Rwanda : 400 schools to receive OLPC computers by 2013
Posted on September 13, 2012 by admin in English, ICT
A girl uses an XO laptop on the go in rural Rwanda – More of these to be distributed in schools
The One Laptop per child project in the ministry of education plans to have distributed X0 laptops to 400 schools by June next year, according to the Project Coordinator Nkubito Bakuramutsa.
Bakuramutsa says that since the programme began in Rwanda in 2007, it has distributed a total of 115.816 X0 laptops to 227 and more 21.000 will have been distributed by June next year.
Some schools that have received these laptops are now connected to one server which helps the schools to exchange information on subjects such as mathematics, science and English. Thos programme has been put in place to help pupils from primary four to six.
The schools that have been connected to the server are about 38 in the city of Kigali and in the western Province.
“The aim of this programme is to spread ICT around the country through education to improve its quality for the 21st century students,” said Bakuramutsa.
Commenting on the impact of the laptops on the quality of education, the education official for Gasabo district Burakari Kimenyi said that teaching has improved in the schools that have the laptops. In Gasabo, out of the 49 public schools, only eight have the laptops.
A number of head teachers whose schools have benefited in this programme say that their pupils have improved in terms of independence and love for doing research as a result of access to the computers.
However, they cite challenges like lack of enough electricity in schools to fully utilise the computers and lack of repairers in the event of getting faulty as a setback for the programme effectiveness.
