 In
March 2003, the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation
Committee (HSGIC) adopted the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative 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 NEPAD e-Schools Initiative is being led by the e-Africa Commission,
the special task team of NEPAD responsible for the structured development
of the ICT sector on the African continent.
The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative will, over a ten-year period from
project inception, develop all African schools (estimated to be
in excess of 600, 000) into NEPAD e-Schools. These schools will
be provided with necessary infrastructure and ICT equipment, will
have teachers that are appropriately trained and will have access
to appropriate applications and digital content, to ensure that
ICTs play a meaningful role in enhancing education and health conditions
on the African continent.
Specifically, the objectives of the
NEPAD e-Schools Initiative 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
- To make every learner health literate
- To provide teachers with ICT skills
to enable them to use ICT as tools to enhance teaching and learning
- To provide school managers with ICT
skills so as to facilitate the efficient management and administration
in the schools
- The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative will be
implemented in three phases of between 15 and 20 countries in
each phase.
The countries that constitute the phase
one are:
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Algeria |
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Angola |
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Benin |
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Burkina Faso |
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Cameroon |
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Republic of Congo |
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Egypt |
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Ethiopia |
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Gabon |
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Ghana |
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Kenya |
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Lesotho |
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Mali |
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Mauritius |
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Mozambique |
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Nigeria |
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Rwanda |
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Senegal |
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South Africa |
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Uganda |
Implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative
is progressing at pace, along the lines below, with all activities
expected to converge into large-scale rollout in 2007.
NEPAD e-Schools Demo: A Global Partnership for African Development
The NEPAD e-Africa Commission has identified the NEPAD e-Schools
Demonstration Project (Demo) as a critical initial step in the continental
implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative.
The Demo is intended to provide a continental learning mechanism,
based on real-life experiences of implementing ICTs in schools across
the African continent that will serve to inform the rollout of the
broader NEPAD e-Schools Initiative. To this end, the Demo is establishing,
monitoring and evaluating, six NEPAD e-Schools each, in up to twenty
African countries.
The NEPAD e-Africa Commission has put together an innovative public-private
partnership to ensure the most effective and expedient implementation
of the Demo.
Country Governments
While coordination of the Demo takes place at a continental level,
implementation is carried out at a national level. Each participating
country has formally appointed a Country Liaison Person, who is
responsible for facilitating all aspects of implementation at the
selected schools. An interdepartmental National Implementation Team
assists the CLPs and work closely with the principals of the participating
schools.
Private Sector
Five consortia led by AMD, Cisco, HP, Microsoft and Oracle are
each responsible for develping, deploying and supporting an appropriate
Education and Health ICT solution for approximately twenty schools
at their own cost
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