Kenya’s digital content providers are under pressure to deliver as the government plans to launch the Sh17bn Digital Literacy Programme for schools in January next year.
ICT
Authority chief executive Victor Kyalo said time was long overdue for
the Kenya’s education sector to go digital, adding that opportunities
presented by the shift outweigh the costs.
“The
next phase of the knowledge economy will require a smart society where
people can exploit their talents, identify opportunities and be able to
grow with those opportunities,” he said.
OPPORTUNITIES
Kyalo
said that the ‘DigiSchool’ project will be rolled out in phases and
called on the Kenya Publishers Association and other stakeholders to
come up with a business model and the content to make the project
sustainable in the long run.
Kenya
Publishers Association chairman David Waweru pointed out that the
initiative will only pay off provided that, among other things, freedom
of the press is preserved by stakeholders.
“The
spirit of digital is to provide more opportunities to readers, writers,
and content creators; not limiting options. It is about greater
liberalization of content creation and provision, not about
consolidation,” he said.
Mr Waweru
asked the ICT Ministry to train publishers and other content creators on
aspects of digital content creation as well as use.
“As
publishers, we must engage top gear in creating digital content. Having
said that, we believe that the digital book will coexist with the
physical book; the two are not mutually exclusive,” he added.
The two were speaking during the launch of the 18th
Nairobi International Book Fair at Nairobi’s Sarit Center. The
four-day event themed Twende Digital (Let’s go digital) will culminate
in the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature awards.
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