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Airtel Partner with Unicef to provide a free network to schools.
Multinational telecoms operator Airtel and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) have joined forces to roll out an Africa-wide digital learning initiative targeting 30 primary schools.
Airtel Kenya Managing Director, Ashish Malhotra, said the five-year program is designed to offer the targeted schools at least 300 Gigabytes (GB) of data, with up to 50Mbps in speed every month, to meet their education and research needs.
“We are starting with 30 schools in Kenya as we plan to have more schools across Africa to help the students stay connected and access the most vital thing in life, which is education,” said Mr. Malhotra. The MD was speaking while presiding over the launch of the program at Ngei Primary School in Lang’ata on Thursday.
Unicef Kenya Innovation Manager, Charles Otine, said the child fund would provide vital support, both immediately and in the long run, to the kids enrolled in the program.
“Our role is looking at how we can help the government with teacher training. It is not just connecting the schools. At the same time, we look at helping students access the relevant digital content,” said Mr. Otine.
Sub-county Education Director Daisy Kurere called on the school community to take advantage of the rising number of IT resources being deployed in the school.
“As a Ministry, we are happy because having internet access in school supports us in the achievement of our new curriculum objectives.”
Ngei Primary School Headteacher, Mary Macharia, welcomed the digital learning initiative, saying that the school had a lot to gain from the deployed resources.
“Through our benefactors Unicef and Airtel, we shall enjoy learning through as many educational platforms as possible in order to give our learners exposure to the opportunities that the internet offers,” she said.