“Amity University exams in progress,” reads a small memo posted on notice boards at the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Makerere University. To a visitor who knows very little of the magic of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), they will wonder why and how Amity University of India is conducting exams at Makerere.
Amity has been able to admit students online, receive payments, has conducted classes, got students do course works and ultimately exams electronically via satellite connectivity. What Amity has achieved at Makerere it has achieved in India and elsewhere around the world electronically via satellite, fibre optic cables and PCs.

 “We get transmission via satellite from India and lectures are received here,” Michael Niyitegeka, the head of corporate relations at the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (CIT), Makerere University, said in an interview. CIT is taking the lead in the implementation of the Pan-African E-Network Project on Tele-Education.

Niyitegeka said that after the lectures have been delivered, students have access to a Web site and other online resources provided by Amity for further support. Under the Amity University arrangement, five programmes are delivered to Ugandan students electronically.

They include a Masters in Financial Control, Masters of Business Administration (International Business), a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology, a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology and a Diploma in Information Technology. Amity is one among a couple of Indian universities taking advantage of the Pan African E-Network Tele-Education Project, a multi-million e-Learning project that was funded and developed by the Government of India in partnership with the African Union (AU).
Makerere as a regional centre can reciprocate training whereby lectures can be transmitted via satellite to other universities around the East African region.
“If I have a class I will go to the recording studio and transmit a lecture live to the network of universities in the region,” Niyitegeka said.
 Makerere University was selected by the AU to be the ICT Centre of excellence for the Eastern Africa region and is mandated to oversee ICT African Union Initiatives in 13 countries on the Tele-Education project.

Five universities in Africa; one in each of the five regions of Africa i.e. Eastern, Southern, Central, Western and Northern were selected.
Uganda’s Faculty of Computing and IT was selected as the hub among the five lead universities.
The 53 African countries are connected as one network through satellite, fibre optics and wireless links providing electronic and knowledge connectivity to the African nations based on the connectivity mission. As a hub Uganda is in charge of equipment for use by the 53 countries for the project.
“Makerere will also use this sophisticated equipment to broadcast local content all over Uganda and thus provide education for all at all levels of formal education in addition to informal education,” Niyitegeka said.
While lectures and exams can already be carried out by Amity University and others, Niyitegeka said transmission within the Eastern Africa region network is yet to take off because member universities are yet to connect and deploy the equipment.

“If the equipment was not as expensive, students from upcountry would not bother coming to the main campus as the lectures would go live to Makerere’s other centres,” Niyitegeka said. “At the moment, the university on its own cannot afford this equipment, but this could be possible when the national fibre optic backbone under construction is completed.”
Outside the Pan-Africa E-Network, Makerere has created what it has called the Makerere University e-Learning Environment (MUELE) whereby the teaching staff and students can interact, register, hold discussions, get study material, read and send coursework material online.
Niyitegeka said that while these practices have not yet been quickly adopted by the lecturers and students as well, a couple of faculties have programmes running under MUELE. He is optimistic that with time, the MUELE arrangement will grow and get adopted by both the students and lecturers because already, the university is promoting its adoption by telling students to activate their university mailing accounts and the like.
“And I have seen students at this faculty go to the MUELE Web site and read online while making their notes, others come with a memory stick and pick their notes,” Niyitegeka said.
He said the university uses other resources that are available online like MIT’s OpenCourseWare, which is available to all universities in Africa.
On a larger scale, the Ministry of Education and Sports and other government agencies like the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) are pushing e-Learning at Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels.

An ICT Policy that was developed for the education sector in 2006 spells out the government’s vision for e-Learning.
The policy, which is in the process of being reviewed, encourages private schools that can afford ICT infrastructure and access to the Internet to introduce eLearning. He said the review will address issues that have emerged like digitized curriculums and e-waste management.
But what efforts have already gone into enhancing eLearning?

Humprey Mukooyo, the ministry’s ICT focal point person said attempts at pushing eLearning in schools have in the past been frustrated by Internet connectivity challenges. He said access was expensive and connectivity was unreliable. Mukooyo believes that because Internet Service Providers are switching off expensive satellite and moving to fibre optics, the prices will come down.
“The prices are slowly coming down especially because of the landing of fibre optic cables,” Mukooyo said. “Also one of the components of the national fibre optic backbone, which will be completed soon, is to provide Internet services. When it gets activated, some of the institutions will be able to connect to the Internet.”
Mukooyo talks of a project called Cyber School Technology Solutions, which has enabled some 200 schools receive PCs that have been tailor-made to aid science students understand the subject better.The Uganda Communications Commission through its Rural Communication Development Fund (RCDF) has equipped some 200 secondary schools with computers. However not all are connected to the Internet, but it is a start.
Last month, the five East African states signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project to deliver 30 million of its machines.
“This financial year, the ministry will pilot using 10,000 of those OLPC machines so that we see the impact and then we will roll it out with time,” Mukooyo said.
The challenge according to Mukooyo is training of teachers in schools to first of all use the various ICT gadgets, development of digital content as well as equipping the schools with the right ICT facilities. Another stumbling block in all the attempts aimed at making e-Learning become a reality is unavailability of power especially in the rural schools. Schools in the urban centres are also challenged by the high electricity tariffs.
 Mukooyo said funds have been mobilized from donors for teacher training in ICTs.
“Initially funding was minimal, so we encouraged stakeholders who were interested to follow the policy and today some of the big private schools have a semblance of e-Learning as it were,” Mukooyo said.
Asked what a complete e-Learning environment looks like, he said, “some people say there is no complete e-Learning environment as students still carry books for reference purposes.”
“But others say once you have high Internet speeds, you access resources online, can be instructed online and you can do tests and coursework online, sit your exams online – that is what e-Learning is all about.”