A new mobile digital App device introduced in Turkana region to track learners has drastically reduced absenteeism in schools and improved attendance.

Introduced in October 2022, the App, called Onekana, contains the pupil’s name and age, parent or guardian’s name, date of admission and learner’s status.

The Digital Attendance App has been so far introduced in 59 schools, out of which 45 are in Turkana North, and 13 in Kibish sub-counties.

App has given teachers, educationists, government officers and some Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) the ease to trace close to 10,000 boys and girls who had abandoned learning and opted for either herding cows or early marriages.

With the help of the App, the learners were traced and returned to their former respective learning institutions where they are continuing with their education.

Under the project where Save The Children International (SCI), a humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund, are partnering with the County Government of Turkana, the aim is to ensure children in Turkana spend more time in school.

A project document shows that out of the 10,504 learners that were targeted in a period of 11 months, so far 9,789 have been brought back and retained in school.

Kataboi Primary and Junior Secondary School deputy head teacher, Philip Ereng, who has been deeply involved in the implementation of the project says all the learners who have been tracked back say they are enjoying being in school.

According to the teacher, the Onekana Digital Attendance App has been a game changer in the region, with younger Turkanas trooping to learning centres.

“Since we started using the App, we have been able to know who was at school, in class or not,” he said, noting that the digital register is a blessing as the teachers – who are assigned various roles – are able to trace the presence and absence of learners as opposed to the physical one.

Ereng, one of the 59 head teachers trained to monitor implementation of the App, said since its introduction, the rate of absenteeism has tremendously gone down.

“The App is both appropriate for teachers and learners,” he added.

A total of 59 Information Communication Technology (ICT) teachers have been trained to use the App that ensures learners are in class.

Every teacher has been assigned a respective class and their relevant details that includes the teacher’s full name, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) number, email and the date of birth.

“Once the teacher has been assigned a class, it is their role to mark the register in that class. The names that are in that online register are drawn from the National Education Management Information System (Nemis),” he said.

Targeted areas

Save The Children International Education Officer Rodgers Wekesa revealed that since schools in the targeted areas started implementing the programme, there has been a 40 percent increase in learners’ retention.

He said the main aim of the enrolment programme is to fight retrogressive culture – held so closely by the community – by creating awareness on the rights of the child; one of them being through education. “We focused on this area because of its vastness, long distances to school and access due to the nomadic life of the communities found there,” he said, noting that so far, the programme is gradually paying off.

The Onekana App, he pointed out, allows teachers to digitally record pupils’ class attendance in real time.
“The summary outlines the uses of the system’s hardware and software requirements, system’s configuration, user access levels and system’s behaviour in case of any contingencies,” he added.

However, Wekesa explains that getting the digital App to work has not been easy as it ran into some challenges including the retrogressive culture, parental neglect, delay in school feeding programme, child labour, the allure of boda boda business, fishing as an economic activity and drug and substance abuse.

“There is a marked 40 per cent retention, however,” he said, adding; “As we move closer towards digitisation, it is important that we have information on the learners on the Kenya Digital App register because it is directly connected to Nemis.”

He further explained that the struggle to monitor the movement and school attendance of learners and the required information about them in the physical register, prompted the establishment of the digital roll call.

“Accurate data has enabled us to be able to plan effectively and avail resources for intervention, which then saw us scale up the programme from 45 schools to 59,” he said.

Wekesa added: “SCI is able to get real time data, track learners’ attendance, be able to plan, measure the rate of dropouts and be able to know the reason for absenteeism among pupils.”

The App can use personal computers or smartphones, enabling schools to move away from the physical register.

The register is linked to the NEMIS and as class teachers mark the attendance, the data is transferred to the school’s central data centre which enables head teachers and the deputies to trace and track every learner.

The new register can easily and conveniently be used by the government to track enrolment, retention, transition and drop out of pupils.

Article 53(1) (b) of the Constitution states that every child has a right to free and compulsory basic education, and reading together with Article 55(a), it further elaborates that there shall be measures, including affirmative action programmes, to ensure access to relevant education and training.

The Constitution is further clear that to achieve universal education, the country needs to establish data on children excluded from education; strengthen documentation of real-time data on school-going age children, identify barriers that cause dropout, and develop strategies to enhance enrolment, retention and transition rates of school-going children.