The classroom of the future is arriving in Kenya, carrying the promise of artificial intelligence, interactive learning and a generation of digitally fluent citizens. Whether it arrives equally in every corner of the country is another question entirely.
The Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA) has invited consulting firms to help integrate digital literacy into Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), under the World Bank-funded Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project (KDEAP). The assignment, expected to run for 40 calendar weeks, places particular emphasis on gender-inclusive strategies and requires applicants to demonstrate experience in developing artificial intelligence curricula.
According to a tender notice published on October 13, eligible firms must have at least five years of experience as education-focused consultancies and demonstrate the technical and managerial capacity to undertake the work. Applications close on October 28 at 10am.
The announcement is more than an administrative exercise. It is another chapter in Kenya’s attempt to prepare its children for an economy increasingly shaped by automation, digital services and machine intelligence.
In April 2023, the World Bank approved $390 million in financing for the first phase of KDEAP, a programme designed to expand broadband connectivity, improve digital services and strengthen skills. Its ambitions extend beyond schools, encompassing connectivity for underserved communities and infrastructure intended to support Kenya’s wider digital economy.
The education component has already begun to take shape. In July, the government launched the first phase of its Digital Literacy Programme, targeting 10,382 public junior secondary schools with smartboards and other digital learning equipment. Officials have presented the initiative as an investment in practical skills and a workforce capable of competing in a technology-driven world.
Yet the seduction of technological progress can obscure an inconvenient truth: a digital classroom is only as effective as the conditions in which it operates.
A smartboard cannot compensate for an unreliable electricity supply, just as an artificial intelligence curriculum cannot flourish without adequately trained teachers. Nor does distributing equipment automatically guarantee that learners will acquire meaningful skills. Kenya’s own experience with remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic exposed how access to devices, electricity and internet connectivity can determine who participates in education and who is left behind. The World Bank has previously documented these inequalities in its assessment of Kenya’s education system.
The gender-inclusive dimension of the new consultancy is therefore significant. Technology should not become another arena in which existing inequalities are reproduced, with boys and better-resourced schools enjoying greater opportunities while girls and disadvantaged communities remain peripheral to the digital revolution.
The government must also confront the question of implementation. Who will monitor the quality of digital instruction? How will teachers be trained, and how will the programme measure whether learners are actually benefiting? The announcement does not specify the precise subjects or grade levels that the curriculum integration will affect.
These are not minor technicalities. They are the difference between an impressive procurement exercise and a lasting educational transformation.
Kenya has reason to embrace the digital future. But the measure of this World Bank-backed undertaking will not be the number of devices delivered, consultants hired or policy documents published. It will be whether a child in a remote village can acquire the same essential digital competencies as a child in Nairobi.
The AI revolution will not wait for Kenya to resolve its educational inequalities. The country must therefore ensure that its pursuit of technological modernity does not leave its most vulnerable learners stranded in the analogue past.