“Raising
education coverage through ICT is the only way out of abject
poverty in Ethiopia,” said Mr. Teferra Walwa, Minister
of Capacity Building during the official opening session
of the First E-learning Conference held in the UN Conference
Centre from 24-26 May 2006 under the theme, “Empowering
Africa through E-learning.”
He noted that aligning ICT as a tool in the “Education
for All” component of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) is critical to accelerating Ethiopia’s growth
and development.
On her
part, Ms. Josephine Ouedraogo, Acting Deputy Executive Secretary
spoke on behalf of ECA’s Executive Secretary, Mr.
Abdoulie Janneh, and said, “education is a prerequisite
for creating an Information Society and ultimately a Knowledge
Economy.
“However,
opportunities presented by ICT as a means for transforming
the path of development through education remain largely
untapped in Africa”, she said, citing some key challenges
facing Africa’s quest for an e-learning environment
such as, limited infrastructure, lack of experts and expertise
to develop and support applications and systems.
“These
challenges, if unchecked can create greater digital gaps
between countries and within countries and noted that as
a result, the skills gap will be between a student able
to access the web for research and one who cannot access
the basic traditional library facilities.”
She
pointed out existing gender disparities in access to technology
and education, and said, “any e-learning action plan
should take the gender factor into consideration, targeting
women from both the formal and non-formal sectors.”
Dr.
Cheick Diarra, Chairman for Microsoft Africa, said Microsoft
has embarked on successful efforts to localize the windows
operating system to African languages, such as Kiswahili,
Zulu and Wolof. He noted that this has been possible through
effective local public and private partnerships, which will
be leveraged further to address e-learning sustainability,
content development and skills development including qualification
of teachers.
On her
part, Honourable Beth Mugo, Member of Parliament and Deputy
Minister of Education, Kenya said “the Kenyan Government
has put in place policies that facilitate the use of ICTs
in education and has a national ICT strategy for education
and training.” She also said the Kenyan Government
has expressed interest in hosting the next e-learning Conference
in 2007.
The
European Commission Director General Information Society
and Media Activities Mr. Jacque Babot noted that this forum
will be instrumental in generating ideas, connecting e-learning
actors and shaping ICT collaboration in its new framework
programme.
Over
200 participants from research institutions, schools, training
institutions international institutions, government representatives
and exhibitors of e-learning software as well as service
providers are participating in the Conference.
For
more on ECA’s work with the Africa Learning Network
(ALN), visit www.uneca.org/disd
For the conference programme, highlights and updates, visit
www.elearning-africa.com
