E-Schools NEPAD’s Initiative: Africa’s Schools Connect
to the 21st Century

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 transform schools across Africa into NEPAD e-Schools and connect them to the Internet. The solution also includes the provision of content and learning material and the establishment of health points at schools. In each country, the programme aims to assist African governments to transform 50 per cent of their secondary schools into NEPAD e-Schools by 2015 and all primary and secondary schools within a further ten years of this date. In total more than 600 000 schools across the continent will enjoy the benefits of ICT and connectivity to the Internet upon completion of the project.

Five consortia consisting of private sector companies and non-governmental organisations led by AMD, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems sponsored the demonstration project, which aims to implement six NEPAD e-Schools in each of the 16 participating countries during a 12 month period. The Demo aims to accrue a body of knowledge about implementing ICT in schools across the African continent in based on real life experiences, in order to inform the massive rollout of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative. Participating countries are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Ten countries have already launched NEPAD e-Schools in their countries, equipment has been installed, teachers have been trained and pupils have been exposed to the wonders of new technology in more than 80 community schools in Africa.

Source: Dr. Katherine W. Getao, NEPAD e-Schools: Project Manager.