evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

SchoolNet Namibia

Namibia · Windhoek · See the Namibia profile · See the Windhoek profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 38% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A Windhoek non-profit connected up to 500 Namibian schools to the internet via open-source Edubuntu labs, refurbished PCs and even solar power, training unemployed youth as technicians — before funding and government relations collapsed, leading to its 2009 dissolution.

500 schools
Schools connected at peak (2006)
1500 schools
Total schools in Namibia

Details

Maturity
Discontinued
Promoter
SchoolNet Namibia (Trust), with Telecom Namibia / XNet Development Trust
Period
2000–2009
Keywords
school connectivity, digital literacy, ICT teacher training, open-source computing, youth employment

Context

Founded in February 2000, SchoolNet Namibia ran its own ISP, built low-cost 'OpenLab' computer labs on refurbished PCs with open-source Edubuntu, and trained unemployed youth as volunteer ICT technicians to connect Namibian schools, about half of which lacked electricity.

Results

Independent evaluation is unusually good for a programme of this age: a Sida-commissioned assessment and a 2007 World Bank/infoDev survey document growth from about 120 schools connected by 2004 to a peak of roughly 500 of Namibia's ~1,500-1,600 schools by 2006, while flagging that learning outcomes (as opposed to connectivity) were never tracked.

Conclusions

High staff turnover and reliance on volunteers, flagged as sustainability risks by the Sida evaluation, proved prescient: SchoolNet Namibia was voluntarily dissolved by its trustees on 17 July 2009 after losing government favour.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful

★ 68

Go Digital ASEAN — Brunei Darussalam

Brunei

A Google.org-funded, Asia Foundation-led programme trained underemployed youth, indigenous-community members and persons with disabilities in digital and e-commerce skills across …