GroupWiseR supports Viafrica and here's another reason why. A new development in the Viafrica CLASSworks project is the setting up of locally operated Service Centres and the use of a support contract for the maintenance of the CLASSworks class-rooms. Since our establishment in 2003, the foundation has been working to assist secondary schools in Eastern Africa with their computer science classes. The CLASSworks project has so far successfully enabled over 38 schools in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to start teaching Computer Sciences classes, according to the syllabus as defined by the governments of these countries.

Unfortunately, running a class in computer sciences is asking more from the schools and their teachers than most other subjects. The initial donation of the computers and network is free of charge but the school has had to build a proper class room to hold the computers, arrange for cabling and a stable supply of power and those are just the start-up costs. Computers need electricity, IT teachers need salary and regular training, the computers themselves need repairs and maintenance.

  

To accommodate for these costs, many schools raise money through students and their parents. By doing that, they commit themselves to many years of high quality computer science classes for these same students. We at Viafrica believe that our experience with computer technology and our close cooperation with teachers, headmasters and officials involved with Computer Science classes, have given us a good insight in the issues and challenges involved in fulfilling this commitment. 

 

Recently, the Viafrica Foundation has started Service Centres in Eastern Africa to allow us to bring continuity to the Computer Science classes at the schools which have received our initial donation of computers, server and additional hardware. To this end, we have developed a CLASSworks Service Contract . Members of this contract receive scheduled, (proactive) maintenance, updates and training on the platform, software and methodologies used in Tanzanian Computer Science classes. 

 

Because our Service Centres are set-up on a not-for-profit base (the Moshi Centre is registered as a 'Limited by guarantee') and because of our focus on efficiency and best practices, we can offer the services in this Service Contract at the lowest possible rates. For the specifics on the contents of our service contract, please feel free to come to one of our regional centres or invite us to your school or office to discuss the options in person.