Prisoners will be able to get skills education after Mount Kenya University (MKU) partnered with the Prisons Department to provide inmates with education.
The project is part of a study to determine ‘Effectiveness of Offline Study Desk on Prison Education’.
Speaking at the Prisons Headquarters in Nairobi, MKU Vice Chancellor Deogratius Jaganyi said the project seeks to empower convicts with skills that will be useful to them once they re-integrate with the community after serving their sentence.
“By the time they get back to their communities, the inmates will be more empowered and the chances of relapsing into crime will be reduce,” he said.
Jaganyi says MKU has a mandate to serve as the SDG 10 (Sustainable Development Goal 10) on Reduced Inequalities.
The institution will provide learning materials for teaching and research to the inmates.
“We live in an information age where the digital revolution has created a knowledge-based society surrounded by a high tech economy, Jaganyi said.
He also distributed tablets fed with offline content to aid learning of inmates at Naivasha Maximum Security Prison.
Jaganyi said the tablets handed over contain interactive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects material and Science Virtual labs for use in training inmates in six maximum prisons in Kenya.
In addition, the tablets will be used for offline teaching where the inmate-students will access learning materials in an internet free environment technology via Signal technology.
This is as part of an ongoing partnership between the University and the Prisons Department.
The project funded by the National Research Fund is part of a study to determine ‘Effectiveness of Offline Study Desk on Prison Education’ and it is implemented through MKU, the National Research Fund, Kenya Prisons Service and the Kenya National Commission for Unesco.
“This is a fast and revolutionary use of ICT in Prison education. The project uses education to reduce recidivism and empower the inmates,” he added.
The research project will be carried out in the six maximum prisons in Kenya namely: Naivasha, Nyeri, Langata Women, Kisumu, Kamiti and Shimo la Tewa maximum prisons.
It targets to evaluate the effectiveness of ICT in delivery of prison education without the Use of the internet.
The university and other partners also plan to roll out parallel training on entrepreneurship.
The aim is to reduce inequalities in society.
