Dr Dokora
Abigail Mawonde Herald Reporter
GOVERNMENT yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft in a deal set to empower 1.4 million pupils and 25 000 teachers through the use of information communication technologies.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora signed the MoU on behalf of Government while Miscosoft East and Southern Africa manager Mr Eric Odipo represented Microsoft.
The deal comprises provision of web-based services and Office 365.
Miscrosoft will also establish information technology academies in schools.
“What we are signing today with the Government is what we call the campus and schools agreement and that agreement offers certain services particularly in three areas,” said Mr Odipo.
“Firstly there will be a cloud-based service that we call Office 365 that enables students and educators to have access to our typical productivity solutions including Word, Powerpoint, Excel and so on, which they will need for academia. They will have access to secure mail and web conferencing which comes in form of skype,” he said.
Mr Odipo said Office 365 was going to be provided to at least 1.4 million students for free. At least 25 000 teachers will have access at subsidised rates.
He said Microsoft was also going to introduce 250 IT academies across the country at identified schools and colleges.
“An IT academy is a virtual facility where teachers can access digital content. They can collaborate with other teachers around the world and, they can also get certification. So, this is quite essential in improving the skill levels of the teachers that we have, enabling them to collaborate and enabling them to pick ideas from all over the world,” he said.
Mr Odipo said at least 50 teachers picked from various schools around the country had already been trained on the use of the ICT packages.
These would become master trainers at their schools to enable a smooth flow of the programme.
Minister Dokora said the move showed that Zimbabwe was embracing new technologies.
“You are familiar with the fact that in terms of intellectual preparation, our system is very robust, but in terms of turning digital we have not always been strong,” he said.
Minister Dokora said teachers sent by Government for training abroad faced challenges due to lack of knowledge in ICTs.
“Consequently, we must take a huge lesson from what the President started doing almost 15 years ago. We did not take too careful notice of what he was telling us, saying the way of the future, the way of modernisation is along this path, embracing technologies so we may be more effective, more pin-pointed in the way we deliver our education services,” he said.