The Content of This Document Is Intended to Be Read in Conjunction with the Business Plan

Addendum

NEPAD e-SCHOOLS INITIATIVE

Addendum

Disclaimer: At the Stakeholders’ Conference, information was presented which reflected progress or clarification of issues covered in the Business Plan fieldwork concluded 24 months ago. The NEPAD e-Africa Commission agreed to publish this information in an Addendum rather that re-address the conclusions reached in the Business Plan and approved by the working group sessions’ resolutions. Future information relating to progress and lessons learned will be made available for stakeholders on

The content of this document is intended to be read in conjunction with the Business Plan.

The content of this document is intended for use by NEPAD, the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative Countriesand NEPAD Partners, and should not be made available to third parties prior to consulting with Ernst & Young

INTRODUCTION

This addendum has been included in the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative’s Business Plan to convey key aspects of the NEPAD e-Schools Stakeholders’ Conference that took place at the Emperors Palace Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa from 15 to 18 April, 2008 andto highlight some lessons learnedduring implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Projects (Demo Project) which were conveyed at the Conference.

Background to the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative

In March 2003, the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) adopted the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative as a priority continental undertaking aimed at ensuring that African youth graduate from African schools with the skills that will enable them to participate effectively in the global information society. The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative is being led by the e-Africa Commission, the special task team of NEPAD responsible for the structured development of the ICT sector on the African continent.[1]TheNEPAD e-Schools Initiative is one of six high-priority ICT projects endorsed by the NEPAD Heads of State Implementation Committee in 2003.

In pursuance of this responsibility, the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative has undertaken several projects over the past two years, including:

• Implementation of e-Schools Demo Project;
• Monitoring and evaluation of Demo Project;
• Investigation into satellite connectivity options for remote schools;
• Creation of a teacher development framework; and
• Development of a Business Plan development for the Initiative.

Significant progresshas been made withineach area. The culmination of all work completed to date waspresented at the NEPAD Stakeholders’ Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa from the 15th to 18th April 2008.

STAKEHOLDERS’ CONFERENCE

The Stakeholders’ Conference was attended by 198 delegates. The delegates included Permanent Secretaries / Directors General from the Ministries of Education and Communication from the participating countries, private sector partners, ICT leaders, and key decision makers in the education sector, academia, civil society organisations and development partnersand representatives for of the African Union Commission, Regional Economic Communities and the African Development Bank.

Thetheme of the Stakeholders’Conference was “NEPAD e-Schools: Enhancing the Quality of Education Delivery through ICT”.

It aimed to achieve several objectives, including:

• To ensure that all stakeholders understand the long term vision of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative;
• To promote ownership and collaboration among all relevant stakeholders for national rollout of NEPAD e-Schools;
• To discuss the draft Business Plan; and
• To forge multi-stakeholder partnerships and agree on basic principles to ensure cross fertilization of ideas among CSOs, Governments and Private Sector within the NEPAD framework.

The conference listed the following as expected outcomes:

• Endorsement of the NEPAD e-Schools Business Plan by stakeholders;
• Proposal on way forward in rolling out NEPAD e-Schools at country level; and
• Proposed roles and responsibilities of the participating governments, NEPAD, private sector, development partners, and other relevant stakeholders in the implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools.

With these objectives and outcomes in mind, Ernst & Young presented an overview of the Business plan to the conference delegates for endorsement.

The e-Africa Commission, Consortia members and participating countries were afforded the opportunity to present their perspectives and lessons learned on the implementation of their various inputs into the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative. Copies of the detailed presentations made at the Stakeholders’ Conference are available on the NEPAD e-Africa Commission website at

Outcomes of the Stakeholders’ Conference

During the Stakeholders’ Conference working group sessions were held to discuss various groupings of the parameters (details of each parameter can be found in Chapter 4 of the Business Plan). The parameters are a key aspect of the business plan, which considers all inputs required for the successful implementation of ICT into Education. These range from Bandwidth and Connectivity to Infrastructure and Total Cost of Ownership. Ernst & Young presented four working groups sessions, where each focused on a number of parameters.

The stakeholders present at the conference endorsed the NEPAD e-Schools Business Plan as a broad framework for the rollout of NEPAD e-Schools across the African continent. Through the working groups several roles and responsibilities were identified for the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, national governments and other stakeholders who are critical to the successful rollout of NEPAD e-Schools. A critical outcome of the Stakeholders’ Conference was a set of seven resolutions which are listed below.

Stakeholders’ Conference Resolutions

Permanent secretaries of 13 countries present at the conference -Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda resolved to:

1. Call upon the participating countries to aim at transforming 50% of all secondary schools in their country into NEPAD e-Schools by 2015 and further urge them to collaborate in the development, distribution and sharing of all ICT-in-education applications, experiences and relevant content foe NEPAD e-Schools in their national education systems.
2. Call upon national governments to adopt the NEPAD e-Schools Business Plan as a broad framework to implement NEPAD e-Schools and urge them to develop their own national e-Schools Business Plan by 2010.
3. Call upon national governments to implement the decision to establish, empower and equip national implementing agencies or institutional frameworks for the implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools whose governance structure includes stakeholder by 2009.
4. Call upon participating countries to adopt common procurement standards for NEPAD e-Schools and support joint negotiations in order to enhance their bargaining power through economies of scale.
5. Call upon national governments of participating countries to promote partnerships between local public and private institutions in the design, development and marketing of e-schools equipment and services in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities as appropriate, in line with the NEPAD principles and objectives.
6. Urge all participating countries to complete the development and/or review and strengthen their national ICT-in-education policies, plans and strategies taking into consideration the principles of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative.
7. We express our sincere gratitude to the private sector consortia, development partners, the Government of South Africa, communities, school managers, teachers and learners for the commitment shown in the implementation of the Demo phase and call on all partners to continue to support the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DEMO PROJECT

The Demo Project was conceptualized to accrue a body of knowledge, based on real-life experiences of implementing ICT in schools across the African continent, in order to inform the rollout of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative.

This included the investigation and reporting of the typical scenarios, circumstances and requirements for implementation, challenges in large-scale implementation, effectiveness of partnerships and partnership models, and benefits of the envisaged satellite-based connectivity network.

The countries invited to participate in the first phase were those which acceded to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the NEPAD African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as follows: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. The Demo Project involves six schools in each participating country.

A partnership model was developed and tested that involved the participating governments, private sector companies and the e-Africa Commission.

The partnership model involved five consortia of private sector ICT companies led by AMD, Cisco, HP, Microsoft, and Oracle, and involving more than fifty private sector companies that funded the Demo Project. This partnership is agreed in a tripartite MoU signed between the national governments, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission and the partnering consortium before the start of implementation.

At the time of publication more than 80 NEPAD e-Schools have been established in 16 countries as a result of the Demo Project.

Consortia’s lessons learned

The lessons learned by the Consortia involved in the Demo Project can be grouped into continental, national and school level learnings.Lessons were learned at each of these levels and it is important to disseminate these lessons to ensure improved planning in the future.

At the continental level

The partnership between the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, governments and ICT companies was an essential ingredient in the success of the Demo Projects. Coordination at the continental, national and school level was necessary to reach the common goal of integrating ICTs into education systems. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the progress made towards both implementing and sustaining the NEPAD e-Schools Demo Projectwill yield best practice to inform rollout activities across Africa. The continental reach of the Demo Projectsgavethe partners an opportunity to learn that there isno one-size-fits-all solution; different contexts required the customization of solutions to meet the needs of the schools.

A commonchallenge in remote schools in different parts of Africawas the lack of a power supply (or intermittent, poor-quality power.) The companies gained experience in providing alternative solutions to meet this challenge.

At the national level

The implementation of NEPAD e-Schools required many stakeholders, government ministries, companies and communities to work together. It was essential to have effective communication between the stakeholders. To this end a dedicated and effective contact point such as a country liaison person was found to be essential to success. Sustainable Demo Projects were backed by good planning which was based on realistic expectations, prudent budgets which took into account the cost versus the benefits of the proposed solution, and clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Information provided at the national level about the e-readiness of schools was also critical to success.

At the level of the school

It was found that involving the community surrounding a NEPAD e-School in the implementation activities from the start led to more successful projects. Teachers and administrators were highly receptive and motivated to receive training. However, for success, professional development needs to be an ongoing activity. One of the key lessons learned was that the success of the implementation and operation of a NEPAD e-School was directly related to the quality of leadership and management at the school.NEPAD e-Schools were more successful where when the administrators accepted responsibility for sustaining the ICT in education resources were more successful.

A country perspective: Mauritius

In his address at the opening of the NEPAD e-schools Demo Projects, the Hon. D Gokhool, Minister of Education and Human Resources said“In fact my dream is one laptop for each teacher and why not for each student? Let us all work towards the realization of this dream”

Mauritiusis aiming highand hasmade significant progress with the integration of ICT in education through the Demo Project.

At the national level

CISCO and Microsoft (the consortiumresponsible for Demo Project implementation in Mauritius) havecollaborated toprovide all the electrical installations and ensure that each personal computer (PC) in a learning laboratoryhasinternet connectivity.Mauritiusidentifiesnational efforts to enhanceinternet connectivity for schools as a critical success factor.

The Ministry of Education performs the maintenance of all equipment for schools. Technicians have been trained to perform the required maintenance. A number of maintenance issues relating mainly to hardware not being readily available locally and the limited support available to assist with re-installation of software were identified.

Mauritius suggested that in the next phase each consortium will need to ensure that spares are locally available or that they are able to provide or replenish them.

Teacher training was conducted by the Mauritius Institute of Education. The training emphasized the required knowledge and skills of ICT, attitudes towards ICT, the integration of ICT across curriculum and the teaching methodologies.

At a national level Mauritius will aim to organize more innovative teacher forums and where possible give teachers the opportunity to attend international forums. The aim is to encourage teachers to adopt new technology in their pedagogy to support students in the best possible way.

At the school level

Due to School Administrators not all being ICT literate, no continuous monitoring mechanism being in place and the heads of schools not having a focus on ICT usage, the use of the School Administrative and Management System by the School Administrators has not been good.

Teachers made use of the NEPAD laboratories to enhance the teaching and learning processes. A key educational paradigm shift has been the teacher’s willingness to learn from the students who display more advanced ICT skills.

Multichoice Africa has been involved in providing content as well as some hardware to participating schools. This provides an excellent addition to the content available. However the content has not always been well understood to allow it to be effectively used as a pedagogical support by teachers. It is believed that this is due to the limited and restricted availability of the NEPAD laboratories and the limited teacher training relating to the use of this content. Mauritius has proposed that Multichoice Africa provide teacher training to ensure the optimal utilization of the available content.

In terms of the health points / content, these have been installed in a number of schools with varying degrees of acceptance and success.

At the continental level

Mauritius is encouraging the use of open source software and the development of a policy to provide existing pedagogical software at affordable prices.

They have identified three scenarios for the way forward, namely, (i) For phase II of the Demo Projects bring in another 20 countries; (ii) Extend the number of months over which the Demo Project is conducted; and (iii) Develop and adopt a policy to take a decision on how best to support the phase I countries with their roll out.

A copy of the detailed Mauritiuspresentation made at the Stakeholders’ Conference is available on

The NEPAD e-Africa Commission’s perspective.

The NEPAD e-Africa Commission shared its experiences relating to the Demo Projects and the Business Plan, which are documented in the final Monitoring and Evaluation Report.Implementation and follow-up support have been more effective when local companies/organisations have been involved.

At a continental level

The e-Africa Commission is clear that “readiness” assessments of the education systems across the continent are essential to facilitate the kind of ICT integration they are proposing. Similarly they understandthat the one-size-fits-all approach will not work across the continent and that there is a need for the e-school model to be flexible.The e-Africa Commission are fully aware that power sources and alternatives, connectivity and the environment (floods, dust , locusts, etc) affect implementation across the continent.

At both the continental and national level

Stakeholder involvement and effective communication are key at all levels of implementation, school, national and continental. A clear vision and commitment lay the basis for successful and sustainable implementation. Specifically the e-Africa Commission noted that the Demo Projects that do not provide a clear vision for what is to follow, lose commitment from the people involved. Leadership for projects requires significant resources (capital and human), which, if not provided, can seriously compromise the project, and the commitment of senior leadership to the project is a major determinant of success. Any expectations that are created, and are not met result in disappointment and cynicism at the local level.

A Monitoring and Evaluation Report was submitted in January 2007by the Commonwealthof Learning/Infodev and is available on The report detailsobservations made during implementation of the Demo Project as well as the impacts on school and Education sector’s ICT policy development and implementation. The partners’ reflections have also been included.

All lessons learned, whether from consortia members, participating countries or the e-Africa Commission, are invaluable in actively pursuing continuous improvement in implementation. With this thought in mind all stakeholders are invited to continuously submit lessons learned so that they can be shared. The e-Africa Commission will place these on and ensure that they are updated regularly, shared with all stakeholders and considered in all future planning.

CONCLUSION

The vision of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative is to ensure that young Africans participate actively in the global information society and knowledge economy. This vision is achievable through knowledge sharing and collaboration across the continent and a commitment by stakeholders to actively participate.

Over the past two years it has become clear that for the continued and sustainable implementation of ICT in education across the African Continent, countries will benefit significantly from making use of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiatives existing implementation base, frameworks, tools and assistance. This was confirmed by the proceedings of and recommendations from the Stakeholders’ Conference.

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NEPAD e-Schools Initiative

[1] NEPAD e-Africa Commission, e-Schools Initiative