Donation of 500,000 Computers: Minister Assures That They Are High Performing

« Distinguished Journalists, Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you a warm welcome to this meeting to which I have invited you, to discuss on a topical issue relating to the effective implementation of operation «One university student, One computer» launched by the Government just 18 months ago. As you can see, I have the privilege to be accompanied on this occasion, by Professor Jacques FAME NDONGO, Minister of Higher Education and principal manager of this important operation. Professor, Mister Minister, I wish you a warm welcome to the Ministry of Communication, a house you are very familiar with. I also acknowledge the presence here of many experts from your Ministry, who have come to enlighten the press and public opinion on the outlines of this operation and provide appropriate answers to questions that may arise on this issue. Distinguished Journalists, Ladies and Gentlemen, In his traditional message to the youth on February 10, 2016, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul BIYA, unveiled his vision on the need for our country to engage young people in the development of digital economy. Permit me to amply quote the Head of State as he addressed the youth on that occasion: «To each generation, its historic challenges for the nation’s future! I can say that one of the major challenges for our youths is to manage to keep abreast of the astounding phenomenon of the digital economy.

I urge the entire nation to resolutely mobilize and support the numerous initiatives undertaken by our youths in this area:

- The Government should systematically and effectively continue setting up appropriate infrastructure, but also cleaning up and properly regulating this key sector in the interest of the national economy and the development of youth employment.

- Public or private training institutions are called upon to fully play their role. They must identify the new trades and tailor their syllabuses accordingly.

- Large enterprises and other public and private entities should set the example by progressively carrying out their own digital switchover.

- Financial institutions definitely stand to benefit by developing specific programmes to support youth-initiated projects in this new economy.

It is through such collective commitment that we will be able to rise to the challenge of digital transition», end of quote.

Resolutely keeping his word and determined to immediately translate this commitment into action, the President of the Republic had then instructed the Minister of Higher Education to operationalize His Very High Will within the shortest possible timeframe.

Thus, on July 27, 2016, the Minister of Higher Education announced to the press the launching of an operation to provide each student in Cameroon with a laptop. Dubbed «e-National Higher Education », this operation was intended to generalize the use of ICTs by Cameroonian students, especially to meet their didactic needs.

This was, the Minister of Higher Education said and I quote: «a presidential and one-off operation, aimed at providing 500,000 Cameroonian students with appropriate ICT tools to ensure their entry into the digital economy, «end of quote. To achieve this, the Government of Cameroon had requested the services of a technical partner, namely the Chinese company Sichuan Telecom Construction Engineering Company, with funding from Exim Bank of China to the tune of 75 billion CFA francs.

Distinguished Journalists, Dear Friends, as everyone can see, the operation «One student, one computer » is part of a project which is not new. It has nothing to do with an opportunist operation aiming at shaping consciences for electoralist goals, as it has unfortunately been aired recently.

This project is the result of a Head of State’s initiative for Cameroonian students, to give them the necessary boost, and beyond, create the psychological trigger for their insertion in the digital world that is now structuring the process of socialization and transcendence, especially among this segment of the population.

I would like to emphasize in this regard, and in general terms, that the development of computer science and ICT has nowadays favoured the emergence of cyberspace, which fundamentally alters the relation to knowledge. This is an immutable fact that no single person with common sense and immersed in a logic and a quest for contemporary excellence can ignore.

In the field of higher education in any case, this prerequisite is translated into concrete terms by the existence of what is now known as «world university cyberspace».

In this context, which has become somehow rigid, the learner who does not have access to this cyberspace is in fact marginalized in the quest for knowledge. And in the case of countries with relative levels of development such as ours, the main barrier to the learner in his process to access the university cyberspace lies in his economic inability to acquire the computer tools suited to a universal didactic use.

As far as Cameroonian university students are concerned, it is therefore a question of meeting their didactic needs, by acquiring and using a relevant IT tool. In fact, computers that were acquired as part of the “e-National Higher Education” project discussed today, were designed to help their users respond to their most pressing learning needs.

These include: having a proper access to books and other digital resources available in the cyberspace, wherever they are; getting internet connection in the best conditions ever, depending on the devices available in their environment, namely mobile internet devices, Wi- Fi or wired internet connection; putting together academic materials and forwarding them remotely whenever they want; saving books or other digital material to local or removable devices hooked to the computer.

These are – permit me to stress it out – the four basic educational requirements of the world university cyberspace, and which should be met by any computer dedicated for that purpose. And it is ac...