Makueni parents urged to equip their children with digital literacy

Makueni, Saturday, April 15, 2023

K.N.A By Patrick Nyakundi

Parents in Makueni County have been challenged to ensure their children have digital literacy skills to enable higher competencies in terms of collaboration, respect, self-awareness and problem solving.

The  Zizi Afrique Foundation Makueni Co-ordinator Mue  Ndeto has  emphasised the need for parents to support their children have access to computers and cell phones besides gadgets that can assist them to acquire digital literacy.

However, he reminded parents that they have to guide their children to ensure the information they access besides what they watch is beneficial to them.

“We did a research in 20 counties on competencies being assessed in the lower grades and higher level of learning. We established that the more the child has digital levels of literacy, the higher level the child exhibits competencies in terms of collaboration, respect, self-awareness and problem solving,” said Mr Ndeto.

“Don't allow the child to run the show alone. Support the child through social media to access only content that is beneficial to them,” he said during a meeting at a hotel in Wote town with government departments, schools and civil society among others on Friday.

Through the research, it was established that boys collaborated better than girls where the adolescent male and female attained 13 percent and 7 percent respectively the highest level of proficiency in collaboration (level 4).

Ndeto disclosed that 17,276 adolescents, from 14,197 households aged 13-17 years that were drawn from 798 enumeration areas  were assessed during the research period.

Also 39 trainers, 800 teachers/teacher trainees conducted the assessment with the support from the chiefs and village elders and Alive team.

The research was done in Muranga, Tana River, Samburu, Turkana, Wajir, Marsabit, Kisumu, Nakuru, Uasin Gishu, and Nairobi counties.

Other counties include Kakamega, Tharaka Nithi, Nyamira, Taita Taveta, Mombasa, Narok, Makueni, Nyeri, Bungoma and Mandera.

Courtesy K.N.A