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Building African SchoolNet Champions

The main objective of the Building African SchoolNet Champions Programme is to establish a cadre of African leaders who have acquired a range of skills to drive systemic change towards educational transformation at national level. This programme contains a series of projects aimed at building capacity and leadership amongst a leading cadre of digital pioneers in promoting education through ICTs in African schools.

 

Why an African Schoolnet Champions Program

The development of SchoolNet organizations has been a response to the cry for the effective procurement of ICTs, its integration into the education and training system with the concurrent training of teachers. This development has also responded to the concerns of the increasing digital and knowledge divide as well as the need to use technology to create cost efficient education systems that can support the current international movements for universal primary and secondary education.

SchoolNet organizations in various African countries have had different historical beginnings. Some were formed with champion teachers leading the way, others with donor and development agencies playing a central role, while others saw local ICT champions seeing ICT in schools as vital for their country’s progress.

In many of the African countries, schoolnet organizations are in different stages of development. The people either employed or volunteering in SchoolNets come with various skills. However, the overall consensus is that such organizations require management education and training to enable them to function at an optimum level displaying greater efficiency, productivity when delivering services and products to the education and training systems.

This need was strongly suggested and endorsed during the workshop that focused on SchoolNets in Africa and led to the formation of the interim committee of Schoolnet Africa (SNA). The workshop, in Namibia from 17 – 20 July 2020 mandated the interim SNA committee to consider the development of African SchoolNet champions as a high priority area in its programme of action.