Kenya’s ICT Policy in Practice: The Effectiveness of Tablets and E-readers in Improving Student Outcomes

Kenya is investing in information and communication technology (ICT) to improve children’s learning outcomes. However, the literature on ICT is pessimistic about the ability of ICT alone to improve outcomes, and few ICT programs have created the instructional change necessary to increase learning. The Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative implemented a randomized controlled trial of three ICT interventions to enhance learning outcomes: tablets for instructional supervisors, tablets for teachers, and e-readers for students. All three showed significant impacts in English and Kiswahili above the results of the control group. The impacts of the three interventions were not statistically significantly different from each other. Based on the findings, we recommend that Kenyan policy makers embed ICT interventions in a larger instructional reform, using ICT to support particular instructional improvement challenges. We also suggest that policy makers incorporate empirically derived cost-effectiveness analysis into investment decisions, to ensure that ICT provides value for money

The influence of gender in the relationship between Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, and Citizen Empowerment

Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) has over the years been considered indispensable means to citizen empowerment. However, the validity of this claim has hardly been established empirically. This study sought, not only to establish the influence of PM&E on citizen  empowerment, but also the moderating role of gender in this relationship. The empirical investigation took the form of a mixed-methods approach involving concurrent parallel design, in which samples for quantitative and qualitative components were different but drawn from the same population and data collected within the same timeframe. Two hundred and twelve participants responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were also conducted to establish the qualitative mechanisms at play in the quantitative data generated. Participants of the study were community members who participated in a World Vision International’s PM&E model dubbed ‘Integrated Programming Model’. Whilequantitative data were analysed through linear regression analyses, the qualitative component utilized interpretive technique, coding and recursive abstraction. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings support the notion that there is a positive linear relationship between PM&E and citizen empowerment; and that gender does not significantly moderate the relationship between PM&E and citizen. The study revealed that PM&E can be a tool for pacifying the effect of inequality, since the experience of empowerment outcomes is not sensitive to one’s gender.Key words: Citizen Empowerment; Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, gende