The Lam-Tech ICT Resource Center program has three projects; Virtual Lab Initiative, Public ICT Resource Center, Virtual Science and computer labs for schools.
- Virtual Lab Initiative: The purpose of this initiative is to train teachers and school heads of secondary schools without a science lab and library how to use virtual labs ( powered by low power computers using solar energy) to teach their students math, science and technology subjects effectively to increase the pass rate during BECE and WASSCE. At the end of the training, we will donate one complete low power computer, a portable pico projector, portable solar system, 160 math, science and technology related text and reference books, a bookcase with 8 shelves to place the books in a library, internet connection fully paid for 1 year and a certificate of completion to each participating school and individuals. Donated computers will be fully loaded with 4 virtual lab software; Chemistry, Physics, Physical Science, Earth Science. Schools will be selected at random via a lottery from each district which will result into 14 schools.
- Virtual Science and computer labs: The purpose of this project is to duplicate the virtual lab initiative at a larger scale. We will attempt to establish a complete virtual lab in selected high schools to serve more students at the same time. Each one of these labs will have a minimum of 10 low power PCs, virtual science lab CDs, and a digital library. For schools without a science lab, these labs will serve as there primary science labs for students to perform experiments.
- Public ICT Resource Center: The purpose of this project is to establish one public ICT resource resource in each provincial headquater town of the countries we operate in. These centers will serve all student and teacher comunnities in the province. We intend to place 50 low power computers powered mainly via solar, or wind energy, grid power were available and Gas generators for backup power. The centers will provide basic computer training, public internet cafe, virtual classrooms for small groups of students, digital library and technical support services to community schools already using our virtual labs.
Our initial primary pursuit is the establishment of our inceptive and pilot virtual ICT lab initiative in the Sierra Leone. LAM-TECH Foundation, Inc. seeks to educate, support and empower each underserved individual in our target community. It is our goal to become the premiere source for mainstream and alternative science and technology education in West Africa. Through this iniative, we will improve the quality of education for students, teachers, and educational facilities throughout West Africa, helping communities to gain independence, knowledge, skills, and ability.
Sierra Leone’s socio-economic and political stability has declined dramatically since the 1980’s due to its inability to manage internal problems and external macroeconomic policy changes. It worsened in the face of a decade long civil war, which brought about widespread issues concerning education. Lack of access to education is a pervasive problem in Sierra Leone. Many of the country’s residents are illiterate or have received very little formal education. The statistics are shocking:
- Only 39% of the population (10 years old and older) is literate.
- The literacy rate of men is higher than that of women nationally and by region. The national literacy rate for men is 49% while that for women is only 29%.
- 40% of individuals in Sierra Leone age 6 to 29 have never attended school or received formal education.
West African countries suffer from a poor science and technology education, low rate of science and technology graduates from secondary school and universities, limited number of job placements in the technology industry, and a limited use of science and technology processes and procedures by students and teachers to solve everyday problems in Sierra Leone. West Africa’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education survey results of 2009 compiled by InfoDev.org indicates that the education sector’s ICT infrastructures are under-served. In Sierra Leone, there are approximately 81 technical/vocational education institutes serving 5,824 students with a teaching population of 219 educators including university professors but only 2% of these students are computer literate.
The total number of science and technology education students and teachers continues to gradually decrease due to lack of adequate teaching materials, availability of science and technology education tools, resulting in poor results in national examinations starting in junior high school and continuing through to college/technical/vocational/university. The table on the following page illustrates the dire results
Several reasons exist for these statistics, including a lack of standard policies for the use of ICT in education and government. The lack of adequate science and technology curriculum for educational institutions, high cost of PCs & Internet connectivity, lack of science and technology laboratories in more than half of the high schools and inadequate supply of chemicals, apparatus, high cost of materials and chemicals to build new science labs and teaching materials were labs are available, and lack of qualified human resource capacity to service institutions of higher learning in addition to political instability, all contribute to the low percentages illustrated in these numbers.
LAM-TECH Foundation, Inc. understands that all of these problems cannot be solved at once but starting from the following a multi-layered approach will ensure its success.
