KIGALI - 300 teachers from primary schools countrywide are undergoing an extensive training on One Laptop per Child (OLPC) capacity building and awareness programme.

The four-day training that kicked off yesterday in Kigali, aims at enriching the teachers with knowledge on the programme, especially on how to operate the laptops.

Officiating at the forum, Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, the State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, said that Rwanda has embraced ICT as the key to the country’s future economic growth.

"OLPC will give primary school pupils early access to computer skills and computer science understanding,” he said.

He urged the teachers to add value to the training since it is a fundamental step towards the building of a knowledge-based economy.

"The OLPC capacity building will help you to understand more on how those laptops are operated and handled by the students,” he said.

Harebamungu told the teachers to thank President Paul Kagame for this good initiative of equipping schools with ICT knowledge, and where each student will own a laptop.

He underscored that five primary schools in each district will receive laptops, especially those with electricity connection. As for those with no electricity, solar energy will be extended.

Nkubito Bakuramutsa, the Coordinator of OLPC in the Ministry, said that each school will receive 400 laptops. He added that about 8,000 laptops have been distributed in the pilot phase to less than fifteen primary schools in the country, both public and private.

The teachers are being trained by officials from OLPC task force in the Ministry of Education, OLPC Centre and others from Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.

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