The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
2 August 2008
Several African governments have turned to mobile phones and computers to mitigate the effects of teacher shortage they are facing.
Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia have started ICT projects involving mobile-phone messaging and computer-generated classrooms for both primary and secondary schools.
About 200 primary schools will benefit from Tanzania's programme to be launched launch in October, said Education and Vocational Training minister Prof Jumanne Mughembe, adding that it will be rolled out mainly in districts that face acute teacher shortages. "This IT project will also be using projectors, which would be operated from one control center manned by a few instructors in a bid to reach many students," he told a foreign news agency on Monday.
Tanzania is currently facing a shortfall of more than 40,000 teachers. The minister said the initiative would start as a pilot project before being rolled out to other needy schools. He said 200 primary schools would benefit from the project.
The Zambian ministry of Education is putting together a similar programme to promote e-learning and ensure ICT is integrated into the Zambian education system, said the ministry's director of distance education, Mr Victor Muyatwa.
"It's time that our education system moved away from the tendency of just putting computers in schools, but integrating ICT into the education policy," he said at the ICT Open Day in Lusaka on July 26.
Across Africa, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has eased the shift in teaching methodology with its $180 computers. Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa have all ordered the laptops from OLPC, with the aim of distributing a laptop to each student. Learning materials will be posted regularly to a web site, which students will then access through their laptops.
Initiated by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), such e-learning programmes are part of a consolidated plan of action aimed at enhancing knowledge sharing through the application, adaptation and usage of ICT in education.
NEPAD's e-Africa Commission -- based in Johannesburg, South Africa -- has been chartered to develop the continent's ICT infrastructure. The programme is set to equip approximately 16,000 African schools with computers and Internet connections by 2015.
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