Education

Lesotho - First NEPAD e-School in Southern Africa

The Prime Minister of Lesotho, Pakalitha B. Mosisili, pledged his government’s support to the NEPAD e-schools during the official launch of the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration (Demo) Project at Lesotho High School at the end of August 2005. The launch followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Oracle Consortium, NEPAD and the Government of Lesotho, on 7 July 2005 at Maseru, Lesotho.

The Lesotho High School is the first NEPAD e-School in Southern Africa.

The NEPAD e-Schools Project falls under the auspices of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, the NEPAD Information and Communication Technology (ICT) task team responsible for developing the NEPAD ICT programme and implementing related projects.

“The deliberate haste with which NEPAD has sought to make a difference on the ground with this e-schools initiative is commendable. I congratulate all the stakeholders in this pioneering initiative in the education of Africa’s children,” the Prime Minister said.

“The acceptance by Lesotho to participate in the e-Schools Initiative, of necessity obligates Government to provide the requisite resources for the successful implementation of the wider roll-out, in partnership with the e-Africa Commission and other cooperating partners. [The] launch, therefore, further demonstrates Lesotho’s firm commitment to the initiative”, the Prime Minister added.

Implementation plans

While NEPAD will plan, coordinate and set standards at the continental level, the actual implementation and execution of the project will be carried out by individual countries.

Prof. Peter Kinyanjui of NEPAD said that to ensure proper implementation, a National Implementation Agency (NIA) would be established in each of the participating countries and would have representation from the key players in the e-schools project, including government, private sector, development agency and CSO representatives.

“In other words the partnership model which has been set up by NEPAD at continental level will be replicated at the country level, and driven by the proposed NIA”, Professor Kinyanjui said.

“The benefits to NEPAD’s approach include cost reduction, shared learning, access to expertise, standardisation, resource mobilisation and enhancement of political goodwill and support”.

Professor Kinyanjui said that the e-Schools Demo, which runs for 12 months, will be monitored and evaluated by the Commonwealth of Learning and INFODEV of the World Bank. A business plan was being developed to specify the resources needed for the implementation of the rollout project.

Benefits to Lesotho

Lesotho High School, a mixed day and boarding school in Maseru, has undergone radical transformation as a result of the cooperation between the community, the Lesotho Government, NEPAD and the Oracle Consortium.

The school now has computers and accessories, server, Internet, computer desks, DSTV, TV screen and decoder, e-curriculum, e-health facility, and trained teachers in ICT. All classrooms are connected to a media centre, where information from the DSTV is channeled to the screens in the classrooms.

The Oracle Vice-President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mr. Stephanie Rousset, said that children and parents will benefit greatly from the project.

“For the teachers and students of this school, today is a milestone because you can start to teach and learn in a new way. To teach and learn better, faster, and thus bring the youth of Lesotho to a higher level of skills. And higher skills simply means employment, more interesting jobs, a better life, a better society and a stronger nation of Lesotho”, he said.

“The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative in Lesotho is a foundation to equip the youth of this country with the knowledge they need to compete in the global arena”, he added.

Partners in the ORACLE e-Schools Consortium are DHL, Accelon, Multichoice, Sentech, Mecer, Fujitsu-Siemens, Intel, Computainer, Astra, Xerox, Learnthings, and Cambridge-Hitachi.

The NEPAD e-Schools project

First announced in 2003 at the Africa Summit of the World Economic Forum in Durban, the NEPAD e-Schools project focuses on providing end-to-end ICT solutions that will connect schools across Africa to the NEPAD e-Schools network and the Internet. Solutions also include the provision of content and learning material and the establishment of health points at schools, supporting the NEPAD e-Health Programme.

In each country, the programme aims to transform all African secondary schools into NEPAD e-Schools within five years of implementation start date and all African primary schools within 10 years of implementation start date.

In total more than 600 000 schools across the continent will enjoy the benefits of ICT and connectivity to the NEPAD e-Schools network upon completion of the project.

The ORACLE Consortium and a number of other private companies have committed to sponsoring the demonstration project, consisting of six schools in each of the 16 participating countries, for a period of 12 months.

Participating countries are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

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