The Kenyan government has started the search for companies to supply laptops for primary school pupils, with a budget of up to KES 17.4 billion for the next year, The Star reported. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology has called an international competitive tender for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of computing devices and products for ICT integration in education in primary schools. The Principal Secretary in the ministry, Belio Kipsang, said the qualified companies are expected to make the devices available for use by January next year for all pupils joining class one. Kipsang said there is demand for an estimated 1.0 to 1.3 million laptops.
The class one laptops project will require provision of the devices, connectivity, software to be used and also the content. The tender also advertised for printers and projectors suppliers. Already, local and multinational hardware and software makers have been positioning themselves for a piece of the cake. For instance, in June, Microsoft president Jean-Philippe Courtois paid a courtesy call to President Kenyatta where the company offered to provide hardware, connectivity and software in the grand project. Microsoft was hoping to use its past working experience with government and education institutions in the Learning Schools Programme it has been running to score a deal.-telecompaper.com
