At least 600,000 schools in Africa will be connected to one another via a computer network that can help African kids catch up with latest development of science and technology.

The first phase of the program would be rolled out in 20 countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Uganda, Mali and Cameroon, South Africa's government news agency BuaNews said on Tuesday.

The program is part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) e-School initiative, which aims to equip all African primary and secondary schools with computers, radio and television sets, phones and fax machines, digital cameras, and to connect them to the internet.

"The e-School initiative was aimed at bridging the digital, knowledge, information and resource divides within the continent and the rest of the world," said Peter Kinyanjui of the NEPAD e- Africa Commission.

"The objective is to also ensure that African countries are connected to a broadband fibre-optic network that is in turn being linked to the world," he added.

Kinyanjui said in the process this drive would ensure the development of human resources, business and entrepreneurship skills as well as local content in the field of science and technology.

People in rural areas within the proximity of these schools could also benefit if necessary capacity was created in business and entrepreneurial skills, he said.

Poverty, backward infrastructure, lack of investment and personnel have bottlenecked the development of information technology industry in Africa, the world's poorest continent. But it is also considered as having huge potentials in this field.

Source: Xinhua