Inmates To Go Digital As KPS Receives Computers For Online Learning

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 13- The Kenya Prisons Service has received a major boost in its quest to facilitate online learning for inmates after it received several computers.

The 20 computers were donated by the Stanbic Foundation on Monday, alongside mattresses for the children’s daycare.

This comes barely four weeks after KPS launched a new project dubbed ‘effectiveness of online study desk prison education’- to ensure inmates interested in pursuing further education, do it without challenges.

This is specifically for those intending to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

Using the computers, the prison authorities said they hope to address the knowledge and skill gaps in digital literacy among inmates.

It means the inmates will be able to access content and also develop their skills.

Speaking during the event, Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) for the State Department of Correctional Services Winnie Guchu said the partnership would go a long way in ensuring the success of the prison’s rehabilitation programmes.

The service is mandated, among other things, to also provide facilities for children aged 4 years and below accompanying their mothers to prisons.

“We recognize the enviable humanitarian act by the Stanbic bank that will be very helpful in augmenting the governments’ zealous effort inhumane treatment of offenders, rehabilitation and integration of offenders back to the society,” she said.

Further, she added that the computers will facilitate online learning hence addressing the knowledge and skills gaps in digital literacy.

“The children accompanying their mothers in prison are a vulnerable group that needs special attention which at times may not be forthcoming due to the nature of the environment and the scarce resources,” she said.

The mattresses that were donated will equip the children’s daycare centres in the women’s prisons across the country.

The bank through its women proposition, DADA, and the Stanbic Foundation also joined hands with Population Services Kenya (PSK) to provide health screening services to Kenya Prisons Staff.

“The initiative to carry out regular screening of staff is a welcome move as it will help in early detection of any disease hence presenting higher chances of survival especially for the life-threatening illness for instance Cancer,” the CAS said.

Kenya Prisons Service Commissioner-General Wycliffe Ogallo said all the initiatives were geared towards the rehabilitation of the offenders by offering them quality education

Already there are virtual laboratories in six prisons across the country after the service was issued with tablets loaded with revision materials which are also animated.

These materials are loaded in the CDMA disabled tablets to ensure that inmates do not have access to the internet.

The concept has offline interactive and animated materials of secondary school subjects including Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, following the 8.4.4 syllabus. There are also virtual laboratories for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.

The project is a tripartite collaboration between prisons, Mount Kenya University (MKU), and the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO (KNATCOM).

The research project will be carried out in the six maximum prisons including Naivasha, Nyeri, Langata Women, Kisumu, Kamiti, and Shimo la Tewa.

“The last phase of the project will entail training of the inmate teachers, who scored C+ and above. Recidivism will reduce and once released the inmates will be engaged productively in the society,” Ogallo said.

According to Ogallo, education was part of the rehabilitation programmes, adding that without proper rehabilitation, the prisoners risked getting caught up in a vicious cycle of reoffending, reconviction, and social rejection.