During the ceremony, Mrs. Ayelech Eshete, the state minister in charge of education, thanked Huawei and UNESCO for sharing their vision of a society that embraces all forms of technology and for their steadfast support of education.
“I express my gratitude to UNESCO and Huawei once more for their commitment to education and for this noteworthy donation at this extremely crucial time,” stated the speaker. The state minister claims that their secondary school pupils will have access to a plethora of opportunities thanks to the donation of ICT equipment.
“It will allow them to connect with a vast global network of information and learning experiences, explore a variety of educational resources, and expand their knowledge beyond textbooks.”
UNESCO, working with Huawei Technologies and the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, recognised this enormous potential and launched the TeOSS project to close the digital divide, build a crisis-resilient school system, and raise the bar for inclusive and equitable education for all. This is accomplished by strengthening the capacity of secondary education-focused educational institutions and teachers, as well as by enhancing the ICT infrastructure. The Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office to the African Union, the UNECA, and Ethiopia’s Representative is Dr. Rita Bissoonauth.
Dr. Rita goes on to say, “We are witnessing the delivery of cutting-edge ICT equipment to secondary schools throughout Ethiopia today, which marks a significant milestone in this journey.” With technology now available in the classroom, these schools can provide their students with better learning, teamwork, and skill development opportunities. Together with the relevant regional education bureaus, the MoE carefully selected these schools to be the recipients of this project.
“We’re excited to give out 480 tablets, 48 access points, and 24 smart boards with all the accessories to the 24 secondary schools that are the recipients across the country in an equal amount,” the director goes on. This equipment has a nearly $300,000 USD total cost.
UNESCO is assisting the Ministries of Education and other partners in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Ghana to design, test, and scale up UNESCO-Huawei Technology-enabled Open School Systems for All, a three-year (2020–2023) project.
This project aims to create technologically enabled crisis-resilient school systems that guarantee learning continuity and quality regardless of normal or emergency situations. These systems will enable access to the full school education program—which includes social care, teacher-student interaction, and knowledge acquisition—from schools, homes, and other locations.
Schools, especially those in low-resource countries, can be transformed into transparent, technologically advanced learning spaces that provide inclusive, equitable, high-quality education and opportunities for lifelong learning to all.
Enabling the recipient country to transform secondary schools into inclusive, tech-enabled, and crisis-resilient open schools that can ensure the continuity and quality of education for every student, regardless of the circumstances, including disruptions in the educational system brought on by crises, is the main objective of this project in Ethiopia.
Each from the Oromia and Afar regions, three schools One school from the Harari region and two each from Addis Ababa, the Amhara Region, Diredawa City, Ethiopian Somali, Sidam, SNNPR, Gambela, and Benshangul Gumuz Region benefited from the project intervention.