The sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4, target 4.2, commits member states of United Nations (UN) such as Kenya to ensuring that all girls and boys have access to early childhood development, care and pre-primary education by 2030, to prepare them for primary education. In Kenya, this goal may not be fully realized, as in many flood-prone, remote areas, pre-primary education is often inaccessible due to floods and flood related factors which cause loss of learning hours and exacerbate poverty through destruction of infrastructure and school structures. The purpose of this project is to examine the virtualization of preprimary school education in flood-prone rural areas. Specifically, the project will focus on St. Marks Nyabera Pre-Primary school in Kisumu East, Kisumu County. The project will be carried out cooperatively with Dr. Johnson Masinde, University of Embu (Kenya), who initiated the project idea.
In order to support Dr. Masinde in exploring the options for virtualization of preprimary school education, the following research questions will be adressed during the course of the project. Adjustments will be made depending on the progress of the work and in consultation during the semester: 1) What is the impact of virtualization of learning on learning outcomes at St. Marks Nyabera Pre-Primary? 2) What are the factors that affect the effectiveness of virtual learning at St. Marks Nyabera Pre-Primary? 3) What are the other strategies that can be used to improve access to pre-primary education in flood prone areas?
The project is largely self-organised. A management team is formed for this purpose, which takes care of task allocation, literature research, documentation and time and project planning and is in close contact with the lecturers.
Students learn to explore a new domain in a team and to work on it independently in consultation with experts. In doing so, they design solutions and develop prototypes for the implementation of a specific use case in accordance with the sustainability goal n.4 of the UN.
Prerequisites for participation are the willingness to work in an interdisciplinary team and to familiarise with a new domain as well as contribution of own skills (e.g. special programming knowledge, organisation of data, research techniques, …) and the development of own creative ideas.
Dr. Johnson Masinde, University of Embu (Kenya) Practicum Coordinator & Lecturer I Information Sciences ORCID: 0000-0002-5708-1767 Google Scholar:https://scholar.google.com/citationsuser=ztJICssAAAAJ&hl=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnson-masinde-96988674/
