HP helps to open sixth NEPAD e-school in Egypt

Global Citizenship

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With strong support from HP and a number of other global ICT companies, Al Hadeen secondary school in El-Behira, Egypt has become the sixth NEPAD e-school to be launched as part of the pilot phase of an ambitious project by The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a pan-African development organisation.

The NEPAD e-school initiative aims to connect 600,000 primary and secondary schools on the African continent to the Internet by 2015. HP is a member of the consortium of private sector partners that is supporting NEPAD in achieving this ambitious goal by bringing schools online. HP’s consortium is sponsoring 21 schools in seven countries in the demonstration phase, which will last until summer 2007. The seven countries are Uganda, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and South Africa.

NEPAD e-school facilities are designed to provide access to appropriate content and curricula to help young people acquire important science and IT skills. The HP e-schools solution also addresses issues of community education focusing on health.

As part of this project, teachers will receive support to provide them with the right skills to integrate information technology and computer-based learning into their classrooms in an effective way,” said Ahmed Samy, General Manager and Managing Director of HP Egypt. “It is important to make the benefits of the newly installed infrastructure available to the school quickly.”

Al Hadeen secondary school has received 20 desktop PCs, two laptops and servers, and has been connected to the Internet via satellite. Teachers at the school are hoping to start using Internet supported learning for science, maths and technology lessons soon. Al Hadeen is a secondary school in El-Behira in Lower Egypt where 380 students study for a high school degree.

Pilots like Al Hadeen secondary school help to establish best practices on how to help pupils, teachers and schools quickly derive maximum benefits from the ICT infrastructure installed as part of the NEPAD e-school package.

The official inauguration of Al Hadeen secondary school as an NEPAD e-school on 11 February 2007 was attended by Dr Youssry Al-Gamal, Minister of Education, General Mohammed Sharawy, Governor of El-Behira, with Ahmed Samy General Manager and Managing Director of HP Egypt and Hussein Al-Gretly, Country Manager of Oracle Egypt representing the members of the consortium involved in setting up this pilot.

A technology vision for Africa
HP’s technology vision for education in Africa is not about simply installing hardware in schools. Central to HP’s approach is sustainability, ensuring that solutions implemented today can be built on for generations to come. By working with governments, like-minded business and organisational partners and communities, HP develops complete solutions that address every aspect of education, including learning content. It also involves ICT training of teachers and students, content and curriculum development, community involvement and participation, and the establishment of ‘health points’.

HP believes that African countries have the chance to “leapfrog” some of the stages of infrastructure and technology investment by selecting state-of-the art technology that is scaleable and can be adapted for future needs. For example, wireless communications are more easily installed than fixed line telephony which requires the laying of thousands of miles of copper wire.

In the last five years, HP’s business across the African continent has grown at an annual rate of 20 to 30 per cent and there has been dynamic growth in the telecoms sector. Approximately 85 per cent of GSM operators in Africa have billing solutions, intelligent network, and IT management supported by HP solutions.

April 2007 issue

Global Citizenship Reports 2006 (*)

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