ICT in education: Govt calls public-private partnerships

The private sector should pursue opportunities in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the Minister for Education, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, has said. Lwakabamba was speaking to journalists at a news briefing ahead of a three-day conference on innovation in education and ICT dubbed, “Innovation Africa 2014.” The conference, scheduled for November 18, is organised by AfricanBrains in partnership with the Ministry of Education. Lwakabamba said more involvement of the private sector would make it possible for the education sector to fully utilise benefits presented by ICT. The minister noted that during his recent trip to the South American nation of Nicaragua, which was marking five years since the inception of the One-Laptop-Per-Child project, he observed that the country’s private sector is at the fore front in the implementation of the project. Rwanda is implementing the One-Laptop-Per-Child project with about 204,000 laptops distributed in 410 schools across the country, according to the ministry’s statistics. “We are also trying to promote more public-private partnerships as this has proved productive,” the minister said. Lwakabamba said the forthcoming conference will help bring the private sector on board since it will attract government decision-makers, scholars, investors and board level members from some of the world’s leading companies. He cited internet, solar panels and electricity provision among the areas private sector can intervene. The Managing Director of AfricanBrains, John Glassey, called for more cooperation between the Government and private sector to help address the rising demand for education. “Rwanda spends about 7 per cent of its GDP which is way above the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average which is about 4 per cent,” Glassey said. “This is because the demand for education is high and it is important for it to be quality, accessible and modern. The best way to fill the gap is to involve the private sector,” Glassey said. He echoed Lwakabamba’s comments that the oncoming conference would be a good platform for the multinationals and other potential investors to visit the country and explore investment opportunities. Glassey said some internationally renowned firms were interested in investing in the country.He cited POSITIVO BGH, a Latin American multinational that manufactures laptop computers and tablets, which has signed an agreement with the Government to put up a manufacturing plant in the Kigali special economic zone. This development would make Rwanda the largest producer of computers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nkubito Bakuramutsa, the ICT in Education advisor to the Minister of Education, said involving the private sector would make it possible to achieve the objectives of the education sector. Twenty six countries will be represented at the conference by the ministers of ICT and education as well as leading ICT corporations such as Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Pearson and Samsung. This is the fifth edition of Innovation Africa Summit. Previous summits were held in Morocco, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. The summit was conceived by AfricanBrains, a division of the international Brains Network Group dedicated to investing in education and technology through building public-private partnerships.

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ICT in education: Govt calls public-private partnerships