Katherine W. Getao, NEPAD e-Commission for Africa

African governments have strong interest in integrating ICTs in basic education systems as demonstrated by their participation in programmes such as the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative. This integration requires investment in professional development of teachers, school adminstrators and technical support staff, equipping schools, investing in educational software and content, providing connectivity and adopting sustainable financing mechanisms.

Experience has shown that rural schools, in particular, struggle with meeting the recurrent costs of maintaining equipment, software licenses and connectivity fees. FOSS and Creative Commons License content should be considered as one of the means of providing cost effective solutions for African schools. In this paper we consider some of the issues that must be addressed in order to provide sustainable solutions for African schools.