
UCC executive director Mr Thembo Nyombi
Four children clad in bright-coloured fabrics are hurdled over a computer tablet in a tree shade in Old Patengo Cell, in Agago District. The tablet is one of the 16,344 such devices that the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) handed out to disadvantaged communities in 91 districts under the Uganda Communications Universal Service and Access Fund (UCUSAF).
The Fund was set up to enhance use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in rural areas. Mr James Beronda, the Director of UCUSAF, says identification of beneficiaries is done through a process that involves local government officials.
“Beneficiaries are profiled based on the Poverty Maps and technical update reports of the National Household Surveys conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos). The Fund then works with leaders of areas with the highest poverty levels to identify beneficiaries,” explains Mr Beronda.
Lack of education facilities in, especially the rural parts of the country, has been a major challenge for Uganda since 1997 when free Universal Primary Education (UPE) was introduced. Quoting figures from the Education Ministry, Mr Nangayi Guyson, who authored the paper titled Quality of Education in Uganda and its Challenges, which was published on the website www.developmentaid.org in October 2023, reveals that there are only 5,000 schools in rural areas compared to 10,000 schools in the urban areas. As a result, many children in rural areas either have no access to schools or have to travel long distances to reach the nearest schools.
“This hampers their ability to receive a proper education and limits their opportunities for future success... This means rural communities have half as many educational institutions available for their children. Consequently, this lack of access leads to an alarming rate of children dropping out or failing to attend school altogether...,” Mr Nangayi says.
Matters are not helped by the fact that schools in backwaters have no electricity, as well as qualified teachers, challenges which Mr Beronda says the tablets partially aim to address. But with access to electricity limited to only 42 per cent of the population, it meant that most of the tablets had to come along with solar power equipment and chargers.
Mr Beronda says the tablets are pre-loaded with educational content that enables learners to pursue an education even which enables learners to pursue studies without being pegged back by lack of schools or teachers.
They have packages like ICT4Agric, which is tailored for teaching of agriculture and other educational packages from the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), and open source educational platform that gives access to open licensed content library, Kolibri. Content from Kolibri covers pre-primary, primary and secondary education. It also has work on life skills, digital and financial resource management, among others.
Bridging the gap
Mr Nyombi Thembo, the Executive Director of UCC, says the distribution of tablets is only one component of a wider plan to bridge the digital divide between the rural and the urban.
“The distribution of tablets is strategic. It is designed to address the digital divide and also foster digital inclusivity by ensuring that most vulnerable communities are not left behind in the country’s journey towards a digitally empowered Uganda,” says Mr Nyombi Thembo.
The tablets, he adds, are serving to keep disadvantaged rural homes connected, in line with the aspirations captured in both Uganda’s Digital Transformation Roadmap (2023-2028) and the Digital Uganda Vision, both of which emphasise the integration of ICT in all facets of national development.
“The tablets are not only serving as a vital link that extends education and connectivity to homes in areas where schools and infrastructure are lacking, but also helping us to focus on creating digital opportunities for underserved populations,” he says. UCC, he further notes, is intentional about pursuing those strategies because it is cognizant of the impact that equal access to digital tools can have fostering innovation and causing economic transformation. It has, however, not just been about disdistribution of tabs alone. For one, 1,400 schools have been equipped with fully equipped computer laboratories since 2003. The number of computers in each laboratory ranges between 10 and 40 depending on the school’s student population. Such laboratories are at the same time provided with internet access at a speed of 5Mbps (megabytes per second) per school.
Maintenance challenges
Most of the computer labs were set up thanks to the provisions of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered between UCC and the Ministry of Education.
The understanding covered the capital expenditure for the installation and provided a one-year warranty. It was thought that this was a foundation upon which schools would build to be able to maintain and even expand their equipment. The thinking turned out to be wrong. Maintenance after the warranty period has posed a challenge for many schools. Many schools have faced difficulties, leading some to seek assistance for the second, third, or even fourth time. UCC has now established a fund to support maintenance efforts, particularly for those schools that struggle to do maintenance, Mr Beronda says. It would, however, appear that UCC’s interventions are deemed insufficient.
The Ministry of Education recently announced that more than 30,000 schools risk closure for failure to install infrastructure and connect to the Education Management Information System (EMIS), which was designed to facilitate the management of data regarding enrolment in schools. However, Mr Ibrahim Bbossa, the head of Public and International Relations at UCC, says whereas it is important to address immediate needs such as EMIS registration, empowering rural communities with digital tools,is the way to go as it offers long-term solutions.
“Empowering them we can prevent rural, unserved and underserved communities from being forever reliant on centralised solutions. This empowerment equips families to actively participate in Uganda’s expanding digital economy, enhancing their engagement in various sectors, including education, healthcare, and entrepreneurship,” says Mr Bbossa.
Mr Bbossa is nevertheless quick to point out that UCC has been working with the ministry to increase connectivity of schools in rural areas through establishing broadband sites and giving schools computers and connectivity to help them complete the EMIS registration.
Dreaming big
Increasing internet access and broadband connectivity to public institutions and schools has been high up on UCC’s agenda, but very little has been done in the last five years. Only 11 schools that had been previously underserved are connected, but UCC is dreaming big. Mr Beronda says the idea is to empower students and teachers with essential digital tools to ensure that learners are equipped with the skills and knowledge to compete on the global market. UCC is also dreaming of taking technology and digital resources to broader audiences by establishing public access points and connecting facilities such as public libraries. That is aimed at bridging the digital divide and ensuring that the opportunity to benefit from advancements in technology is open to all.
It would, however, appear that the biggest threat to the achievement of those dreams is how best to keep abreast with constant changes in technology and finding the resources that go with it. How is it coping?
“UCC regularly reviews technological advancements to ensure that schools have access to the best resources available. For instance, starting this year, we have transitioned from using technology that enabled many users to simultaneously access and use single resources to standalone computers,” says Mr Beronda.
The migration is on, but finding the budget to support it remains perhaps the biggest hurdle yet.