In the first half of 2022, Terrawatu’s IT Specialist, Mr. Boris Sululu, visited the school computer labs Terrawatu had established over the past 20 years. The upshot of the resulting status report was that all the computer labs were out-of-date, except for Natema Primary School, which is the only place where the KIO KIT was deployed.
Given the high cost of technology combined with its short shelf life, Terrawatu decided that if we want to continue with IT for Education projects we should take a different approach. There had to be a way to tap the plethora of new content available locally and regionally, and a way to provide devices so students can access this content without “breaking the bank.”
As synchronicity would have it, Terrawatu met Reneal International Education Outreach and is now developing an exciting partnership. In May 2023, we collaborated to install a new computer lab at Moshono Secondary School, where we have been involved for years with environmental education projects. Reneal's model is to receive donated laptops and remove the hard drives and batteries. They have created content on a server that includes material specific to the Tanzanian National curriculum. Students can access this content from these laptops. The model is low-cost and very effective.
Boris Sululu helps introduce the concept of IT for Education in the school community and takes the lead in the computer lab installations in Terrawatu's partner schools. He then follows up weeks and months after a lab installation to check in and troubleshoot. Mkonoo Secondary School, located near to the Lynn Bretsnyder Women's Centre, is next in line for receiving a school computer lab towards the end of 2023.