Special needs students participate in eKitabu essayby Wangui Githugo@Wango_GThe fifth annual digital essay competition, open to students from Class Five toForm Four in all Kenyan public and private schools, will this year award five specialneeds students out of 77 who participated in the countrywide contest.This is the first time that the eKitabu Digital Essay Competition has included youngwriters from the special needs community, with participation from schools for the blindand visually impaired in Mombasa, Kisumu, Kiambu and Meru counties.The special needs winners, who submitted their essays in braille, will be awardedcomputing devices, scholarship money and public recognition alongside their mainstreampeers on September 27 at Sarit Centre, Nairobi, during a Digital LiteracyTrust launch by the Ministry of Education, eKitabu and other international partners.eKitabu chief executive and founder Will Clurman said that out of 5,305 essayssubmitted from 41 counties, only 77 disabled children submitted and only fivemanaged to be listed as winners. He encouraged more special needs schools toenrol students for the competition, saying that it gives room for healthy competitionamong children in diverse schools.

However, this year, there has been low participation by students compared to lastyear where all 47 counties participated with more than 7,000 essay submissions.eKitabu’s Senior Programme Manager Michael Ng’eno, said this year’s participationwas low due to the essay competition deadline, which coincided with the August8 General Election. “Only 177 schools participated. Most schools complained abouttight schedules and election jitters but we are confident that next year, the number ofentries will be quite good,” he said. In partnership with the Teachers ServiceCommission , eKitabu will also launch the first annual ICT Teacher of the Year awardsto recognise the best teachers for the best, original ICT integrated lessons in Mathematicsand Sciences.

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