Retrieved from Allafrica News
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200202240053.html

The East African Standard (Nairobi)
By Joseph Ngunjiri
February 23, 2002 
Posted to the web February 24, 2002 


A commercial college in Thika has come up with a cost-saving and unique way of offering information communication technology studies (ICT) to the rural masses.Thika School of Management Studies has teamed up with the African Christian Churches and Schools (ACCS) to offer the much needed skills to the out-of-school youth in the rural areas.

"The arrangement is such that the church lets the college use its premises as learning centres for the many students in the rural areas who cannot afford to commute to town to study," says Mr Simon Gicharu, the chairman of the academic board at the college. Gicharu explains that the need to take the important service to the people was borne out of the realisation that modern trends are in favour of people who are well versed in computer skills.
"Now more than ever before, computer literacy is becoming an important prerequisite for any person that hopes to succeed in today's job market," adds Gicharu.

The co-operation between the institution and the church has reduced the cost of being computer literate drastically for learners. Gicharu says that an ordinary set of computer packages for basic literacy for starters goes for Sh18,000, but they are offering theirs at a subsidised rate of Sh5,000. "This means that we have reduced the cost of computer training by almost 70 per cent," adds Gicharu.
According to Gicharu, so far, they have registered over 500 students. 360 have already graduated.

Thika School of Management outreach centres are six in total and are spread out within Thika and Maragua districts. Rev James Kamau who is the general secretary of ACCS is very excited that the church is playing a part in offering this very important service to the youth. "We are committed to assisting our children attain computer literacy," he says, "these are the skills that will help them in later life." The reverend adds that apart from providing a venue for learning to take place, the church also assists in creating awareness and mobilising potential students, as well as offering them moral support.

Charles Waithaka, the project co-ordinator, says students are assisted in getting attachment and job placement. "This is in addition to linking them with other external examining bodies." Waithaka adds that needy students are trained for free as their fees are taken care of by the funds the church solicits from well-wishers. Gicharu says that their greatest challenge at the moment is lack of electricity in most rural areas. They are also forced to contend with lecturers who find it hard to teach in rural areas. "Most lecturers prefer working in urban centres. It gets quite tricky having to convince them to go to the rural areas to work as community development workers," explains Gicharu.

Gicharu explains that they are in the process of lobbying for the formulation of friendly policies as far as the IT sector in the country is concerned. "We would like to see the establishment of Internet cyber cafes in the rural areas. The only problem is that the telecommunication network in the rural areas is almost non-existent."