THE SBT MONTHLY NEWSLETTER (OCTOBER 2003)

This is a monthly newsletter of the Uganda VSAT School-Based Telecenter Project. The SBT project aims at demonstrating a new approach to providing access to ICT resources for underserved communities. For more information about the project please visit www.schooltelecenters.org

Highlights:

• SBT-EFA goals – contributing to the campaign
• Lango College SBT – Online HIV/AIDS Counseling for youths
• Duhaga Secondary SBT – ICT Access for School and Communities
• Quote of the Day
• Kiira College SBT – ICT access for all in the school

SBT-EFA Goals – Contributing to the campaign

SchoolNet Uganda has been working for several years with the Ministry of Education, World Bank Institute’s ICT for Education Program and World Links Organization to introduce the use of ICTs in education system in Uganda. The SBT infrastructure in Uganda is now being used as an opportunity for demonstration of the role of ICTs in attainment of Education for All (EFA) in a project called the SBT-EFA project

The main purpose of the SBT-EFA project is to demonstrate the role ICTs play in attainment of the Millennium Development Goal of Education for All of ensuring quality and relevance of basic education. The pilot project is expected to make teaching and learning more enterprising thereby increasing students’ learning achievements in three upper primary schools within the vicinity of the telecenters.

The project focuses on teachers/educators of upper primary schools as an entry point. A total of 30 teachers from 3 schools in 3 districts of Uganda are undergoing computer literacy, which will be followed by electronic content development skills training. Over 800 students are expected to gain from the projects intervention at class level as their respective teachers use project resources in classroom teaching.

An electronic Basic Education Resource Bank will be created composed of upper primary school curriculum and selected Ministry of Education recommended instructional materials. The Resource Bank will also feature supplementary readers, class examinations, past papers and teaching materials identified from a variety of sources or digitized by individual teachers involved.

The project is piloted at 1 primary school within the vicinity of each of the 3 SBTs; in Iganga - Iganga Boys primary (Iganga Secondary SBT), Kabale –Kigezi High Primary (Kigezi High SBT) and Hoima – Duhaga Boys primary (Duhaga Secondary SBT).

Lango College SBT – Online HIV/AIDS Counseling for youths
ICT Coordinator Mr. Charles Ojok

Three SBT are participating in an online guidance and HIV/AIDS- ARH counseling services to students at Lango College, Ndejje Secondary School, and Duhaga S SBTs. 

The Uganda AIDS Commission estimates that 1.1 million people living of the 22 million (now estimated at 23) in Uganda have HIV/AIDS. About 120,000 have developed AIDS. Notably nearly 80% of those infected with HIV are youths between the ages of 15-45 years, which also represents the most economically productive age group and often fenders of families. Adolescent girls between 15-19 years are particularly vulnerable, 4-6 times more than their male counterparts. Accordingly, Life expectancy has declined to an estimated 44 years.

The project aims at demonstrating the integration of ICTs in HIV/AIDS prevention and care services as well as expand and diversify opportunities for access to Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) information and services for young people in and out-of-school. Over 1,000 youths are expected to benefit from the project services that started this August 2003 at www.nicenet.org

Duhaga Secondary SBT - ICT Access for School and Communities
ICT Coordinator, Florence Nantale

Internet connectivity at Duhaga School-Based Telecenter (SBT) was restored on August 22, 2003 as part of the general program within the 15 SBT sites around the country. The school community and the general public are very grateful to the SchoolNet Uganda team and all its partners involved in the SBT pilot project for their respective support. The school administration too is very happy with the reconnection of the Internet at the SBT.

The SBT had lost a number of users through out the time Internet connectivity was off. We have been working to restore confidence among users and regain the user-base. We have therefore been mobilizing to regain the user-base as before. Currently, our users comprise of;

• Duhaga SS community (students, teachers and non-teaching staff).
• NGO’s community (Hospice, Kolping Society Uganda, e.t.c.).
• Individuals (medical officer on correspondence programmes, business people on market research and employment opportunities).
• Candidate school leavers who are looking for admission to various Institutions of Higher Learning and job opportunities as well as government institutions (Education department Hoima, Sir Tito Winy SS

Duhaga SBT offers the following services as core services;

• E-mailing,
• Surfing
• Printing
• Computer training
• On-line counseling
• Youth IT entrepreneurship training.

Since Internet was reconnected, the SBT Management Committee has had two meetings to plan and oversee the effective administration of the Telecenter. The Head teacher who has always provided support to the SBT also has chaired the management committee meetings.

In the course of next term we are planning two major new activities;

• A workshop for the youth in our locality.
• Distance learning collaboration.

Our biggest challenges to-date is; power fluctuation, limited number of computers and managing the increasing number of users who are interested in ICT with the school and the community.

Main achievements;

• Repair of all the PCs - they are all in good working conditions.
• Payment of the bandwidth as we remain up-to-date with our obligations.
• Attraction of a fair number of users (who had been lost).
• We are currently designing a website for the Duhaga Secondary School.

CAN YOU HELP…

We would like advice on how to make the teachers use computers for their personal work for effective teaching otherwise most of the work is left to the three ICT teachers.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Our School community’s perception about the Telecenter is quite positive [at the moment]. The students have learned that the community is part of the school and vise-versa. To the students, this is a sign of communal co-existence.” Godfrey Kainja - St Henry’s Kitovu School-Based Telecenter

Kiira College SBT – ICT access for all in the school

ICT Coordinator,

The school administration is happy about SBT because it helps in bolstering image of the school in the community, students’ access to information, research and enabling students to become computer literate.  The SBT is put to full use as it is occupied at any one time up to 10.00 p.m.

The main users of the SBT are students who follow a specific school program.  After classes and on weekends the students are allowed to do private work especially on the Internet. Teachers also use the SBT for research and lesson preparations.

The SBT is planning to train all teachers to be able to use the SBT resources more effectively for research and lesson preparations. Computer literacy program will also be delivered for non-teaching staff. We are planning exhibitions within the school, so that our students can demonstrate their abilities to use computers.

The SBT has however had some challenges, which include, interesting and training all members of Staff, filtering of pornography, besides not having enough computers to serve our big population. We also need “teach-your-self” software in Ms excel, word and Ms Access.

CAN YOU HELP…

We want to know from other SBT Schools, how they have managed to handle the pornography problem and troubleshooting. We would also like to know how they have used their SBT to benefit the community around them.