Guys,
This email should have come a few weeks ago but things have been terribly busy with me. Its all in good progress, got a government job, keeps me very close to the Kenyan Vice President and that is good for the future of my involvement in Wikimedia Kenya. I still keep my commitment to this noble organization.
As head of the Mombasa pilot, here is a little of my views on what was achieved, what could have been achieved and what missed.
During the pre-visit, I went to 12 schools in total and out of these, there were schools that just didnt have the capacity - either no computers or their computers were just too old to do anything. There were those with good computers but just turned down the offer to have the Wikipedia Offline version installed since the computers were provided by a program between the Kenya government and the Japanese government and they were under strict instructions not to modify the current software settings. Some of the schools were too good, had serious connectivity and good computer labs that they didnt even use because all students had their own laptops. Its the dynamics of life. So in total we had about 9 schools in our schedule although we ended up doing only 7, 2 pulled out last minute - one because they also fell in the government program and the computer teacher didnt know until the day we got there to do the installation while the other one had exams during the time when we planned to go to the school.
*Education System:* Having achieved the 7 schools was good, given we only had 5 days to work with. We learned a lot and this would be experience that will be useful when we roll out the program countrywide. Our goal is to promote the use of Wikipedia to benefit both students and teachers while keeping to the curricular. Out of the 7 schools we visited, 2 were on the british system and the rest were on 8-4-4. The two are quite different and although some fundamentals still meet, I feel there is need to develop one that goes with the 8-4-4 system which 95% of schools in Kenya are on. If we are going to have a successful roll out of the Wikipedia for Schools project, it needs to have a huge impact. It needs to fill in a gap that is not there. I feel the need to set up a local project to develop content based on the current system of education. Our system is very similar to a lot of other African countries and this means we can have it used all over Africa. This does not have to be done immediately, but I think it can be one of the goals of the chapter once we are set.
*Computers:* While we went to institutions, there is no equality and there is no telling what kind of machines you will find at an institution. There are a number of organizations that are distributing refurbished computers to schools but I have to say that unfortunately, this is VERY commercialized and still makes it hard for the schools to afford it. I believe with the credibility of The Wikimedia Foundation, we can gather up people and organizations to donate used and refurbished computers which go for under $150 locally. I have a commercial plan around this that can generate funds to run the program but not cost the school. This would be a plan that would also benefit communities around the schools. I have discussed this idea with a few people and they seem to think its very workable. If we are going to work with these, we also need to go Open Source as we can, meaning Linux. I believe this program is something we can discuss on our next meetup. Abbas and I will also try to talk to the foundation to see the possibilities.
**Finally, while we have a huge need to get this to most schools, we can only move at a good pace if we forge strategic partnerships with the government and other organizations that have closely similar goals in education development.
We need to setup more local content on Wikipedia too, this will encourage more locals.