Call for Internet Governance Forum Core Team in West Africa

ICT in education initiatives in Africa

The following is an excerpt from infoDev's forthcoming Survey of ICT and Education in Africa.

A wide range of programmes and projects on ICTs in Education in Africa have activities that involve one or more African countries in varying numbers. These range from high-level intergovernmental, multi-stakeholder programmes such as the NEPAD e-Schools initiative, to institutions focused on networking African schools and universities such as the African Virtual University (AVU), to collaborative learning projects that directly involve learners and teachers from schools in several African countries such as the Global Teenager Project (GTP) and the International Education Resources Network (iEARN).

An illustrative (non-exhaustive) list of prominent organisations active in supporting and promoting technology-related activities in the education sector in Africa is provided below:

African Academy of Languages

• The African Academy of Languages is a pan-African organisation that was set up in 2001 by Mali’s then president Alpha Konare. It was established under the auspices of the African Union to promote Africa’s many indigenous languages. One of its major projects relates to the promotion of African languages in “cyberspace” and particularly the use of local languages in education in Africa.

African Development Bank

• The African Development Bank (AfDB) is a membership-based, regional multilateral development finance institution that mobilises resources to support the economic and social development of its member countries. The AfDB has an education policy which promotes support for basic, vocational, and adult education and training. The AfDB also supports the use of ICTs in education in Africa. To date the AfDB has assisted with open, distance, and e-learning capacity development centres and connectivity provision at Africa Virtual University (AVU) partner institutions to support teacher training and development programmes and to mainstream gender issues, as in the AVU Support Project.

African Virtual University (AVU)

• Initially a project of the World Bank and now an independent intergovernmental organisation, the AVU is an innovative education institution based in Nairobi, Kenya, that services 57 learning centres in 27 African countries. The AVU works with universities based in Africa and other countries such as the US and Australia to provide academic programmes and short courses through open and distance e-learning. The AVU also boasts a digital library that provides resources to African academics and students.

AMD

• AMD is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics, and consumer electronics markets. AMD introduced the 50x15 Initiative, an attempt to promote affordable, accessible Internet connectivity and computing capabilities for 50% of the world’s population by 2015. IN the first stage of this initiative, AMD introduced its personal Internet communicator (PIC) device which it deployed to African schools through its support for the NEPAD e-Schools programme. In Africa, AMD led a consortium of companies in the promotion of the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project in five African countries (Cameroon, Gabon, Mali, Senegal, and Uganda) where they promoted their 50x15 devices.

Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)

• ADEA is a network of partners promoting the development of effective education policies based on African leadership and ownership. ADEA has produced research and guidebooks on the use of ICTs in education such as Towards and Information System for Non Formal Education: A Practical Guide.

Computer Aid International

• Headquartered in the UK with a dedicated African regional programme comprising officers in Southern, Eastern, Central, and West Africa, Computer Aid International specialises in sourcing and distributing professionally refurbished computers for re-use in education, health, and not-for-profit organisations in Africa and other developing countries. To date, Computer Aid International has distributed more than 80,000 PCs to developing countries.

Computers for African Schools (CFAS)

• CFAS is a registered charity in the UK that mobilises computer donations from firms and computer users and distributes them to schools in Southern Africa through partner organisations based in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Cisco Systems

• Cisco Systems is a global company that promotes networking for the Internet. In Africa, Cisco is a leading partner in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) e-Schools programme to which it contributed human and financial resources. Cisco led a consortium of companies in this project in which it promoted the installation of networking equipment for Internet access and satellite connectivity in schools in Algeria, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa. It also promoted the use of digital education content and teacher training in these countries. In addition, Cisco has established a Networking Academy programme that trains students to design, build, and maintain computer networks. A number of Networking Academies have been established in Africa in countries like, Ghana, Mauritius, and Nigeria.

Commonwealth of Learning (COL)

• The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth heads of government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources, and technologies. COL has historically assisted with the development and support of national ICT for education policies in some African countries that form part of the Commonwealth, and have promoted the growth of national schoolnet organisations through networking workshops, action research, and the publication of guidebooks such as the African SchoolNet Toolkit which it produced in partnership with SchoolNet Africa. COL is also spearheading the establishment of a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) which involves a number of small states in Africa and which serves as a network committed to the collaborative development of free content resources for education. COL is also involved in a programme on ICTs in support of technical vocational education and training in Africa in partnership with UNESCO.

Department for International Development (DFID)

• DFID is the official ministry within the British government that promotes the fight against world poverty. DFID supports numerous bilateral programmes in Africa in support of education, the Education For All objectives, and the Millennium Development Goals. With particular reference to ICTs in education in Africa, DFID has in the past established organisations such as Imfundo, which has developed a knowledge bank of research on the experiences related to ICTs in education in Africa; DFID has also supported research done by the TESSA programme.

Digital Links

• Digital Links is headquartered in the UK with offices in South Africa and Tanzania. They provide an IT disposal service to UK companies, and refurbish computers for re-use in schools, NGOs, and small enterprises in Africa and the developing world. To date, Digital Links has distributed more than 50,000 PCs to developing countries

Edubuntu

• Edubuntu involves a group of people who distribute a complete Linux-based operating system to schools for classroom use, with future versions being made available for university use. Edubuntu also provides community-based support. Edubuntu philosophy promotes free and open source software and espouses that software should be freely available, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language, that software should be used anyone including people with disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and change their software in whatever way they see fit.

eGranary Digital Library

• Supported by partnership between the Hewlett Foundation, USAID, and the McArthur Foundation, among others, the eGranary Digital Library provides millions of digital educational resources to institutions that do not have adequate Internet access. They deliver digital education resources by gaining permissions, copying Web sites, and delivering them to intranet Web servers in their partner organisations in Africa and other developing countries. They recently initiated satellite data broadcasting to deliver digital resources to African education institutions.

eLearning Africa

• eLearning Africa is an international conference on e-learning which is hosted annually by the government of an African country. The main focus of these conferences is on the experiences of ICTs in education in Africa relative to the rest of the world. The conference is organised by ICWE and Hoffmann & Reif Consultants. In 2006 the conference was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; in 2007 it was held in Nairobi, Kenya; and in 2008 it will be held in Accra, Ghana.