ICT enables distance learning for students in Africa

Posted on | March 20, 2008 | No Comments

How can access to high speed connectivity transform education in Africa? This short film attempts to answer that question by talking to students and professors in Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar.

ICT has the possibility to bring great learning opportunities to Africa, but problems include the lack of sufficient infrastructure and cost limitations. By investing in affordable high speed connectivity, a whole world of online resources could be utilized.

Even private universities often cannot afford internet access on campus. Says Jean Baptiste at Université du Lac Tanganiyka, Burundi: “We now have 3000 students. The students are asking themselves why they don’t have access to the internet? Why have we not installed it at the university? They need to have an internet connection, because they are always communicating with other students elsewhere, around the world. We know this, because we see them using cybercafes that are in the neighbourhood around the university“.

However, at the Virtual Campus of Université Lumière in Burundi, local students are able to earn a degree from University Laval in Canada. Says student Neuti Nibruta: “We connect using a ‘platform’ through which a professor from Canada gives the lecture, and we follow the course here in Bujumbura“.

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