It is going to cost Africa $240 billion, over a 10-year period, to establish PC/Internet infrastructure in 600 000 schools across 53 countries.
This is according to the draft business plan for the Nepad e-schools initiative, which is being thrashed out at the three-day stakeholder conference, held in Kempton Park, this week.
According to the report, the projected costs include capital expenditure for ICT and the building infrastructure, insurance for the technology, maintenance costs, professional development and creating governance and operations infrastructure.
This includes the cost of policy development, research, content development, marketing and advocacy, it says.
The projection also takes into account the additional costs incurred when working in remote and rural environments, the report says. Running costs for both the technology and security have also been included.
The report emphasises that the proposed $240 billion is the total required for the project, rather than the project budgets for the Nepad e-Africa initiative.
Country strategies
Presenting the business plan at the conference, Ernst & Young consultant Neil Butcher said there was no "one-size-fits-all" model that countries have to adopt to enable an e-schools programme.
The plan does not define one single continental process, but seeks to help participating countries develop their plans using their generic plan of best practice, he commented.
In line with this, the business plan also proposes country strategies for the 16 countries that responded to the mapping survey run by the Nepad e-schools initiative, he said.
Country strategies include an analysis of their progress, proposed immediate and long-term activities for each country, and proposed budgets for immediate activities, he noted.
Butcher added that the plan also provides a series of financial templates countries can use to determine the total cost of their e-schools initiative, over a 10-year period, given the decisions they make.
These include technology decisions, such as how many PCs to provide, and technology specifications, which depend on many variables including the availability of funds.
"There are different permutations, with each of them working in some environments, while failing in others."
It's easy to lose sight of the fact that rolling out technology is not to put lots of computers into schools but to improve quality of education, he concluded.
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