May 11, 2007

Professor Karega speaking at the workshop in Strathmore

Kenyan universities are lagging behind in embracing and implementing Information Technology, says Professor Karega Mutahi, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education. Addressing an ICT implementation workshop at Strathmore University on Friday, 11th May, 2007 Professor Mutahi said institutions of higher learning need to embrace ICTs for delivery of education in order to expand education opportunities.

"The expanding demand for higher education means professors will be required to teach more. Using e-learning, one professor can teach the whole country if the students are connected. And the students are ready for e-learning. If institutions of higher learning can implement e-learning, then we would get university education to the 43,000 students who qualify to join universities but cannot access it because of limited resources available.

"The problem is the resource people at institutions of higher learning. Some of them are still stuck in the postal address era. Institutions also need to be e-ready. A recent survey commissioned by the ministry of education found that in an e-preparednesss scale range of 1-15, most universities ranged between 0 and 2. This is too low. As far as implementing ICT solutions is concerned, higher institution of education need to be running, not walking, Prof Mutahi said.

Addressing the workshop earlier, Strathmore University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Odhiambo said the global information environment is changing very rapidly and if local institutions of higher education are not part the change; they risk being excluded all together.

He further urged institutions to work together to implement ICTs. "The need for sharing and collaboration has become essential and need to be part us."

During the workshop, Strathmore shared its experience on the implementation and integration of ICT applications critical to the efficient running institutions of higher learning, and how other institutions may benefit in the deployment of similar solutions.

Dr Joseph Sevilla, Strathmore's Deputy Vice Chancellor Research & Quality Assurance gave an overview of the implementation of Integrated Management Systems in institutions of higher learning and on e-learning systems. Bradley Kisia gave a presentation on Academic Management Systems..

Kathleen McNeely Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of Financial Management Services at Indiana University Indiana (www.indiana.edu) and John Robinson (www.rSmart.com) gave a presentation on the Kuali Financial System (www.kuali.org) while Bernard Shiundu, Systems librarian Strathmore University made a presentation on KOHA, the library system (www.koha.org).

During an open forum after the presentations, Prof Asenath Sigot, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affiars) at Masinde Muliro University said her institution was already working with Strathmore and expressed confidence in Strathmore.

"Somebody wondered to me what are the hidden costs of the systems Strathmore has presented. I am sure Strathmore would not want to exploit us," She said

Francis Muchoki, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) at Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) remarked his university was already converted and was ready to collaborate. Professor L. M. Mumera, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Egerton University noted his institution was already working with Strathmore towards implementing ICT systems.

Noting that implementing ICT solutions costs money, time and efforts, Dr Charles Sotz of Strathmore University said the purpose of the workshop was not for institutions present to copy but to improve on what Strathmore had achieved. The workshop drew participants from the whole of East Africa. It proposed institutions of higher learning need to come together and collaborate as is the trend elsewhere in the world.

Investment in ICT for administrative use is heavy and not many software development houses today understand very well the University business processes. Furthermore, credible applications in this part of the world may not be available and when available they tend to be financially out-of-reach for most institutions.