Africa: Governments Urged to Invest More in ICT in Education

By Zachary Ochieng

DAR ES SALAAM----African countries have been urged to scale up investment in ICT in colleges and schools to address the continent’s educational challenges. In his opening remarks at the eLearning Africa 2011 currently underway in the Tanzanian capital city of  Dar es Salaam, Dr Mohammed Bilal, Vice President of the Republic of Tanzania, observed  that whereas remarkable progress has been made in terms of access and expansion of infrastructure for schools, colleges, vocational institutions and polytechnics, the rapid increase in student enrolment  has posed a number of challenges, namely the inadequate number of teachers with appropriate qualifications, limited access to library and Internet facilities, teaching materials and laboratories.

“In order to address most of these educational challenges, it is imperative that African Governments invest in ICT in schools and colleges and job-related ICT training programmes. This is indeed an inevitable component in the process of improving the quality of education and skills development”, Dr Bilal stated.

While appreciating the importance of ICT, the VP noted that the ICT sector in Africa is weak and facing many hurdles related to policy, finance, technical support, expertise, high cost, unreliable connectivity and unmatched ICT facilities and the demand.

“Language and relevant local content has also posed an enormous challenge until recently. I am pleased to note that the situation is now turning around. Yesterday the president launched the Kiswahili language interface pack for Windows 7. This breakthrough will enable over 300 million Kiswahili language users across the world to access a broad range of software programmes in their own language”.

Dubbed the 6th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, eLearning Africa 2011 features contributions from 260 speakers from 49 countries, including representatives from global organizations such as UNEP, UNESCO/UNEVOC and the World Bank, as well as from national educational institutions across Africa. Held under the theme Youth, Skills and Employability, the event has set its sight on unlocking the potential of young Africans, the innovative use of Open Educational Resources (OERS) and training for teaching, healthcare, farming and banking professionals in Africa.

Dr Bilal underscored the fact that ICT on its own cannot be the answer to all the problems that African countries face.

“As an enabler, ICT has to be an integral part of the whole system of economic endeavours. For that to happen, we need to have proper ICT policies”, said Dr Bilal.

Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, Tanzania’s Minister for Education and Vocational Training noted that the use of ICT as a tool for achieving success, quality and equity in education requires political will, commitment and resource allocation in order to achieve development and provide appropriate skills to the youth.

“This is especially so in Africa where the technology gap in terms of adoption and use is getting wide and is affecting the ability of our children to learn and compete globally. This situation has multiple effects which, if not addressed critically now, are likely to continue affecting this continent and therefore make our development agenda not achievable”, said Dr Kawambwa.