14 years age are in the school and after that we have to concentrate on secondary stage

? The status of the teaching profession has plummeted in all regions of the world. What are the current measures the ministry has  undertaken to keep this fraternity motivated and to build their capacity as well?
This itself is a societal problem and it is not only seen in India, but is a problem for several other countries of the world too. This is  because of salary differentials in between this sector and the private  sector. Right now the economy is in  boom and there are alternate employment opportunities available; hence we do not see many people in  the teaching profession. But at the  same time there are people who are interested in teaching. The motivation has to come from society, appreciating the decision of person  who chooses to teach and adopt this  profession that helps the next generation. There is also a need for the teachers to continuously  upgrade their skill through training  programme and our responsibility is to give them other facilities and  amenities that helps them in teaching.   So, ICTs can provide an opportunity for the teachers to upgrade their skills.
? Information and Communication Technologies are supporting many of the recent gains in education worldwide. Do you believe in the context of India, ICTs have any real potential to transform education?
There is a tremendous role for ICT in education everywhere and India is no exception. The problem in India is that when we talk of ICT  infrastructure we find schools do not have a room for computers and many schools do not have
electricity, telephone connections, etc. However all this will not only  be possible but will be essential in few years from now because we  have to adopt technology to keep up with time and without ICT we will be  left behind. So it is not to choose between ICT and no ICT but to  equip ourselves such that we make the best use this technology in education.

? What initiatives has your department taken to integrate ICT in
schools (in secondary education)?
We have from time to time started different initiatives, there was a class programme earlier and there was a satellite and computer literacy programme, now we have reformulated the scheme called ‘ICT in  schools’ where we give assistance to  the centrally sponsored schools and government aided schools which are equipped with infrastructure and the  learning material. In this scheme, one,  we focus on teaching computers to children and second, use computers as an aid in teaching and also for self-learning. Now the results have started coming, but in a small way. About 500 schools in a  year are able to access this scheme, and we have a long way to go. We  have about 100000 secondary  schools in government and government aided sectors and we

Ideally every school from standard one to twelve should have the adequate numbers of computers but because of  resource constraints we had failed to prioritise this. Now we have one programme for  secondary and higher secondary schools, which is the ‘ICT in schools’ programme, where we feel that computers can be used in a big way

have to scale it up so that all schools can avail this facility. Ideally every school from standard one to twelve should have adequate  numbers of computers but because of resource constraints we had failed to prioritise this. Now we have one programme for secondary and higher  secondary schools, which is the ‘ICT
in schools’ programme, where we feel that computers can be used in a big way. It provides an aid in teaching particularly hard subjects such as  science, languages and mathematics. Through animation, science and  geography can be made more interesting, that is why ‘ICT in  schools’ programmes has been started. At the same time we also  understand the implication of teaching children in schools. The  secondary schools are easier to manage because there are 146  thousands schools in the government and government aided sector where as primary school it is even larger numbers. Since  ideally we should cover all the schools, several elementary  schools are also being targeted under
the Sarva Shiksha Abhiayan (SSA), are being assisted with computers.  Over a period of time we have to look at the pupil-teacher ratio in  availability of computers.

? Under this scheme, is there any central learning content that is being prepared or is the learning content being initiated at state level?
Under this programme we have asked the state governments to make use of funding to develop the content or  procure already developed content. Generally in states, contents are  generated in SCERT (State Council for Educational Research and Training),  but it varies from state to state. We have not emphasized that there is only one kind of content that could be  taught in schools and some flexibility  has been given to the states to innovate. Otherwise there will be no  innovation at all. We are looking at the process where some model  content can be developed but we do not want uniform content all across
the country, because content should  be area specific and hence the state governments will be encouraged to take the initiative in this regard. Several states have made good progress in creating content through  some parallel schemes, which are run by state governments, for example,  Government of Karnataka Rajasthan  and Uttaranchal. They have developed good content and most of  them in their local languages, which is distributed among the schools.
Sometimes school teachers themselves develop content which is helpful in teaching.
? In this whole programme of ‘ICT in  schools’ what do you think is the real challenge in terms of scaling this ICT in education programme?
One challenge is that of teachers’ skills and motivation to use ICTs. We need every teacher to be trained and use ICT for teaching. For this, we  need to have a massive programme to retrain teachers. At the same time  during their pre-service training they could also be trained in the use of  ICTs. We are going to implement a  small pilot project with the help of UNESCO where we would like to  introduce new curriculum  pre-service training so that new teachers can be trained.
? Please let us know a little more on this new curriculum? Is it still in  the planning stage?
Some curriculum development has already taken place, but it has to be looked into in a more comprehensive manner. Teacher training syllabus is  not the same everywhere in the country; it depends on which  university the college has an affiliation. We will have to take a  comprehensive view so that it becomes a part and parcel of the curriculum. In fact, many of the  training colleges also vary in having adequate amenities. Some  programmes have to be done so that
these colleges themselves can have  ICT infrastructure. ? Several countries have ICT policy  and ICT in education policy and the policy status is already quite developed though not established,  notably in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. What is  the status or the scope of such a policy in India?  Such a policy would be relevant but at the same time it is not as if we are in a policy vaccuum. There are policies, each state government  here has got an IT policy and a part of policy would be how IT can be  used in education. All these policies have something mentioned on  education. We can bring out all that and put it at one place, which will  have focus and thrust on ICT in education so it will be worthwhile to work upon that.

? Some private companies are providing their financial and  practical support in the realisation of the infrastructure requirements for education. Please  elaborate on such idea of partnerships. How do you envisage  involving such private companies in other areas of education system as well? 
We need every teacher to be trained and use ICT for teaching. For this, we need to have massive programme to  retrain teachers. At the same time during their pre-service  training they could also be
trained in the use of ICTs. We are going to implement a  small pilot project with the help of UNESCO where we  would like to introduce new  curriculum in pre-service training so that new teacher’s can be trained

Such partnerships are most welcome and private sector has a big role to play. If India is recognised in the field of software today it is basically  because of the private players, particularly in those situations when  private players are providing infrastructure or acting as service  providers. There is a huge scope from private players.
? In which time frame do you think most Indian schools be sufficiently connected and equipped with ICT tools to carry out ICT-enabled teaching and learning activities?
We still have 60% of students outside the school at the secondary stage. We  cannot say only ICTs or getting children back to school will help achieving ‘ICTs for all’. I do not visualise that every school will be  fully ICT-enabled in next five years, but we would definitely like to make a dent in the next five year plan that
starts from next year, where at least secondary schools, should be provided with adequate infrastructure so that ICTs can be  used in education.
? In your role as Joint Secretary of Secondary Education, Ministry of
HRD, what do you feel should be the most critical steps that your department should take to achieve the goals and objectives of education in India as well as connecting the country’s human resource to the knowledge society?
The purpose of education is to develop the intrinsic personality of every human being and of course another very important purpose is  that education should enable person to be gainfully employed. The main  goal is the personal development of a  person so that education becomes really purposeful and people feel that by being educated they have added  value to life. The Department would like India to be an educated nation.  We are a very large country with a huge population so this formidable  task has to be accomplished.
There is a role for ICT to play at plus-two stage (standard eleven and  twelve) also, because this is a stage which bridges between school  education and higher education. We would like children to diversify  to vocational fields so that if the
need arises, they can go for employment after plus two and later  when they feel like, can come back for higher education.

? What education event in your lifetime would you consider as a milestone for your country?
When you see every child from the age group of 6 to 16, that is from class 1 to class 10 is in school and 99% of children of that age group are in school, that will become the milestone for the country. We are in the right  direction now.

Astrid Dufborg is the executive  director of GeSCI since March 1,2006. Before joining GeSCI,Dufborg worked as an Ambassador and ICT Adviser based at the Swedish UN Mission in Geneva, where she led the Swedish work within the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). She also represented Sweden at the UN ICT TF. Prior to that she what for the Swedish international Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) and was stationed in four African countries over a ten-year period. Her last positions at Sida were Director for the Department for Infrastructure and Economic Cooperation, and Assistant Director General.

GeSCI works at the local, national, and international level to support, to create, and to implement strategies to harness Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) for education and community growth. Astrid Dufborg, Executive Director, GeSCI, while speaking to Digital Learning elaborates these works and contributions that Astrid Dufborg is the executive touch to the belief that ‘Education changes life’

? Why was GESCI created?
The power of harnessing ICTs for development and the improvement of people’s lives is clear and urgent. In education it is particularly clear that ICTs, applied inclusively and imaginatively can act as catalyst in  failing education systems in the developing world – and help unlock  the creative potential of entire societies. Over the last number of  years thousands of diverse, small-and medium scale projects and pilot projects aimed at exactly this  harnessing of ICTs for social good, have been implemented and are  leaving their mark worldwide. Though their individual results may be small  in face of the magnitude of the global education crisis, the difference they  are making to individual classrooms and communities is at times  astonishing. Over all, these pilots show that ICTs are improving education. Implicitly  they also show that up-scaled end-toend  strategies could ensure such improvements are made all the more  immense and wide-reaching in effect. In this context, in 2003, the UN ICT  Task Force, promted by Irelan Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada, established the concept of the Global eSchools & Communities Initiative. Taking up the challenge of the Millennium Development Goals,  GeSCI’s purpose is to support  stakeholders in the development of comprehensive strategies for wholesystem deployment of ICTs in  education. Now an independent Notfor- profit organisation with a secretariat in Dublin, GeSCI believes  that the missing links can be made visible and joined-up in the ICTS for  development chain, by convening  comprehensive multistakeholder partnerships at local, regional and national level – anywhere there is a demand – and creating end-to-end,  holistic strategies and implementing them in a sustainable, collective  manner.

? How does GeSCI approach the field of ICT Education?
Our imperative is to respond to the needs of real people – and real gaps in educational strategies and community development. Therefore we try to bring all stakeholders to the table in a collaborative way, and to complement  and coordinate existing efforts already   underway. We look to understand the context and then clearly articulatewhere we can add value. Typically our value is inherent in our ability to bring stakeholders to the table, build and implement a plan and to mobilise resources to do so.  We are working to varying degree with such stakeholders in Namibia, India, Ghana and Bolivia. All four  countries have in common a demonstrated readiness to take on  ICT in education strategies in a comprehensive and national way and  believe in the importance of ICTs and  the potential for greater impact.

? You’re obviously very passionate about the potential of this initiative. Why?
There’s a huge gap between policy makers and practitioners. You can bring people together but you cannot align them effectively. People are saying: we should do this, or that, but there is no understanding in the middle – no interpreter between the two. That’s one of the reasons that  GESCI was established – to act as the interpreter, the facilitator.

? You say the goal is to “raise education standards.” What do you mean by that?
One of the things we mean is directly contributing to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The primary education goal is a huge one.  The statistics speak for themselves: around 370 million school-aged  children are not in school, not even  near a classroom; sixty-seven per cent of the illiterate adults in the world are women. If we can lower those  numbers, we’re doing something right. Traditionally ICT in education  has tended to be technology led. In putting the educational cart before the technology horse so to speak, we mean to make a further impact on education standards. ICTs can be hugely beneficial to learners and teachers across the curriculum, but  the key is strategic, goal-orientated   and well-planned intervention. Where we achieve this, educations standards will rise.

? GeSCI is considering a role in Teacher professional development.
Why is this?
It is teachers who shape the future through their work. They are multipliers, authority figures and agents of socio-economic change  that must be empowered. Therefore, they should have all available tools  at their disposal, including the full  range of information and communication technologies – not just the Internet, but also standalone  computers, radio, TV and telephones. However, in order to provide them with the skills they  need to become facilitators of learning, to improve their own  effectiveness and to insure that the ICTs that are finding their ways into schools in the developing  world are put to good use, teachers urgently require training in ICT. However, it was recognized that educators who had been  trained in ICT often abandon their teaching careers for jobs that pay better salaries – a form of teacher  brain-drain. New models of capacity development of teachers and administrators are key to the success and sustainability of education strategies and to a systematic approach in the use of ICT for education.

? What are some of the major achievements of GeSCI in terms of policy and implementing strategies to harness ICTs for education and community growth?
There have been several so far, but I’ll just mention three. One is the  central strategy called ‘complete or end-to-end system’ that guides all of  our work, and provides a model approach to development. By this, we  mean programmes that are comprehensive, demand-driven,  capable and efficient, and coordinated. Another is our work in  Namibia, where we are working closely with the Namibian  government, and other stakeholders, to implement a national ICT in education plan. A third is our work on  developing practical knowledge tools for policy makers and practitioners,  such as studying the costs of benefits of various technology options  for education.

SCHOOL TRACK
Open source software for schools
School environment requires several kinds of software, which can be the grade and timetable tracking software for teachers,  ducational software for classes or the security software. More important is to make educational resources more effective, efficient, and ubiquitous by enhancing communication, and  haring resources, for which this space is advocating the use of some open source and free software, open texts and lessons, and open curricula for the advancement of education and enrichment of school environment.

software open source of all kinds of is a broader index  freshmeat.net/ http:/   Freshmeat ( index of educational free software. ) maintains an    w.ofset.org/freeduc/ http://    FSET’s Freeduc (  project. and form a     mmunity around each needed to spread their free software network and software resources  helps developers offering stable software and to host new projects. It both a good place to look for free  software development foundry. It’s )    savannah.gnu.org  http://   Savannah ( hosts the )   /www.gnu.org/ http:/ Foundation ( The Free Software Knoppix GNU/Linux distribution. customization of the popular is a schooloriented )    ebsite in Polish pl/mos/ – http://www.simpst.     Linux-EduCD Desktop Environment. based on KDE, the K educational software aims to create free ) Project   edu.kde.org/ http://   The KDE Edutainment ( schools. terminal server package designed for an easy to install, Linux-based  K12 Linux Terminal Server Project is ) – the http://k12os.org/   K12LTSP ( packages. system focused on educational  distribution of the Linux operating ) is a    bluelinux.org&rel _key=linux com/showparking. php4?domain=    tp://www.sedoparking.    BlueEDU (  audience of children under 10. available software,  ith a target  software reviewing and rating ) promotes free    www.linuxforkids.org/ http://     The LinuxForKids site/project ( operating  ystem. with the Debian GNU/Linux  software packaged for use  ) has educationrelated   devel/debian-jr/ www.debian.org/ http://  project ( The Debian Jr. open source software. is a directory of school-related   seul/) http://richtech.ca/   Application Index ( The SEUL/edu Educational  

Learning Curve
PDAs to mould the personality of high school children
Handheld devices are  oosting interest and results in education among the school children in UK. The initiatives to provide schoolchildren with constant access to information   hrough PDAs are coming with proven results. The handheld device is an  nvaluable means of supporting personalised learning and has become a  uzzword for ensuring the school children not to be treated like homogeneous groups of pupils but more like individuals, with different needs and interests. Some of the free software is so good and powerful that children can handle themselves. However, the devices are considered ideal for secondary schools rather than primary schools

Schools to be digitalised in Nairobi
A plan worth Sh18 billion has been made to equip schools and other education  nstitutions with computers is launched in Nairobi. The National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Strategy for Education and Training plan aims at all educational institutions to be equipped with digital technology equipment in the next five years. It is also meant to ensure that the technology is fully integrated in all academic programmes and school management as well as Ministry of Education departments. It is also meant to ensure that the  echnology is fully integrated in all academic programmes and school  anagement as well as Ministry of Education departments. The plan is jointly prepared by the ministry and the Kenya ICT Trust Fund, which brings together  more than 20 government agencies and private firms. Kenya has 20,000  rimary and 4,302 secondary schools, 641 of them private. The ratio of  omputers to students in public universities stands at one to 45 while in  econdary schools; it stands at one to 120 students.