The project 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.

In launching the project, President Mbeki said that ICT is a key to poverty reduction.

“This NEPAD e-Schools project will ensure that our learners, educators and the entire communities have access to information and communications technologies. This is what will empower us to do things that will change our lives, our country and our continent for the better.

“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.”

The NEPAD e-Africa Commission is the ICT task team responsible for developing the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative as well as other related projects.

Dr Henry Chasia, the Executive Deputy Chairperson of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission said : “The launch of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative 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.”

Welcoming the e-Schools project, Mogakane Petronela, a student of Maripe Secondary School said she wanted to be a civil engineer. “I will be able to use the Internet to help me with 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 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 Internet upon completion of the project. Source : NEPAD News, april 20. 2007