Secondary schools, especially those under the 12-year basic education (12YBE) programme, would get more computers if government institutions availed old machines to be repaired and delivered to needy schools.

This was revealed by education officials last week while delivering some repaired computers to secondary schools in Musanze District.

The project is as a result of an agreement between the Ministry of Infrastructure and Rwanda Education Board (Reb) that seeks to ensure that all broken computers in different public institutions are collected, fixed and distributed to secondary schools.

As part of the plan, Reb signed an agreement with Tumba College of Technology to provide the expertise to fix the computers and make sure they are functioning before they are distributed.

The programme started in 2012 and so far about 250 computers have been fixed and distributed to schools.

Five secondary schools in Musanze last week received 86 computers and accessories.

Teachers and students who talked to The New Times have expressed enthusiasm, saying with support, the move will help them acquire hands-on skills, unlike in the past where they were learning theories.

"We are thankful for the computers, with over 850 students we have, we have been sharing three computers. We only focused on theory,” said Jean Marie Vianney Karegeya, the director of GS Kabaya in Musanze District.

"Now that we have received more computers, we will embark on practical studies and I am optimistic we will impart necessary skills to our students,” he added.

Teachers also said the computers will help them work efficiently, especially in examination preparations as they used to have their exams typed from cyber cafés.

Valens Havugimana, a student at GS Muhoza I, said they used to study computer in groups and one group would have less than 20 minutes on a computer in a week.

PC defects

According to the technicians, most of the defects the computers suffer are linked to Random Access Memory, Read Only Memory, power supply, processor, data and power cables among others, which can be fixed.

However, officials said despite the importance of the programme, there is still reluctance by public institutions to avail old computers.

According to Reb, government spent more than Rwf300 million to buy computers for schools in 2012-13 financial years, but this year they failed to get a budget and believe that this move would help save funds once well implemented.

Eng. Pascal Gatabazi, the principal of Tumba College, said their support towards the programme was one of the ways of giving back to community.

"We realised that there are thousands of old computers lying idle in public institutions which can be repaired. Eighty per cent of the unused computers can be repaired and used by students,” he said.

He urged public institutions to be flexible and avail the computers that are not being used, adding that this would help many secondary students acquire both theoretical and practical skills in ICT, a key to national development.

Vanentia Nyangoma, the acting head of ICT department in the Ministry of Education, said Reb will keep mobilising public institutions to avail the old computers.