Président de la Commission de l’Union Africaine (depuis le 1er. février 2008)
Président du Ghana,
Président de l’Union Africaine (depuis janvier 2007)
Cameroon’s Minister of Education, Louis Bapes Bapes told the gathering of officials that the Government of Cameroon has put in place a national education plan for education for all. Introduction of ICTs in schools is key in this initiative.
Cameroon has also installed 17 multimedia centres throughout the country in response to a call made by President Paul Biya in 2001, to ensure that modern ICTs are incorporated into the schools curriculum.
“This pioneering NEPAD e-Schools Project is therefore welcome as it will complement our efforts to establish modern ICTs in schools. We strongly support the project and look forward to its implementation,” the Minister said.
The NEPAD e-Schools Project falls under the auspices of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission - the NEPAD information and communication technology task team responsible for developing the NEPAD ICT programme and implementing related projects.
Mme Jeanne Meta of NEPAD observed that effective partnerships were key to success of the project.
“The private companies will provide end-to-end technology solutions to schools, including hardware, software, Internet connectivity, training of teachers in basic computing skills, and technical support and maintenance of the equipment for the 12 months period of the demo”, she said.
“The participating country governments have a critical role to play in designing the programme, selecting the demo schools and ensuring that the schools are ready, managing all aspects of implementation at country level, and ensuring sustainable operation of the project.
“The countries also have a responsibility to take the NEPAD e-schools beyond the demo phase. I have no doubt that implementation of these schools in Cameroon will be a resounding success,” she added.
First announced in 2003 at the Africa Summit of the World Economic Forum in Durban, South Africa, the NEPAD e-Schools Project focuses on providing end-to-end ICT solutions that will connect schools across Africa to the NEPAD e-Schools network and the Internet.
Solutions also include the provision of content and learning material and the establishment of health points at schools.
In each country, the programme 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 NEPAD e-Schools Satellite Network upon completion of the project.
The AMD, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems consortia and a number of other private companies are sponsoring the demonstration project, consisting of six schools in each of the 16 participating countries, for a period of 12 months. For Cameroon, AMD and Microsoft are the lead consortia. Source : NEPAD News, june 4, 2007