Airtel Networks Zambia Plc and the United Nations Children’s Fund – UNICEF have signed an agreement to help accelerate the rollout of digital learning by connecting schools to the internet and ensuring free access across the country to the Learning Passport, which is a UNICEF-led educational learning platform.
The partnership aims to connect schools across the country to the Internet and ensure that particularly differently-abled learners are not left behind in the digital revolution. This inclusive approach is a step towards bridging the digital divide and ensuring equal opportunities for all students.
This partnership comes as part of a larger initiative by Airtel Africa, which has pledged to provide a financial donation of USD $7 million and a contribution in-kind worth USD $50 million to accelerate digital learning in 13 countries, including Zambia. The funds will be used to provide access to digital learning and promote the use of technology in education across the African continent.
Speaking when he officiated at the partnership signing ceremony in Lusaka, Education Minister, Douglas Syakalima, said the agreement signed represents an important contribution toward the achievement of the national vision of ensuring digital infrastructure for every child in Zambia and progressing the fourth sustainable development goal, ‘education for all’.
“We are grateful to UNICEF and Airtel for their continued support to the Government in helping expand technological advancements and making digital content accessible to children even in remote areas, thereby opening their world to 21st-century learning,” said Syakalima who is also a Member of Parliament for Chirundu.
In Zambia, under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, and Airtel will join efforts to facilitate free access to the Learning Passport, a national digital teaching and learning platform that supports learners through audio lessons in 7 local languages and provides teaching guides and materials for teachers and school management, launched in November 2022.
According to the information made available to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT by Airtel Networks Zambia Plc, Head – Corporate Communication, Yuyo Nachali – Kambikambi, From the Platform’s launch to date, over 3,000 pieces of content have been uploaded on the platform in various languages so far.
With this partnership, Airtel will zero rate the platform to ensure users can access the learning passport without paying for data. Airtel will also contribute by sending out SMS blasts to targeted communities to encourage the use of this accessible learning platform and, thus, help with behavioural change amongst educators, learners, parents, and guardians.
Meanwhile, Airtel Zambia, Managing Director, Hussam Baday, expressed commitment to ensuring connectivity for the Education sector, particularly for the underprivileged, which is a key priority for Airtel.
“Through this partnership, we will be ensuring that schools across the country, putting special emphasis on those with children with special needs, connect to unrestricted internet to enable learners, teachers, and young people to access information and other opportunities. We will do this by providing routers and data to facilitate access to the internet in the schools identified by the Government,” explained Baday.
Speaking at the same event, UNICEF Representative in Zambia, Dr. Penny Campbell said the Learning Passport, a portal that offers a wide variety of learning materials was launched in 2022 to expand learning for Zambian learners beyond the walls of the classroom and promote digital literacy among students and teachers.
“The partnership that we have launched with Airtel, brings these efforts to the next level as this collaboration will help to overpass critical barriers such as cost of data to access to digital learning content while showcasing tools and strategies that help to improve digital learning in schools. UNICEF is keen to continue work with the Government and Airtel to model an evidenced-based digital learning strategy and we want to call other cooperating partners and the private sector to join efforts to scale up successful approaches to other schools as the connectivity program scales.” Remarked Dr. Campbell.
The launch of this agreement in Zambia follows the global partnership signed by UNICEF and Airtel Africa to accelerate digital learning in 13 countries across the continent.
In the Picture is Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima giving the key note speech.
