Under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), an E-schools Initiative has been launched at the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Africa Economic Summit with the aim of bridging the digital divide between Africa and the developed world by bringing computer literacy into African schools, giving the continent’s children the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.
Unveiling the project on Thursday at the Summit, Henry Chasia, executive deputy chairperson of the E-Schools Africa Initiative said the program would target the young to ensure that the majority of people in Africa would have the skills necessary to function in the information society and knowledge economy. Among its aims were to provide every African school-leaver with at least basic computer skills; to make every African learner health literate, and to make the youth the priority target sector for high intervention programs.
A coordinated teacher-training program would facilitate the training of thousands of teachers in several countries in a short space of time, allowing for pooling of resources and sharing of experience. Every Nepad E-school would also be a basic point for health literacy, research health monitoring, data collection and development of health campaigns. – I-Net Bridge