About a year ago I was working for the Faculty of Computing & IT [CIT] at Makerere University where I spent my days poring over tomes of data analyzing the University's fastest growing faculty. Almost a marvel in Engineering and administration. It had grown from an institute to a faculty in just two years; which was a university record on its own. I have since moved on from there but from time to time I go back to see what they are on about...
When I passed there last, I discovered a very interesting project they were working for rural primary schools that can't afford the heavy overheads of stationary for attendance rolls and teacher rosters. something called "cu@school"
"CIT launched its OpenXdata software to 50 schools in Mbale and 50 schools in Kiboga district on 28th Jan 2010. The OpenXdata platform will be used by these schools in recording data on pupil attendance using mobile phones. The Netherlands Development Organization, SNV, in collaboration with Makerere University Faculty of Computing and IT (CIT) availed the schools with Nokia phones to kick start the process, under the ‘CU@school project’...."
Guided by the motto, "any data, any device, anywhere, anytime" the software development team at the Department of Software and Innovations Development seeks to help head teachers to track down teachers who absentee themselves from schools. The technology is lightly engineered to carry on Nokia phones so it becomes an almost accessible and mass application tool. Mostly because Nokia phones are more accessible and also because of their almost ubiquitous availability.
In this article where they say the government loses up to UGX 12 Billion a year [USD $12 Million], I'm caused to wonder whether the government would lose any less money by actually investing a subsidized amount of money for every head teacher, through an agreement with Nokia or another handset maker and therefore improving the service delivery at the grassroots level and then working from there upwards to streamline the rot that is the education sector in Uganda.
The application which runs on an OpenXdata, an easy-to-use, easy-to-adapt platform is one of the many "legs" that technology enthusiasts keep talking about that Mobile phone technology has and can use to bring an improvement in service delivery and a new edge to the development discussion.
I also ask whether such incubation centre and software development labs are not supposed to be engines and drivers of trial technology and the front runners of the nation's advance towards a more tech-savvy populace. Why aren't they more funded? Why isn't there a conscious effort to have them as the number one reference point for all local software needs and solutions? Skeptics have often come back to this question with the assertion that foreign software developers are more accountable and their reputation is more reliable than local solution providers. I ask, if the local solution providers are not given a chance, how do they build credibility?
In the final analysis, the fact is that these technologies and start ups need to be supported and given the local confidence necessary to build credible, dependable solutions for the market.
No comments:
Post a Comment