Technology group HP at the weekend announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uganda and the e-Africa Commission, paving the way for the launch of the first Nepad e-School in Uganda, scheduled for July 2005.

The launch of the first e-School, Bugulumbya Secondary School in Busobya Village, Kamuli District in Uganda, was announced in June 2005 at the World Economic Forum Africa Summit in Cape Town.

Kamuli is one of the six Ugandan districts targeted in the demonstration phase of the NEPAD e-Schools Project.

The other districts are Kabale, Masaka, Kampala, Luwero and Mubende. The NEPAD e-Schools Project was first publicly announced at the 2003 Africa Economic Summit in Durban, South Africa.

The scope of the project focuses on providing an end-to-end education solution that will use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to connect schools to the Nepad e-schools network and the Internet.

In addition to connectivity, solutions will provide content and learning material, as well as establish health points at schools in support of the Nepad e-Health Programme.

The strategy is to turn all African high schools into Nepad e-Schools within five years of implementation start date and all African primary schools into Nepad e-Schools within ten years of implementation start date.

Upon completion of the project, more than 600 000 schools across the continent will enjoy the benefits of ICT and connectivity to the Nepad e-School network and the Internet.

Partners to the HP e-Schools consortium are Mindset, Edu-Touch, EduPack, Mergent Technologies, Multichoice, Eskom, ZSE and Intel supported by HP channel partners in the respective countries.

A number of private companies, including the HP consortium, have committed to sponsoring the demonstration project for a period of 12 to 18 months in 16 participating countries.

Participating countries are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

The e-schools project falls under the auspices of the e-Africa commission, the Nepad ICT Task Team responsible for developing the Nepad ICT programme and implementing related projects.