Good practice

SchoolNet Namibia

Namibia · Windhoek · See the Namibia profile

Une association à but non lucratif de Windhoek a connecté jusqu'à 500 écoles namibiennes à internet grâce à des laboratoires Edubuntu open source, des ordinateurs reconditionnés et même l'énergie solaire, en formant des jeunes sans emploi comme techniciens — avant que le financement et les relations avec le gouvernement ne se détériorent, menant à sa dissolution en 2009.

500 schools

Écoles connectées au pic (2006)

1500 schools

Total des écoles en Namibie

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

Fondée en février 2000, SchoolNet Namibia gérait son propre FAI, a construit des laboratoires informatiques low-cost « OpenLab » à partir de PC reconditionnés et d'Edubuntu open source, et a formé des jeunes sans emploi comme techniciens informatiques bénévoles pour connecter les écoles namibiennes, dont environ la moitié n'avait pas l'électricité.

Results

L'évaluation indépendante est inhabituellement bonne pour un programme de cet âge : une évaluation commandée par la Sida et une enquête de la Banque mondiale/infoDev de 2007 documentent une croissance d'environ 120 écoles connectées en 2004 à un pic d'environ 500 des 1 500-1 600 écoles namibiennes en 2006, tout en signalant que les résultats d'apprentissage (contrairement à la connectivité) n'ont jamais été suivis.

Conclusions

Le fort turnover du personnel et la dépendance aux bénévoles, signalés comme des risques de durabilité par l'évaluation de la Sida, se sont révélés prémonitoires : SchoolNet Namibia a été dissoute volontairement par ses administrateurs le 17 juillet 2009, après avoir perdu la faveur du gouvernement.

Implementation

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

Data sources

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

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-03
SchoolNet Namibia (Trust), with Telecom Namibia / XNet Development Trust — accessed 2026-07-03
World Bank/infoDev – ICT in Education in Namibia (2007) — accessed 2026-07-03
INASP Infobrief 2 – Empowering Youth and Connecting Schools (Sida-commissioned evaluation, 2004) — accessed 2026-07-03
Wikipedia – SchoolNet Namibia — accessed 2026-07-03

Quality score: 76/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 23% in this catalogue (573 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Innovation level4/5

Combined open-source Edubuntu labs built from refurbished PCs, solar-powered connectivity in six off-grid schools, and a youth-technician volunteer model — an unusually resourceful approach for its 2000-era context.

Sustainability (ongoing)0/1

The organisation was voluntarily dissolved by its own trustees on 17 July 2009 after losing government relations and funding, so the initiative did not continue.

Evaluation evidence1/1

Documented by a Sida-commissioned independent evaluation and a 2007 World Bank/infoDev country survey, both with named methodology and figures.

Demonstrated reach1/1

Multiple independent sources corroborate reach growing from ~120 schools (2004) to a peak of ~500 schools (2006) out of Namibia's ~1,500 total.

Documented learning1/1

The Sida evaluation explicitly documented weaknesses — near-absent school-level data collection and high staff turnover — providing an unusually candid record of what did and didn't work.

Cite this

Evidoria. SchoolNet Namibia. Persistent ID: 358d4709-aec3-4cc9-92c8-9b566850c25c.

Export as decision brief (PDF)

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