Government has finally allowed the use of gadgets including mobile phones at primary and secondary school levels.
Speaking to KFM on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Uganda Information Communication Technology (UICT) Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) project steering committee in Nakawa, Kampala on August 23, 2024, Dr Aminah Zawedde, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of ICT confirmed development.
She, however, noted that the gadgets will be strictly controlled by the school authorities for only school work.
“We have given allowance to students to be able to use mobile phones, laptops, and iPads in schools. However, this has to be done in a protected environment. It is for a reason, the same way a student has been taking a book school and the book is being used for taking notes that is the same way this device is going to be used. The device is going to be used for purposes of research,” she noted.
Asked about inclusivity concerns for parents and guardians who cannot afford the gadgets, Dr. Zawedde said that the government is devising means on how to make smartphones affordable to all.
“We are mindful of the fact that IT devices are expensive. So government has come up with projects like furnishing school computer labs. With time, government is coming up with measures to ensure that the cost of these devices is brought down so that they are as affordable as possible,” she added.
Uganda’s Vision 2040 is to transition from an agrarian to a knowledge-based economy and to achieve middle-income status by 2040, hinging on the integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into national development strategies.
Meanwhile, the principal of UICT, one of the institutions implementing the five-year Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) project said “1,267 staff and students from UICT have been enrolled on the AVR platform, with 1,370 total logins recorded. 5000 educator licenses with 1267 already issued to UICT staff and students; and 750 enterprise licenses are yet to be distributed.”
