LEA Ministry to adopt the Digital Library from Next Generation Africa

An e-learning pilot project has just been started at LEA Ministry in Dongobesh. This project leverages the digital library solution developed by Next Generation Africa e.V.. This solution acknowledges the limitation that schools in South East Africa generally face: lack of learning and teaching materials, lack of Internet connectivity, lack of teachers. Originally developed for schools in Malawi, it has proven to be flexible enough to be adopted by schools in other countries. LEA Ministry is the first in Tanzania.

Phase 1 of the project focuses on the teachers to get them setup with their own mobile devices to connect to the digital library and help them to familiarize with the solution. The local administrators, Boniface Gadye and Ngido Subrah have adapted very fast and are helping the other teachers to explore the new opportunities that this Digital Library solution is providing to them.

The hardware setup consists of an Uninterruptable Power Supply to cover regular power outages, a WiFi Router to connect user’s mobile devices to, and a Linux based Raspberry Pi mini server with low power consumption. End users can connect via PC in LEA’s computer room, or via laptop, tablet, or their Smartphone.

The plan is to roll-out the system to the LEA Ministry Secondary School in a second phase in September 2020 providing enough tablets for a “digital classroom”. Given today’s challenges in schools in Tanzania we are excited to start this strategic e-learning initiative at LEA Ministry as a proof-of-concept that can later be leveraged by other schools, even in rural areas.

See also reference on the Next Generation Africa website here.