Bringing Technology to Rural schools in Zimbabwe

Thank you very much for your continued support of our Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) project. This project is at the heart of our organization and is our strategy for bridging the digital divide that exists between rural and urban schools in Zimbabwe. More than 75% of Zimbabwe's 14 million population lives in rural areas where teachers and students have limited access to technology.

 

Lack of access to technology is causing a digital divide that is disadvantaging a whole generation of kids growing up in these rural areas. The majority of the students who graduate from rural high schools have no computer skills. Yet after high school, over 70% of the students drop out of school due to poverty and they end up going to the urban areas to look for jobs. This is quite a challenge since they are ill-prepared to enter the work force due to lack of skills; unlike their urban counter parts who have computer skills.

The vision of this project is to build the ICT capacity of rural teachers while providing computers and internet access to rural schools in Chipinge. It also aims to provide access to technology to rural students with the objective of arming them with the twenty first century skills that will place them on a level playing field to better compete for jobs.

 

Rural schools are now required by the Ministry of Education to offer basic computer training.  Unfortunately, the training is not effective as students don’t have hands on training due to lack of computers. For the few rural schools that have computers, students have limited access to the computers. To give you an example, in 2020 we donated five computers to Rimbi Primary. The teachers and the students are very grateful, and they feel very fortunate to have the computers. However, the hands on training is still not that effective because the school doesn't have enough computers to cater to the 1,500 students who attend Rimbi Primary. How can the computer training be effective when the student to computer ratio is 1,500 students to 5 computers? For the training to be really effective, students need more access to computers.

 

Here is what the Rimbi Primary headmaster and two of the students are saying about the ICT project:

 

In Their Own Words By Rimbi Primary Headmaster
"We are very grateful to have received five computers donated by The Tekeshe Foundation. The basic ICT training we offer at Rimbi Primary was very limited as it was just based on theory. The practical aspect of the education was lacking because we didn’t have any computers. We taught the kids about the keyboard, mouse etc. but it was not that effective because everything was based on the kid's imagination. This donation has greatly enhanced our ICT training, however, we still need more computers. The student to computer ratio is 1,500 students to 5 computers. We thank you in advance for assisting us with this request."

 

In Their Own Words By Tatenda
"My name is Tatenda. I am a grade 6 student at Rimbi Primary. ICT has helped us a lot. We stored the books that were given to us on the computer. We are able to read the books on the computer. We are also able to search the internet for information. Thank you for donating computers to Rimbi Primary. We are asking you to help us with more computers. Having additional computers would greatly help us. Currently, we have limited access as there are many other students who also need to use the computers."

 

In Their Own Words By Learnmore
"My name is Learnmore and I am a grade 7 student at Rimbi Primary. ICT has helped me in a number of ways. I can now search the internet for information that I use for my homework. I can also type information in a Word document. Thank you for donating five computers to Rimbi Primary. We are kindly asking you to help us with more computers."

 

Even though we still have a long way to go, thank you so much for what we have accomplished together so far. We couldn't have done it without your help!