Integrated Technology Group launches its EMIS Africa Initiative

This will provide a unified and integrated education management information system solution in Africa in order to provide real, accurate, up to date and relevant data to assist in supporting the development of education; and providing support to the officials in their decision making process and their various programs, which would the basis for operations solutions, planning and decision-making in all parts of the African continent.

President & CEO of Integrated Technology Group (ITG) Mr. Walid Tahabsem in a press conference commented that EMIS Africa will serve as a common system platform for major programs, which will be an opportunity for countries to share experiences and be the basis of a real comparison between the standards, the results and the impact of on the education and development policies related.

He added that this initiative came from the group's commitment towards the sustainable development in the world, and their belief in the importance of the Jordanian companies role in contributing to the social responsibility towards the world, in addition to the responsibility of the group to promote the Jordanian information technology sector to support the growth of Jordanian economy and exports as well as the Jordanian employment by focusing on the Global education development process including the African continent whereas the education development is considered one of the most important priorities of development in various countries around the world.

Mr. Tahabsem commented that this initiative has been developed within a ten-year plan for the full implementation divided in to different phases while the most important phase would be the basic phase, which is planned to accomplish with more than 30% of the solution deployment in Africa by the year 2015; by the coordination of all the stages with various parties within different countries.

He said the first phase, a phase of gathering all information required to begin the technical analysis has started, worth mentioning that every stage includes, their own operations from planning, implementation, evaluation, feedback, and update, aiming to provide a unified solution and integrated education management information system in Africa, in order to provide real, accurate, updated and relevant data, to support the development of education, and assist the official authorities in the decision making process and various programs, and be the basis for analysis, planning and decision-making process in all parts of the African continent.

Mr. Tahabsem viewed statistical data about world educational facts, mentioning that education gives people the knowledge and skills they need to live better lives, worth mentioning that one extra year of schooling increases an individual's earnings by up to 10%, and by spending $16bn a year in aid would send all children to school in low-income countries; this is about HALF of the amount Europeans and Americas spend on ice cream annually ($31bn).

Statistics also mentions that education promotes gender equality and enhances the status of women in society, noting that nearly two thirds of the world's 792 million illiterate adults are women, and in the case of the provision of education for them, a 22% increase on agriculture yields if women farmers are given the same level of education as their male partners.

Regarding the level of e-learning in Jordan, Mr. Tahabsem commented that there are many initiatives undertaken by the private sector which were implemented in partnership with the public sector, but have not been completed, noting that there are many difficulties and obstacles were identified and acknowledged but have not been overcame as expected.

Mr. Tahabsem highlighted that Jordan was one of the first countries that initiated the e-learning programs and implemented numerous initiatives until 2003, but this process started to slow down until now, stressing on the need to strengthen the partnership between the public and private sectors to enable these initiatives and return to the track in this aspect.