National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC), has today lauded MTN Uganda for its initiative to encourage learning from home as a way to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus. The telco has done so by letting students access learning institution websites without the need of having internet connections.
Mr. Gilbert Gift Siima, the curriculum specialist ICT at NCDC said the initiative has been most helpful especially for candidate students in primary and ordinary levels who received their results last month.
The telco began zero-rating learning institutions website in March of 2020 at the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the country —allowing free access to 17 learning sites in partnership with NCDC to ensure students study from home while also enabling parents to home school the children.
Some of the learning institutions include universities such as Makerere University, Uganda Christian University, and Uganda Martyrs University among others.
According to Siima, the sites have continuously recorded increased traffic signaling to the increased usage amongst the learners. He lauded MTN Uganda for its efforts as a corporate citizen in enabling continuity of the education sector which has been hard hit by the Covid-19.
MTN Uganda General Manager Corporate Services and Legal, Ms. Enid Edroma said the telecom is glad to have partnered with NCDC to support the people of Uganda.
“MTN is dedicated to continuously support the people of Uganda. We understand the vitality of education especially to the youngsters in the country, and as such thought it necessary to ensure that they remain focused and studying at no cost to the parents whose incomes have also been affected by the pandemic,” Edroma noted.
Agnes Namubiru, a teacher and mother of two candidates from St. Francis Education Center in Namawojjolo says she and her children have benefitted a lot from reading materials on the zero-rated websites.
“When they sent the children back home, they told us to access materials online and that is what I did. With the help of my sister who accessed the websites, I was able to homeschool my children. It helped us a lot to keep the children focused on education,” Namubiru explained.