Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Government says it has plans to provide free Internet connection to more than 3 000 rural schools.
The Universal Service Fund (USF) will finance the provision of internet connection to at least 400 schools in each of the eight rural provinces.
The USF is a pool of funds contributed by mobile network operators, internet access providers and fixed-line operators licensed by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).
Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services Permanent Secretary Beaullah Chirume said:
For the provision of internet connectivity, qualifying schools were selected on the basis of the availability of some form of source of power – primarily commercial power or solar power.
This criterion was communicated to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), who in turn communicated the same to the prospective beneficiary schools.
The final list of beneficiary schools was drawn from a list that was solicited from the MoPSE, which contained a total of 3 200 schools drawn from the country’s eight rural provinces.
Each of the eight rural provinces had 400 schools submitted by the MoPSE.
She said the government will provide solar power to some schools that are not connected to the national grid to pave way for their connection to the internet. Added Chirume:
The authority intends to continue funding the provision of internet connectivity to all schools under the e-learning programme for as long as there is still a need and the funds are available.
In fact, the target is to ensure that all schools in the country have got the last mile of internet connectivity.
However, funding of access to the internet (payment of monthly bandwidth for schools) will only continue subject to the availability of financial resources to fund the programme.
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