Call for more investment in education technology

The Minister of Education, Dr Vincent Biruta, has called upon Rwandans especially educationists to be at the forefront of promoting technology in the education sector in the country.The minister made the call yesterday during a news conference on the upcoming three-day Rwanda International Conference on Technology in Education due in Kigali on September 5.The conference is expected to attract academics, scholars, policymakers, teachers, students and ICT expert from within the East African region and beyond.“Our country is on the right track regarding the promotion of technology in education but we still have a long way to go...this is why I challenge all citizens especially the youth, researchers and academics to help government in this endeavour,” Biruta said.TO promote the ICT sector in the country, Biruta said his ministry under the One Laptop Per Child Programme has so far distributed over 110,000 laptops to primary schools countrywide, adding that they have a target of distributing another 60,000 by the end of this year.He noted that last year, the ministry distributed 1,000 laptops in secondary schools around the country and it is constructing computer laboratories in public schools which will be connected to the internet.Biruta told journalists that they have facilitated higher institutions of learning in the country to electronically have access to at least 33,000 books through e-library.The conference organised by Rwanda Education Board (REB) in collaboration with the education ministry will be held under the theme; “enhancing learning through technology.”Biruta said the conference will help Rwandan researchers and other scholars to share ideas, knowledge and skills with participants from other countries on how best technology in education can be improved in the country and at the global level.Dr. Evode Mukama, the Head of ICT in Education Department at REB said that the objective of the conference is to spearhead the integration of ICT in learning practice and to promote educational technology programmes.The conference is expected to draw 300 delegates and will include key speakers such as Prof. Nicklas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC and MIT Lab, Prof. Margaret J. Kamar, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Kenya, among others.It will be preceded by an awarding ceremony for the Education Technology Innovation Award 2012, where outstanding competitors in the field of technology in education will be rewarded with various prizes.

National

Call for more investment in education technology