DigiSchool Kenya: Transforming Education with Connectivity
Providing Internet access to all schools underpins the Kenyan government’s drive to integrate ICT into education and enrich every child’s learning experience with online connectivity.
Led by Kenya’s Ministry of Education and ICT Authority in partnership with UNESCO and Huawei, the DigiSchool Connectivity Project connected 13 schools with fast, reliable, and stable Internet connectivity between 2020 and 2021. Achieving clear benefits achieved for 6,000 learners across Kenya, the best practices from deployment culminated in the Internet Connectivity to Schools evaluation report. Produced by Kenya’s Ministry of Education, the report highlights the positive outcomes of connecting schools and serves as a valuable reference for the future.
Bringing more schools online with optical communications
Completed in 2024, the project has connected an additional 21 schools to broadband, including six schools for children with special educational needs, including deaf children and those with intellectual disabilities. Supported by Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), video conferencing equipment was provided for the six specialist schools, enabling teacher training and remote learning for students.
My students are hard of hearing to varying degrees and they rely primarily on visual learning and need to see what they are learning. Learning is difficult for them.Kenneth Bidan,
Teacher at Machakos School for the Deaf
Students receive a remote lesson from a KISE teacher
We provide online and offline training and courses for teachers and students with special educational needs. With remote video live classrooms and online materials, I can reach teachers and students in the most remote areas of the country. We can also get the same teaching content as teachers and students in urban centers.Zipporah Nudge,
Teacher, Department of Hearing and Communication Difficulties,KISE
As a key project partner, UNESCO has contributed its extensive educational expertise and provides STEM support and mentoring for girls.
ICT is an equalizer with the potential to reach vulnerable children and low-income people in the most remote areas, effectively closing the education gap and providing equal learning opportunities and quality education resources for all children. I am delighted to see the successful implementation of the Kenya Digital School project with the support of UNESCO, our partners, and the Huawei TECH4ALL initiative.Lamine Mamadou Sow,
Chief of Education at the UNESCO Regional Office for East Africa
On the technical side, Huawei was responsible for technical assessments, solution design, provision of the equipment, and project management. Connecting to the government’s fiber-optic network NOFBI, Huawei's rapidly deployable all-optical access and FTTR-B solutions enable high-quality, all-optical Wi-Fi connections and a high-speed network experience for online courses and live video classes in the target schools.
In support of the project, Kenya Power & Lighting Company provided use of its electricity poles on which to deploy fiber for 15 schools.
By cooperating with partners such as Huawei, the Kenyan government provides high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi connections for educational institutions based on all-optical access technologies to improve the student experience and enable students in remote areas to learn as in developed areas.Thomas Bwaley,
Director for Programmes & Standards, Kenya ICT Authority
