ZICTA empowers 97 schools with ICT

Fri, 24 Feb 2017 10:01:47 +0000

By SHEILA SAKUPWANYA

THE Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has spent about K15 million to connect 97 secondary schools in six provinces to Information, Communication and Technology (ICTs), says ZICTA public relations officer Hanford Chaba.

The project is being funded by ZICTA under the Universal Access Fund (UAF) and is targeting 190 secondary schools across the country at a cost of K25 million.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Chaba said the aim of the project was to enhance the quality of learning in schools by enabling access to ICT resources to help pupils and teachers.

“The project is aimed at enhancing ICT skills and knowledge of teachers to enable them effectively and efficiently deliver practical lessons to pupils with the aid of ICTs,” he said.

Mr Chaba said ZICTA donated 18 computers to each school and conducted capacity building programmes to enable teachers maintain the ICT equipment as that was a limiting factor in the qualification of schools to be connected to ICT equipment.

He said ZICTA did not want to donate computers to a school that did not meet the requirements as it would be a waste of resources, hence the strategic selection of schools to ensure that they were connected to the power grid or any other sources of power with secure infrastructure that would ensure the safety of the ICT equipment.

“There are requirements that each school should meet in order to be connected to the ICTs such as the availability of infrastructure that would secure the computers donated, they have to be connected to the power grid or should have an effective source of power so that the intended purpose can be achieved,” he said.

He said in order for a school to qualify, each school should apply to the Ministry of General Education and the list was taken to ZICTA for further scrutiny to ensure that it had all the facilities in place.