President Paul Kagame chairing the UN broad Band Commission meeting in New York on Sunday
The Broadband Commission for Digital Development has commended Rwanda’s reforms in education system that has developed 21st century learning skills.
The September 2014 report, launched in New York, United States on Sunday, says “Rwanda has provided each of its 2.5 million Children in primary schools with a laptop.”
Currently, the Country has distributed 204,000 laptops to 407 schools across the country- ranking it the 3rd largest deployment in the world after Peru and Uruguay-under the ‘One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project.
The report says that in 2012 alone, Rwanda had distributed 210,000 laptops to 217 schools across the country.
The Broadband Commission for Digital Development was launched in May 2010 by a consortium of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in response to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call ‘to step up efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).’
The Commission brings together top industry executives with government leaders, policy pioneers, international agencies and organizations concerned with development.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame co-chairs the Broad Band Commission alongside Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim.
Rwanda has partnered with other African Countries to foster one of the commission’s projects known as ‘Smart Africa’ to advance ICT agenda on the continent.
Speaking on the progress of broadband on the continent in the US on Sunday, President Kagame said: “We have seen significant high level commitment with eight Heads of State serving on the Smart Africa board.”
“We are pushing for a renewed sense of urgency to ensure that several projects currently underway are successful and beneficial to our citizens,” he added.
Pupils using OLPC computers in a recent IT expo in Kigali
During Transform Africa Summit held in Rwanda’s capital Kigali in October last year, Smart Africa was established, with a signing of the Smart Africa Manifesto that serves as a framework to ensure ICT remains at the heart of the development agenda in Africa.
Rwanda’s OLPC project has prioritised capacity building in ICT across Schools.
The Broadband Commission says hundreds of heads of schools, teachers and local technicians were trained as a crucial priority for the project.
981 teachers from 150 schools were trained in the initial phase of OLPC project, the report says. Rwanda says it wants to instill ‘critical thinking’ in young generation.
“We are preparing Rwandan kids for critical thinking, opportunity to innovate and later to create,” Nkubito Bakuramutsa, the national coordinator the OLPC Project told Ktpress recently.
The OLPC project is an initiative of two US non-profit organizations-the Miami-based One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA), and the Cambridge-based OLPC Foundation (OLPCF). The projects were created to engineer affordable educational devices for the developing world, including Rwanda.
The Broadband Commission says global Internet penetration is expected at 40.4% by end of this year. The report however says more than two thirds of people will remain unconnected in developing Countries, with a projected 90% of people in 48 least developed Countries.
This year’s Broadband Commission meeting focused on working to ensure the recognition of broadband and ICT as critical components of the Post 2015 sustainable development framework.