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The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on schooling in the local communities of Eastern Uganda
was a generational catastrophe in the history of education, especially for the rural communities.
More specifically, it demonstrated an urgent need to consider ICT as a key tool in the education
sector for every Ugandan child.
Whilst pupils from international schools continued with their studies online using ICT tools and
applications such as Zoom and Google Meet, over 80% of Ugandan pupils from the most
vulnerable communities (rural and slum areas) were unable to access remote learning and were
at an increased risk of dropping out of school and being forced into child labour & marriage. The
future of these pupils’ education has been uncertain for the past two years.
Towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea of a mobile computer lab was realised and
piloted across 2 villages in Jinja District. At the start of 2022, the ICT4Education Initiative was
born, an initiative that would utilise the power of a mobile computer lab to deliver practical
computer sessions across schools in rural Eastern Uganda, equipping them with basic
computer knowledge and enabling them to use ICT to provide a better understanding of their
career aspirations, promote research and ultimately improve academic excellence.
Through our engagement on in-school youth projects, we have learnt that pupils from schools
with ICT programmes are more interested in school because they use computers not just for
schoolwork but to research their academic interests and job opportunities outside their locale,
unlike their counterparts from rural schools who have no access to any computer programmes.
We have decided to tackle this support gap in a direct way; provide laptops to rural schools,
equip learners and teachers with basic computer skills ranging from knowledge on hardware,
software and applications to surfing the Internet to find information on topics in which they are
interested.
Over the last 6 months, we have been able to raise a total of $3,000 in grants ($2,000 from the
American embassy through the YALI visibility fund project and $1,000 from the pollination
project). These grants have enabled us to purchase a total of eight laptops with an extensive
battery life, enabling us to deliver practical computer sessions across selected rural schools.
From the start of the initiative, we have enrolled four primary schools and one secondary school
into our ICT programme and a total of 200 learners from these schools have received practical
computer sessions, acquiring basic computer knowledge, the ability to type and search for
information using the Google search engine.
We have conducted two teacher training sessions which equipped teachers from rural
communities with basic computer skills so they are able to advocate for the availability of
government funded ICT programmes in their schools.
We have conducted a total of four out-of-school practical computer sessions with a total of 240
participants. These sessions were aimed at bringing computer knowledge to young people that
have dropped out of school but they also reached learners from schools that have not yet been
enrolled on our ICT programme.
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Ntende Beka Isabirye is a 28-year-old youth leader and a YALI East graduate from Uganda.Since 2014, he has volunteered with a number of local and international organisations, including Restless Development Uganda, Irise International, Dance4life and others, on programmes
aimed at the generation of active citizenship, promotion of youth,women and economic. Empowerment and advocating for access to quality education for youth in his local community.He is currently the team leader at ICT4Education, an initiative that uses a mobile computer lab to address the existing knowledge gaps in computer literacy among learners from rural schools in Eastern Uganda. Beka is a passionate young leader that wants to make difference for the young people in Uganda through his work on empowerment projects on behalf of local youth and women.Significant Milestones and Key Accomplishments” st_subtitle_tag=”” st_subtitle_position=”subtitle-below-title” st_title_size=”60px” st_title_line_height=”70px” st_title_font_weight=”” st_title_bottom_spacing=”35px” st_separator_enable=”separator_off” st_text_align=”text-left” st_width=”st_fullwidth” css_animation=”kd-animated fadeIn” css_animation_delay=”200″ st_subtitle_decoration=”” css=”.vc_custom_1718088121069{margin-top: 28px !important;margin-bottom: 60px !important;}”][tek_button button_text=”Get Started” button_style=”tt_primary_button” button_color_scheme=”btn_primary_color” button_hover_state=”” button_icon_bool=”yes” button_icon_position=”icon_right” button_action=”button-action-link” button_link=”url:%23″ button_position=”btn-align-left” css_animation=”kd-animated zoomIn” elem_animation_delay=”200″ icons=”fas fa-chevron-right”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”7/12″ css=”.vc_custom_1599041861726{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}” offset=”vc_col-lg-7 vc_col-md-12″][tek_photo_group pg_first_image_source=”media_library” pg_first_image=”27″ pg_second_image_source=”media_library” pg_second_image=”312″ pg_second_image_position=”-40%” pg_group_layout=”group-layout-right” pg_img_shadow=”no-shadow” pg_parallax=”disable-parallax” pg_disable_responsive=”disable-responsive” css_animation_first_image=”kd-animated zoomIn” first_image_animation_delay=”400″ css_animation_second_image=”kd-animated fadeInUp” second_image_animation_delay=”800″][tek_shape shape_template=”shape_dots” shape_top_position=”-48px” shape_left_position=”90px” shape_width=”294px” shape_height=”495px” shape_bg_color=”#fdcc60″ shape_parallax=”” css_animation=”kd-animated zoomIn” shape_animation_delay=”400″][tek_shape shape_template=”shape_dots” shape_bottom_position=”-20px” shape_right_position=”-60px” shape_width=”340px” shape_height=”495px” shape_parallax=”with-parallax” shape_parallax_speed=”0.1″ css_animation=”kd-animated zoomIn” shape_animation_delay=”400″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]