Commonwealth Secretariat
  1. CYP Africa Home
  2. About Us
    1. Meet the Team
    2. Our Programmes
  3. What's New
  4. Events
  5. Documents
  6. Youth Caucus
    1. Botswana
    2. Cameroon
    3. Ghana
    4. Malawi
    5. Nigeria
    6. Mauritius
    7. Seychelles
    8. South Africa
    9. Tanzania
    10. United Kingdom
    11. Zambia
    12. Alumni Contacts
  7. Staff Email
  8. Feedback
  9. Regional Centres
    1. Africa
    2. Asia
    3. Caribbean
    4. Pacific
  10. CYP Home
  • CYPAfrica:
  • Educators call for Support in ICT for Youth Development

Educators call for Support in ICT for Youth Development

10 June 2008

The 2nd preparatory meeting on Community and Schools Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Support in Zambia and Open Education Resources (OER) hosted by Commonwealth Youth Programme Regional Centre for Africa (CYP RCA), under the Youth Enterprise and Sustainable Livelihoods (YESL) programme was held on the 28th of May, 2008. In attendance were heads of institutions and Information Technology section supervisors from various secondary schools and institutions of higher learning in Lusaka.  

This meeting, a follow up to one held on 9th April 2008 also at the CYP Africa Centre, was to help CYPRCA conduct an ICT Training Needs Assessment; provide an update on assistance in the development of ICT Code of Practice/ICT Development Policies for institutions; discuss possible capacity building options and share information on intended computer donations by partner institutions. The objectives of the first meeting were to identify current ICT state in educational institutions in Zambia; assess the impact and use of available ICT resources in the improvement of educational deleivery; explore posible collaborative ideas among institutions - stand alone; and explore posible collaborative ideas between CYP and educational institutions in Zambia 

In their brief, Mr. Crispine Libimba from Evelyn Hone College said the Collage was expecting a consignment of 400 computers meant for donations later that month (end of June) to benefit 16 schools in Lusaka province. The computers will be loaded with opensource software and beneficiary schools would be required to sign a memorandum of understanding to use only opensource softwares on them. The benefiting schools would also receive training. Mr Libimba also indicated that institutions not benefiting from the computer donations may participate in the training workshops. 

Billy Kahoota, from ZCAS made a presentation on e-learning tools which included WebCT, Blackboard, Moddle, etc. He encouraged participants to acquire and try out Moodle as it was free and widely used by renowned institutions of learning across the globe. 

Victor Mensah, YESL Programme Manager briefed the meeting on the Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate (CCNC) offered by the Commonwealth of Learning which is a free computer and software skills training for developing countries. He also expressed CYPRCA's commitment to ensure that educational institutions rallied behind the concept of using ICT as an engine for youth development. CYPRCA will thus partner with other institutions to support the capacity building efforts of stakeholders in the development of ICT for youth development platforms, especially OERs.  

Brian Sikute, CYPRCA IT Manager made a brief on the creation of a ListServ so that participants to the meeting could continue discussions online an idea which was welcome by the house. 

Participation of the Communications Authority of Zambia and Ministry of Science and Technology was suggested in further meetings. 

CYP proposed to hold an Open Source promotion during the month of July, 2008 at which members of the public would be allowed free access to the Internet Cafe for Internet surfing on Open source platforms only. Other institutions were encouraged to emulate this project. 

CYP RCA, through its ICT programme emphasises the need to foster open practices of teaching and learning that are informed by a competency- based educational framework. Participants underscored the importance of ICT in youth development practice for the reasons that - ICT promotes sustainable  entrepreneurship - use of ICTs in e-commerce and information gathering; Standardisation - evening levels of development; Productivity; Promotes access to information; Provide education for non-formal youth; Enhances skills training; Improves employability; and for the basic fact that Information is a business.

Share this page
About this