History was made last Monday, when just eight weeks after announcing its intention to roll out its e-Schools Demonstration Project in some selected African countries, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has made good its promise.
[align=right] As a starter, the first implementation of six selected schools earmarked for the 'demo' in the country, was switched on at the OLA Secondary School, Ho, by Hon. Kan Dapaah, Minister for Communication, on behalf of the president of the republic, H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor.[/align] At a press conference prior to the official launch, Dr. Henry Chasia, Deputy Chairman of the e-Africa Commission, said the aim of the programme was to turn around the fortunes of African Countries.
Describing it as a NEPAD flagship project with a continental scope, Dr. Chasia said the programme, which is over a ten-year period, would initially cover 96 schools in 15 countries, but would eventually spread all over the continent.
"The vision of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative is to install information and communication technology in over 600,000 primary and secondary schools on this continent and connect them to the Internet. It has the vision to train millions of pre-service and in-service teachers in the use of information technology to gather, prepare and present teaching material in the most interesting ways to their pupils," he said.
Dr. Chasia noted that, apart from assisting African children to express their individuality, the initiative, which had become virtually indispensable, has multiple visions of helping them coordinate the provision of essential information that relates to nutrition, hygiene, physical fitness and epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, all on a health point.
"This Initiative is necessary because everywhere else in the world, this is what the governments of the various nations are doing.
In Africa, we cannot afford to do less because to do so is to tamper recklessly with our future. In the information era, I would say the following: Give our young people ICT tools and they will create their own livelihood," he stressed, adding that the skills would help improve performances in other sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, mining, industry and public service.
The Dep. Chairman, who is in charge of the NEPAD ICT Task Force, expressed the happiness at the remarkable response and participation of private companies in bringing to bear, the hardware and software required for the teaching and learning process.
According to him, the companies, in undertaking the demo at quite significant expense to themselves, have thrown a challenge to all in government, parliament and all taxpayers to take greater interest in the children's schools. "The companies are opening the window," he observed, "so that we can peep through to see what is possible for our young people."
For his part, the Managing Director of Oracle (African Operations), the world's largest enterprise software company, Mr. Desi Lopez Fafie, said the successful implementation of the project in Ghana would be a model for other countries to follow.
"ICT as a vehicle for delivering on the school curriculum will hopefully become common practice in Africa before long," he hoped, and described the initiative as a bold undertaking.
Dafie assured that in addition to Internet connectivity, members of the consortium, which included Mecer, Sentech and Astra, Multichoice Africa, Xerox, CompuTainer, Learnthings, DHL, Fujitsu Computers, Intel, Accelon and Cambridge-Hitachi, delivered digital content, learning management systems, and an e-communication infrastructure to enable pupils communicate with participating schools on the continent.
He said apart from OLA, the consortium had simultaneously installed and tested its NEPAD e-School Solution at two other schools, the Acherensua Secondary School in the Brong Ahafo region and Akumadan Secondary School in the Ashanti region.
Responding, the Minister for Regional Cooperation and NEPAD, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, described the project as exciting because it was aimed at preparing Africa for the future by impacting ICT skills and knowledge to the young generation, whom he described as the majority of the continent's population.
He was grateful that, Ghana was among 15 countries selected for the demonstration and said it had the potential of transforming the Ghanaian way of life.
"Rapid advances in technology and adoption of ICT on a wide scale in our schools and businesses will open up new opportunities for Ghana to accelerate our economic growth and development," he opined.
Miss Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State responsible for Tertiary Education, observed that it would take well-trained and equipped teachers to make the necessary impact on their wards. She said even with the best of infrastructure, text books, computers, broadband connections, it was still possible to have a poor ICT education system, and only teachers with a good grasp of the technology would impart same to the children.
In an exclusive chat with The Chronicle, the country liaison person for the initiative, Rev. E.K. Dadebo, intimated that the demonstration was a clear indication that the project had come to stay. "That is why we prefer to call it a demonstration, and not a pilot project. A pilot project is something that is tested and can be dumped at any time, but this one has come to stay," he said. Rev. Dadebo said the continent would now be able to integrate itself through effective coordination.
Explaining a point to newsmen, the Coordinator of NEPAD e-Schools and chairman of the occasion, Professor Peter Kinyanjui, said the World Bank would fund the capacity-building aspect of the project and make sure it is sustained.
"We will kill initiative if we think so much about the cost. If we are concerned about the cost involved, we should be concerned about what it will cost us if we fail to do it," he told newsmen.
Apart from being a powerful vehicle for integration of Africa, the initiative has the potential for a huge market in educational goods and services, including those related to information and communication technology.
The e-Schools initiative of NEPAD, which was adopted by member Heads of States and Governments in Abuja, Nigeria, on March 9, 2003, was publicly launched three months later, on 2nd June, the same year at the Africa Summit of the World Economic forum in Durban, South Africa.



Other schools slated for the demonstration in Ghana are the Wa Secondary (Upper West), Walewale Secondary Technical (Northern) and St. Augustine Secondary (Western) Schools.
Present at the ceremony were Hon. Kofi Dzamesi, Volta regional minister, his deputy, Hon. Joseph Kweku Nayan, and Municipal and District Chief Executives from Ho, Kpando, Ketu, Keta, South Dayi, South Tongu, Hohoe, Adidome, Akatsi, Jasikan and Krachi West.