Transforming Education

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is a vision and strategic framework to address the main challenges facing the African content such as underdevelopment, marginalization, and escalating poverty levels. Under the principles of good governance and strong partnerships, NEPAD aims to promote sustainable growth, support the empowerment of women, and accelerate the integration of Africa into the global economy.

As one of five companies leading a NEPAD consortium, Cisco is supporting the development of ICT-enabled learning environments in 58 schools. Project objectives include building ICT labs and media centers, setting up LANs, providing laptops for teachers to use outside of the classroom, and delivering ICT training to teachers, administrators, and students.

E-Schools

The NEPAD E-Schools Demonstration Project is designed to help close the digital divide between Africa and the developed world by teaching technical skills to students in secondary schools and providing self-directed learning applications, opportunities for collaboration, Internet and e-mail access, and hands-on technologies that promote student engagement, knowledge assimilation, and the advancement of education.

Participating Countries

Countries participating in NEPAD include Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. Cisco leads a consortium of partners in six of these sixteen countries (Algeria, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa) and provides networking support for the Microsoft and AMD consortia in their designated countries.

For More Information

• http://www.ciscoeschools.octocentre.com/index.htm
• http://www.nepad.org/