Connect To Learn provides online learning solutions to African schools

Online learning solutions have been provided to at least 5,000 students and teachers in Africa, enabling schools in the continent to use connectivity to boost their standard and performance.

Eight secondary schools have been given PC as a Service - which allows them to use mobile broadband networks to access cloud computing - through the Connect to Learn initiative.

This will affect communities in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania by giving them an e-learning model that is easy to use and low maintenance.

Ericsson has taken a large role in the project by enabling data and voice communications by installing network services and infrastructure.

Other organisations involved in the Connect to Learn programme include Columbia University and the Earth Institute.

The scheme intends to provide modern education to people in the world's most remote villages by investing in information technology, allowing schools to access online learning solutions and e-learning courses through enhanced connectivity.

Furthermore, over 500 scholarships will be issued through partners of the Connect to Learn programme, which will cover educational expenses including boarding and tuition.

This will involve partners of the policy, including SpinMaster, JM Eagle, the Sanchez-Palm Girls Scholarship Fund and Ericsson, as well as a range of individuals.

IT School Innovations has also provided assistance to this project, assisting Johannesburg's Westbury High School and Olievenhoutbosch's Bathible High School by providing complete e-learning courses. 

In the future, the Connect to Learn initiative should benefit hundreds more young people in Jamaica and Chile, as computing deployments have already reached these locations and further investments will follow.

Ericsson vice-president of sustainability and corporate responsibility Elaine Weidman claimed: "Mobile and broadband technology is a key enabler for access to a quality education in all communities, even the poorest and most rural."

"Delivering cloud-based computers and connecting them in the eight schools is a major step in our mission to bring a quality secondary education to more students," she added.