Africa: NEPAD e-Schools Initiative

I guess you’ve seen all the stuff about the $100 laptops for Africa. I have mixed feelings about this. I have yet to go to a primary school in West Africa that has electricity, or even enough basic supplies, let alone enough teachers with adequate training. I’ve been in numerous classrooms which are so dark students can hardly see the paper or slates to write on, and classrooms where the teacher laboriously draws a diagram from the textbook on the blackboard because there are not enough textbooks for even one book between two students. A solar energy project would seem to me to be imperative to improve conditions in all schools and perhaps then schools would be able to take advantage of this kind of ICT training. As more and more African countries develop mother tongue education programmes, I also have queries about what language these ICT programmes will use – is it assumed that the whole world learns English???

Here’s another project aiming to use ICT to improve education in Africa. At the moment I fail to see how ICT will help with these fundamental problems.  But hey! maybe I’m a pessimist, go to the links, explore the NEPAD site and see what you think.

nepad-e-schools-initiative

The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative was publicly launched in Durban at the Africa Summit of the World Economic Forum on June 12, 2003.

The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative has been adopted as a priority continental undertaking aimed at ensuring that African youth graduate from African schools with the skills that will enable them to participate effectively in the global information society.

The aim of the initiative is to impart ICT skills to young Africans in primary and secondary schools as well as harness ICT technology to improve, enrich and expand education in African countries.

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The NEPAD e-Schools objectives are to:
* provide ICT skills and knowledge to primary and secondary school students that will enable them to function in the emerging information society and knowledge economy;
* make every learner health literate;
* provide teachers with ICT skills to enable them to use these tools to enhance teaching and learning; and
* provide school managers with ICT skills so as to facilitate efficient management and administration in the school.

Suggested Books

• Nepad: Toward Africa’s Development Or Another False Start?

• ICT4D: Information and Communication Technology for Development