eKitabu in the news – People Daily

Special needs students participate in eKitabu essay
by Wangui Githugo
@Wango_G
The fifth annual digital essay competition, open to students from Class Five to
Form Four in all Kenyan public and private schools, will this year award five special
needs students out of 77 who participated in the countrywide contest.
This is the first time that the eKitabu Digital Essay Competition has included young
writers from the special needs community, with participation from schools for the blind
and visually impaired in Mombasa, Kisumu, Kiambu and Meru counties.
The special needs winners, who submitted their essays in braille, will be awarded
computing devices, scholarship money and public recognition alongside their mainstream
peers on September 27 at Sarit Centre, Nairobi, during a Digital Literacy
Trust launch by the Ministry of Education, eKitabu and other international partners.
eKitabu chief executive and founder Will Clurman said that out of 5,305 essays
submitted from 41 counties, only 77 disabled children submitted and only five
managed to be listed as winners. He encouraged more special needs schools to
enrol students for the competition, saying that it gives room for healthy competition
among children in diverse schools.

However, this year, there has been low participation by students compared to last
year where all 47 counties participated with more than 7,000 essay submissions.
eKitabu’s Senior Programme Manager Michael Ng’eno, said this year’s participation
was low due to the essay competition deadline, which coincided with the August
8 General Election. “Only 177 schools participated. Most schools complained about
tight schedules and election jitters but we are confident that next year, the number of
entries will be quite good,” he said. In partnership with the Teachers Service
Commission , eKitabu will also launch the first annual ICT Teacher of the Year awards
to recognise the best teachers for the best, original ICT integrated lessons in Mathematics
and Sciences.

Original Post: http://epaper.peopledaily.co.ke/?iid=155586#folio=24

Source: eKitabu