TMCnet News
Insist Jangal Tablet Launched in Gambia(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) InSIST Global, an ICT company on Thursday, 6th November, launched the InSIST Jangal Tablet, at a ceremony held at Kairaba Beach Hotel. Having successfully addressed the management challenges of many Gambian Schools with their InSIST School Management System, InSIST Global has also taken a dynamic step to revolutionise the teaching and learning process in schools by introducing the InSIST Jangal Tablet. On the InSIST Jangal Tablet, students will be able to download textbooks, past papers and other educational materials for use in class and at home. Speaking at the launching, the CEO of InSIST Global, Seedy Omar Bensouda, outlined that while their initial goal was to create a low cost solution to help schools with their administrative works, the scope of their engagement with schools has grown into an ambitious multi-year project to provide a low cost operating platform for schools, that will exploit Information Communication and Technology (ICT), so as to make education cheaper, more affordable and effective for every Gambian. According to Seedy Bensouda, after a year of research and development, InSIST Global has successfully implemented the following; ranging from every child to have access to an affordable personal computer; every classroom in school can be turned into a modern computer lab; every student can access thousands of books, apps, and videos covering various topics in maths, physics, chemistry, history among many others geared towards complementing the efforts of the teacher. The InSIST Jangal Tablet, he said can also allow a student to access useful information on the Internet without being exposed to adult content and without being able to download software applications such as time wasting games and social networking. He revealed that the InSIST Jangal Tablet is a groundbreaking android-based tablet that has been developed at InSIST Global, right here in the Gambia, and the hardware manufactured in China. "It combines the best of technology and the Internet in a low cost high quality tablet that students can own and use anywhere". On the issue of affordability, Bensouda stated that in an effort to ensure that every child can afford the Jangal tablet, InSIST has decided as a company that quality should not be sacrifice for affordability and therefore, they have developed a 6-month loan scheme that will allow every parent to purchase the tablet for their children. "We have found out that 40% of the students we engaged have difficulty navigating a computer, this is further affirmed by the National Training Authority, who has reported that ICT is the fastest growing training sector for TIVET," he explained. While this is good for the industry he said it does highlight a major problem; which is students are not exposed to ICT early enough in their lives, leaving them unprepared for the modern work place, hence they end up investing in learning basic computer skills after graduation so that they may get a good job. The InSIST Jangal Tablet will ensure every child is computer literate and is able to use computers to work and learn. CEO Bensouda went on to say that InSIST Global is a home grown enterprise, which is 100% owned by Gambians, and managed by a teamof young people who dream big and work very hard to bring 'MADE IN THE GAMBIA' technology solutions that meet international standards and can be exported around the world. For her part, Fatou Jobarteh, the project manager at InSIST Global, disclosed that there motivation to come up with such brilliant idea stubbles from the lack of textbooks in schools and the lack of ICT skills among graduates. According to her, their objective is to use technology to solve these existing challenges in an effective and sustainable way, by increasing access to both local and international educational content that is affordable for every Gambian child through the Jangal Tablet. She explanied that a pilot study was carried out over the course of the year in close consultation with a selected group of students at St. Peter's Technical School in Lamin and to ensure a successful roll-out, the following areas were examined and successfully addressed during the pilot, which includes; "The type of educational content students needed on the tablet, the cost of the tablet and its affordability, durability, e-management within the school to streamline the flow of information from the school to the student, and proper filtering mechanisms to ensure the tablet is child-safe." With all the resources made available on the Jangal tablet, Fatou concluded that all a student needs is a Jangal tablet, and they are set for success. The sales manager, Asta Jobe Wadda, gave an overview of the InSIST Store, known as Jangalma, which she added, is a secure platform through which students can download applications, books, and videos that are strictly educational. Asta maintained that Jangalma is a SAFE learning environment for students as it makes learning Secure, Affordable, Fun, and Easy. She mentioned that all textbooks that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) supplies to students are available for free on Jangalma; this solves the longstanding problem of textbook shortage in many schools as each student can now access all their textbooks on their individual tablets. She further stated that books written by Gambian authors are also available for sale on Jangalma at lower cost as the cost of printing and logistics is eliminated. Asta thus urged all Gambian writers, app developers, and anyone who would like to be a part of this breakthrough project for education in Africa to come forward and work with InSIST so as to provide content that will be made available on Jangalma for students to buy or download for free. Copyright The Daily Observer. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |