MINEDUC launches ICT survey in schools

The Ministry of Education has launched a three-month countrywide survey to determine the state of ICT usage in all schools. The survey to cost about Frw 318 million was officially launched on Wednesday, by the Secretary General in the Ministry, Justin Nsengiyumva. In his speech, Nsengiyumva appealed to both Teachers and Students to promote ICT, which will boost their Academic standards. “Teachers and students should be responsible for promoting the ICT which will make their academic endeavors easier,” he said. The exercise will be conducted through the ministry’s component Rwanda Development Gateway Group, which will contribute over Rwf 98 million for the exercise scheduled from September to December, 2008. The survey to be conducted under the theme; ‘ICT in Schools (infrastructure and Lab Assessment, Training and Database’, follows an evaluation process carried out by the ministry which found out that there was a strong need to properly follow up on ICT in Schools. The move is a follow up activity on the computers distributed by government to all schools countrywide and training of 5,000 secondary school teachers in computer basics, and computer hardware and maintenance. Briefing the survey team at KIST last week, State Minister for Education Théoneste Mutsindashyaka called for dedication and hard work. According to one ministry official who preferred to remain anonymous, the survey will be preceded by training for trainers, mainly teachers who have not benefited from prior trainings. The survey will also follow up and give continuous training to secondary school teachers in ICT. Particularly, surveyors will test for all computers, assess school computer rooms and make an updated list of all schools. It will also generate data on geographical mapping and positioning. IT technicians and trainers will carry out the exercise with support from supervisors. This is meant to ensure that government resources are well utilized and ICT in education is reinforced. After the survey, a database is to be set up and regularly updated with information on ICT status in schools countrywide. The survey team is composed of employees of the three components of RDGG, namely Regional ICT Training Centre (RITC) based at KIST, together with Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing Centre (CGIS) and Rwanda Development Gateway (RDG) both at the National University of Rwanda. Ends