Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube
THE Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz) has said it has distributed over 13 000 computers to schools around the country, 1 000 of them to Matabeleland North this year, as efforts to capacitate skills with information communication technology skills and equipment continue.
The computers are being distributed through the School ICT Lab and Connectivity of 1 300 Schools Programmes that are currently running separately, with support from Unicef, International Telecommunications Union and other partners.
ICT is crucial to the Second Republic’s digital transformation agenda which is a key in the country’s economic development agenda as is espoused in the National Development Strategy 1.
Addressing different stakeholders including community members at Ndlovu Secondary School outside Victoria Falls where a School ICT laboratory equipped with 30 computers was opened on Saturday, Potraz director Dr Gift Machengete said apart from e-learning initiatives, the regulator has been rolling out a number of other ICT access and use projects to ensure no one and no place is left behind in the digital highway.
He said the projects are realisation that there is no better way of empowering a nation than through ICTs, there is no better way of empowering a nation than through digital skills training and having communities participate in the digital economy.
“In this province alone we have equipped 64 schools with a total of 1067 computers and countrywide we have distributed 13 339 computers to 903 schools. In terms of school’s connectivity, we have connected 46schools in Matabeleland North Province under the Connectivity of 1 300 Schools Programme. An additional 134 schools from this province are
set to benefit from this initiative,” said Dr Machengete.
He said additionally, Potraz distributed 540 computers to 6 schools in this province Under the Connect a School Connect a Community project which has distributed 5 400 computers to 60 schools countrywide.
“I am happy to note that more schools are set to be connected and equipped with computers through the Giga project as we collaborate with UNICEF and the ITU to accelerate the e-learning program.
“Zeroing in on Matabeleland North Province, POTRAZ has funded three (3) shared towers and is financing the relocation of towers from co-located sites to underserved and underserved areas,” he said.
Giga is a UNICEF-ITU initiative launched in 2019 to connect every school to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity and choice.
Matabeleland North has a combined total of 2 523 – 2G, 3G and LTE base stations mounted on 450 towers while countrywide there are 19 108 base stations mounted on 6 863 towers.
Government came up with a policy of infrastructure sharing in the ICT telecommunications sector where mobile and broadband network providers are obliged to share equipment than to compete.
Potraz has also helped establish 170 Community Information Centres (CICs) countrywide and a further 32 currently under construction. Matabeleland North has 13.
About 6969 people have been trained in basic computer skills in this province out of a total of 11 821 people trained countrywide.
With regards e-health, 88 health centres have been connected to the internet in Matabeleland
North against 1 114 countrywide.
Dr Machengete said all the projects have been a success through partnerships and supporter from cooperating partners.
-@ncubeleon
Online Reporter