Eight varsities eye Sh17bn bid to supply schools with computers

Politics and policy

Teachers being trained on ICT integration in primary schools ahead of the start of the Digital Literacy Programme next year. PHOTO | ISAAC WALE 

By SIMON CIURI AND STELLAR MURUMBA

Posted  Tuesday, September 22   2015 at  23:00

In Summary

• Bidders who submitted their proposals will have to wait for 15 days during which appraisal will take place and later get invited for the technical and financial evaluations. Both processes will take 30 days.

Eight local universities are among 25 institutions which have submitted bids to provide 11,000 public primary schools with computer tablets when the first phase of the Sh17 billion laptop project takes off next year.

Kenyatta University, University of Nairobi, Multimedia University, Moi University and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology are among the institutions of higher learning that have submitted their bids.

Also eying the project, now rebranded as the Digital Literacy Programme, are Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Meru University of Science and Technology and Strathmore Research and Consulting Centre.

The curriculum will be regulated by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and the project is being overseen by the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology through the ICT Authority.

The laptop project tendering has previously been stalled by procurement scandals attracting legal battles in courts.

Bidders who submitted their proposals will have to wait for 15 days during which appraisal will take place and later get invited for the technical and financial evaluations. Both processes will take 30 days.

“We are targeting content utilisation as opposed to laptop issue and we are looking for the organisation that can steer innovation, promote local assembly as well as technology manufacturing using the available research,” said Felix Ongaga who is the director of corporate affairs at ICT Authority.

He said they expect to shortlist more than ten companies. Oracle Corporation and Huawei Technologies are some of the tech companies that submitted their bids on Tuesday.

READ: Varsities to supply Uhuru’s Sh17bn school laptops

BRCK Education, a Nairobi based technology firm, also announced a partnership with Kenyatta University to manufacture its Kio Kit tablet brand.

The schools laptop tender was advertised on September 4, inviting bidders who can supply Teacher Digital Device (TDD), Learner Digital Device (LDD), Special Needs Education Learner Digital Device (SNELDD), server and routers as well as projectors.

Bidders will be evaluated on the legal formation of the company or consortiums, demonstration in research and development, capability in technology development, financial capability and experience and expertise in the given area.

Eligible bidders should have completed three similar assignments in the last five years either individually or as members of the consortium.
The procurement is expected to take at least three months with the winner expected to start delivery in January, 2016.

The winning bidder will deliver 1.2 million devices in the next two years to cover all public primary schools.

The programme covers five key areas that include teacher capacity, content development, power to schools, devices and infrastructure and sustainability through set-up of local assemblies.