Somali high school students in Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya have been given digital tablets to help them with their classes and enable them to catch up on work at home.

The tablets have been pre-loaded with audio-visual learning materials for all their subjects. The students will be able to take them home after a four-week training period.

Dahir Mukhtar Bashir, 21, a form one student in Hagadera high school, said that he no longer has to rush to copy down notes at the same time as listening to the teacher explaining a point in class.

“This gadget doesn’t just give you the notes, it also illustrates with examples and that is helping us understand better. You can use it anytime you want. When the teacher writes the notes on the blackboard, it’s stressful racing to copy it all down before the blackboard is erased before you can finish writing,” he said.

Dahir hopes the tablet will help him to do well in the forthcoming exams, as it gives him access to all the material he needs for revision in his own time.

The tablets were distributed by local NGO, Refugee Youth Education Hub. The NGO’s founder, Abdullahi Mire, said the idea arose during the COVID19 pandemic when all schools were closed and there was an urgent need to bridge the education gap in Dadaab. The NGO was supported by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and other donors to buy the tablets and download curriculum materials.

Abdullahi, who was himself a refugee in Dadaab and is now resettled in Norway, said he was only able to provide 500 tablets for form one students in Hagadera camp, but hopes the rest of the students in other classes and camps will get them in future.

Another student in Hagadera high school, Iqra Mohamed Abdi, told Radio Ergo’s local correspondent who visited her biology class, that the tablet has helped her. Iqra, 18, said she has ample time to understand the lesson from the teacher’s explanations in class, and can replay the lessons whenever she wants later.

“The teacher usually has only 40 minutes for the lesson. But now, using this tablet you can access the lesson anytime and replay it as many times as you like. We didn’t use to have enough time for biology and chemistry lessons,” she said.

Abdullah also established public libraries in Ifo, Hagadera and Dhagahaley camps in March 2020. The three libraries closed during lockdown but reopened in October 2021. High school graduates who did not manage to go to university can borrow books to read at home. The public libraries in Ifo and Hagadera camps each have 30,000 books, while the library in Dhagahaley has 20,000 books.

Mohamed Abdullahi Jimale, 28, a high school graduate in Hagadera, frequents the library to borrow books.

“This library has provided me with an opportunity to advance my knowledge. It has good books which help me research in my area of interest. I enjoy reading books on community development,” he said.

Source: Radio Ergo