Ministry of Education and Cisco to provide free ICT training for Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA–(Marketwired – Mar 24, 2017) – Today the Ministry of Education of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cisco to work together on expanding the Cisco Networking Academy program into the education system in Ethiopia.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Dr. Samuel Kifle, State Minister for Higher Education, emphasized that the Ministry is making considerable achievements in improving quality of education in Ethiopia through strategic interventions in teacher and educational leaders development, school improvement program, continuous review of the educational curriculum, equitably availing instructional materials throughout the country, expanding the use of information communications technology (ICT) for better learning and teaching processes as well as designing and implementing quality assurance mechanisms. The Minister acknowledged the significance of such collaborations in the areas of ICT towards improving the quality of both general and higher education in the country.

David Bunei, General Manager for Cisco East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands said on his part that Cisco will provide a web-based curriculum and other teaching and electronic information materials including reasonable web support free of charge to educational institutions that have joined the Cisco Networking Academy program. Cisco affirmed that they will appoint a representative to co-ordinate its co-operation with the Ministry of Education.

In the last ten years of working in Ethiopia, the Cisco Networking Academy has trained 13,250 students in 35 public universities in Ethiopia of which 23% were female. Through the Cisco Networking Academy program, non-profit schools, colleges, universities and other non-profit educational institutions are provided with the possibility of integrating a curriculum in computer networking.