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President Thabo Mbeki Officially Launches NEPAD e-Schools in South Africa | 21 February 2008 |

South African President, Mr Thabo Mbeki launched the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration (Demo) Project at Maripe Secondary School in Mpumalanga, South Africa on 17 April 2007. The project, which involves six schools from various provinces, is a joint venture of the South African Government, HP Consortium, Cisco Consortium, ORACLE Consortium and the NEPAD e-Africa Commission. South Africa is the seventh country to launch the project after Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya, Rwanda, and Egypt.

ICTs to Get Africa out of Poverty

While delivering his speech at the launch of the NEPAD e-Schools Project, Mr Mbeki noted that ICTs were key to poverty reduction. Said the President, “I am very glad that we are here today to launch this NEPAD e-Schools Project, which will ensure that our learners, educators and the entire communities access information and communications technologies because this is what will empower us to do things that will change our lives, our country and our continent for the better.

The challenge is now upon us, the principal of the schools, the educators, the learners. Let us use this technology to do things better, develop African brain power that will pull our country and the African continent as a whole out of poverty.” He particularly encouraged learners and teachers to effectively manage the equipment and use it to improve performance and produce marketable workforce that will develop the country and the African continent.

Partnerships key to success

The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative was adopted as a priority ICT project by the Heads of States and Government in March 2003, and publicly launched at the Africa Summit of the World Economic Forum in Durban in June 2003. The vision of the project is to make all learners in all African schools ICT literate by installing ICTs in these schools, connecting the schools to the internet, training pre-service and in-service teachers in the use of ICTs and equipping each school with a health point to provide health information and undertake specific health interventions as may be required.

Dr Henry Chasia, the Executive Deputy Chairperson of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission said, “The launch of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative today in South Africa is the culmination of ingenuity and collaboration between the South African Government, the different corporate entities and NEPAD. They are driven by the desire to bring information technology to our people, especially the youth, wherever they live.

Our coming together today demonstrates our commitment and will as Africans to surmount the challenges of bridging the digital divide in our continent. We look forward to continued partnership and collaboration among those involved in this unique venture”.

He said that the Demo is the first step in the implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools, which will provide real-life lessons to inform the roll-out of the project to all schools on the continent. Sixteen countries that subscribed to the APRM review constitute the first phase of the project.

Private Sector committed to success of the Project

The project involves six schools located in the different provinces of South Africa. The corporate consortia involved are led by HP, Oracle and Cisco. The HP Consortium is providing solutions to Maripe Secondary School, Lomahasha High Schools in Mpumalanga and Hendrick Makapan Secondary School in North West. The ORACLE Consortium is providing solutions to Ipetleng Secondary School in Free State, and Isiphosethu High School in Kwazulu Natal. Cisco is providing solutions to Thozamisa High School in Eastern Cape Province.

South Africa’s HP CEO, Thoko Mogkosi-Mwantembe, affirmed HP’s commitment to realising the potential of technology in education. She added that HP always looked to make a positive impact on the communities of the countries in which it operates.

“ICT is a massive enabler, especially in emerging markets. At community level we can make a difference by supplying rural areas with much needed technology and education. We look at providing technical products and skills and successfully implementing them in the communities within which we operate. At a business level we can simplify processes and make organisations more productive with advanced technology solutions. It is imperative that the public and private sectors collaborate to make the potential of ICT a reality”.

Welcoming the NEPAD e-Schools Project, Mogakane Petronela, a female Grade 12 student of Maripe Secondary School said, “I want to be a Civil Engineer and I will use the Internet, which has been brought by the NEPAD e-Schools Project, to search for information about my chosen career”.

Countries participating in the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

In each country, the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative aims to transform all African secondary schools into NEPAD e-Schools within five years of implementation start date and all African primary schools within ten 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 Internet upon completion of the project.

[img_assist|nid=145|title=President Mbeki (centre) and Dr Chasia of NEPAD (right)|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=69]

For more information about the event, please contact:

Samuel Mikenga
Manager, Public Communications
NEPAD e-Africa Commission
Email: SMikenga@eafricacommission.org
Tel: +27 12 841 4523 (office)
Tel: +27 725 296 769 (mobile)
Fax: +27 12 841 4094
Pretoria; South Africa
Website: www.eafricacommission.org