Ensuring students and faculty have access to online resources

Words: Hastings Ndebvu

As one way of sustaining teaching and learning through various online platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kenya Education Network (KENET) has collaborated with the country’s mobile service providers to provide data bundles at discounted prices to KENET institutions’ students and faculty members.

Under the deal, Safricom will be providing monthly 10GB data bundles at US$5 from the normal rate of US$12 representing a 40 percent discount while Telkom Kenya will be selling 30GB data bundles to beneficiaries at just US$9.28.

The KENET- Mobile operators deal comes at a time when students and faculty members from Kenya’s higher learning institutions have been facing challenges in purchasing bundles at normal rates due to associated high costs which make e-learning unsustainable.

Under this deal, students and faculty are required to register their mobile numbers through KENET and universities are also encouraged to submit educational resources sites for whitelisting by the mobile operator. Once the mobile numbers are whitelisted, the students or faculty can purchase the discounted e-learning bundles.

According to KENET, this is in line with the NREN’s vision of “transforming education using ICT” as the deal is seen as a solution for students and staff of educational institutions offering e-learning and online learning through educational resources available over the Internet.