{"id":52836,"date":"2013-02-11T18:58:29","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T18:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=52836"},"modified":"2013-02-11T18:58:29","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T18:58:29","slug":"ernests-prosperity-with-tambas-innovative-computing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=52836","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ernest\u2019s Prosperity\u2019 with Tamba\u2019s Innovative Computing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January, 2012, in a typically Sierra Leonean Satan-stamping-Jesus-lifting speaking-in-tongues fiery interdenominational Christian service at the Miatta Conference Center in Freetown,\u00a0 to end the week long Presidential-declared\u00a0 Fasting and Prayer Week, the theme of the key sermon from the handsome three-piece-clad intense\u2013brow Archbishop Archibald Cole of the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone was… Generational Mentality!<\/span><\/b> He bemoaned the propensity of too many of Africa\u2019s\u00a0 national leaders whose policies and action would rob the generation after them of opportunities, and would bequeath them with only poverty, hardships, pain and civil war… \u2013 and, intrinsically, hailed the presidency of HE Ernest Bai Koroma that is kindling hope in the next generation, and envisioning poverty-stricken Sierra Leone becoming a Middle Income Country in 25 years, a Donor Country in 50 years…. through today\u2019s bold developmental thrusts.<\/b>\u00a0 The vision of President Koroma to dramatically lift up the \u2018next generation\u2019 who are now youth and children would be mere fantasy if we don\u2019t have an Education Emergency in our country<\/span><\/b>.<\/p>\n

The idea to deploy hundreds of low-cost energy-efficient computers in every chiefdom, every district, in the country emanating from the mind of Tamba Lamin (in photo)<\/em>,\u00a0 the Sierra Leone-born doctoral student of\u00a0 Pace University, White Plains, New York, U.S., would be a propellant for the President\u2019s prosperity ambition, and\u00a0 would burnish the Legacy of President Koroma\u00a0 – when it is speedily implemented.<\/p>\n

Low-Cost, Efficient, Solar-Powered Computers in Every Chiefdom<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Like most innovative ideas that have a potential to dramatically\u00a0 transform any part of the world, this one is simple \u2013 but, not simplistic.\u00a0 It still has to depend on the sophistication of computer know how from elite computer minds.\u00a0 You install cheaply marketed computers in\u00a0 schools in every corner of Sierra Leone.\u00a0 Such computers like have been manufactured by a United Kingdom-based company called \u2018ALEUTIA\u2019 .\u00a0 Their\u00a0\u00a0 aim is to provide\u00a0\u00a0 affordable and\u00a0 reliable computers to as many individuals and schools in remote areas as possible, particularly in Africa.\u00a0 Since 2006, ALEUTIA computers have been deployed in 63 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.\u00a0 The computers run on about 90 percent less power than those that are being used by the normal computers we see largely in offices in Freetown<\/b>.\u00a0 And, importantly, the power they would use is CHEAP POWER FROM THE SUN \u2013 solar power.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is not just the cheap computers that are the \u2018diamond\u2019 of\u00a0 Tamba\u2019s innovative concept.\u00a0 It is what\u00a0 would be inside the\u00a0 \u2018brains\u2019 of these computers.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Helen Keili\u2019s \u2018900 carat diamond books\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Each school would have a \u2018server\u2019 \u2013 which would be is like a \u2018big library\u2019.\u00a0 The server would be packed with exhaustive\u00a0\u00a0 information on the national\u00a0\u00a0 school\u00a0 syllabus<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0 Pause!!\u00a0 Do a double take on that \u2013 if you are an educational administrator,\u00a0 student, teacher,\u00a0 parent with school-going children, or, you have poor relatives who are going to school in especially rural Sierra Leone…you would jump with excitement at that information!\u00a0\u00a0 One of the biggest problems in Sierra Leone \u2013 and, probably, the biggest educational\u00a0 headache!! \u2013 is the sheer lack of educational materials for our school-going pupils, and, even students in tertiary institutions<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span> Where\u00a0 books\u00a0 and other educational materials are rarely available, they are so expensive that only those who attend private schools mainly in Freetown\u00a0 can afford them.\u00a0 My 15 year old son, Ethelbert Hanciles, is in BECE class in the expensive private school, Modern High School,\u00a0 on Jomo Kenyetta Avenue,\u00a0 in the West End of Freetown.\u00a0 The school\u2019s proprietor, Mrs. Helen Keili, at Parent-Teacher Meetings of the school \u2013 where former Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Dr. J.D. Rogers, would be an avid\u00a0 attendee \u2013 would tell us of the trouble she has to go into travelling\u00a0 to\u00a0 the United States, or to\u00a0 Ghana,\u00a0 to get books\u00a0 that have materials on our national\u00a0 syllabus for her students; so, the books \u2018loaned\u2019 out to the students\u00a0 of her school MUST not be lost, so they would be passed on to the \u2018next class\u2019.\u00a0 Mrs. Keili would speak as if the books are EACH worth the price of 900 carat diamonds ….In the short term (since the students in Mrs. Keili\u2019s school have been topping the country-ranking\u00a0 in BECE, and almost top in WASCE, over the past three years!!), and\u00a0 the long term value of being able to clinch high-paying jobs locally and internationally,\u00a0 each of Mrs. Keili\u2019s books\u00a0 which\u00a0 she gives out to her students can be said to be worth more than 900 carat diamonds<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span> As much as my son is one of the beneficiaries of Mrs. Keili\u2019s wizardry, I am saddened by the reality that over 90 percent of secondary school goers in our country are denied that gem which is dished out in Mrs. Keili\u2019s school.\u00a0 Tamba Lamin\u2019s idea would make what is now an elitist preserve into an egalitarian reality for the majority \u2013 putting concrete to President Koroma\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n

Who will pay for the innovative system?\u00a0 Corporate bodies!<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

The question I did not ask Tamba Lamin when\u00a0 he was brought into my office by the newly appointed Programme Manager of the Millennium Challenge Corporation\u00a0 (MCC), Amadu Massaly <\/span><\/b>(the MCC is a U.S. initiative which developing countries can earn – because of measurable high governance performance, and can access\u00a0 US funding that range from between\u00a0 $100 million to $700 million; and which Sierra Leone qualified for in December, 2012; a programme that has disbursed about $8 billion to developing countries so far) on Monday, February 4, 2013, was one of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY for the material they would be put into Tamba\u2019s programme\u00a0 \u2018server\u2019.\u00a0 (What if teachers in remote schools\u00a0 would start downloading materials in the server, printing them out, and selling them to students?!).\u00a0\u00a0 The question I did ask him was: \u2018what would it all cost; and who would pay for it?\u2019.\u00a0 He was equivocal there.<\/p>\n

Tamba detoured into comparative analysis of the cost of the internet\u00a0 vis-a-vis his own books-in-the-server-already system \u2013 scary, really! : a difference of like comparing Le 1,000 and Le 200,000 \u2013 and how his system would be immeasurably cheaper, and, more accessible.\u00a0 It would not depend on Airtel, Commium, Ipsel, Africel \u2018server not working\u2019 excuses.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact even if the central server in a school is not working, students can still access material loaded into a computer.<\/p>\n

The education ministries in the\u00a0 about 10 percent of schools in Ghana, and 25 percent of schools in Kenya, that have deployed \u2018Tamba-like\u2019 system have been paying for it; so, Tamba envisages the same here.\u00a0 The\u00a0 Sierra Leone\u00a0 government budget has been prepared for this year, so, there is little\u00a0 chance that this innovative system would be introduced into the country this year.\u00a0\u00a0 Except, of course, we begin to lobby corporate bodies! I am excited about the certain positive\u00a0\u00a0 impact of Tamba\u2019s system which he told me is being experimented with already in a Catholic school in Calabar Town, in the far East End of Freetown.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My imagination is set afire as to what Tamba\u2019s system would mean for schools in remote corners of Sierra Leone\u00a0 – like in Bonthe, Pujehun, Kailahun or Koinadugu… If you are student in Sierra Leone facing your BECE or WASCE in about five month\u2019s time and\u00a0 you hear about Tamba\u2019s system, you are not going to wait while the bureaucrats grind their rusty wheels to introduce it.\u00a0 Like a child or youth, you would scream: \u2018I want it now!<\/b>\u2019<\/p>\n

Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya are experimenting with \u2018Tamba\u2019s system<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0 National Information Technology Development Agency\u00a0 in Nigeria<\/span><\/b> has introduced a system that Tamba plans in Okolaba, a place with no access to electricity.\u00a0 The center in a remote area of Nigeria has started with three computers from\u00a0 the ALEUTIA system; and ALUETIA Windows server; plus VSAT connectivity (that is, it can \u2018capture\u2019 information directly into schools from the world-wide-web system).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another unique thing about Tamba\u2019s computers is that there aren\u2019t many moving parts; each system can almost stand alone.\u00a0 So, if the server is not working,\u00a0\u00a0 the system can still work.\u00a0\u00a0 Giant institutions in the UK like Cambridge University, Tesco, and Virgin are using this innovative cost-saving system which Tamba is determined to introduce into Sierra Leone.\u00a0\u00a0 We should be proud that \u2018our own son\u2019 is behind this idea\u2019s introduction into Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

Kissi boy is stimulating \u2018educational salvation\u2019 for Sierra Leone<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Tamba was born in\u00a0 Dambo Village, Kissi Kama chiefdom in\u00a0 Kailahun district, about two miles from the famous Koindu international market that straddles Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.\u00a0 That was on\u00a0 May 4, 1976.\u00a0 Tamba attended the\u00a0 Methodist Boys High School and Prince of Wales in Freetown in the 1990s, and fled the country with his parents when the AFRC junta booted the democratically-elected government of President Tejan Kabbah from power in 1997.\u00a0\u00a0 He attended the Conakry Refugee School in Petit Sumbuya in Conakry.\u00a0 He returned to Freetown in the early 2000, and enrolled at the\u00a0 Washington Computer Academy on\u00a0 ECOWAS Street in downtown Freetown.\u00a0 He won the U.S. DV in 2004, and migrated to the U.S. He settled in the most cosmopolitan of U.S. cities \u2013 New York.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Between 2005 and 2006, he studied at the Technical Career Institute, College of Technology, on\u00a0 34th<\/sup> Street,\u00a0 close to the famous\u00a0 Madison Square Garden\u00a0 in Manhattan, New York.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2007, he did a course in\u00a0 Industrial Electronics, Technology and Computer Networking\u00a0 at the New York Institute of Technology in on 59th<\/sup> Street, Columbus Circle, in Manhattan.\u00a0\u00a0 He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology and Telecommunications\u00a0 at the New York University, and a\u00a0 Masters in Information Management and Telecommunications\u00a0 at the same university.\u00a0 Tamba is currently working on his doctorate degree at\u00a0 Pace University, White Plains, New York<\/b> \u2013 writing a thesis in the highly marketable sphere of\u00a0 \u2018computer cyber security\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 The opportunities that\u00a0 Tamba is opening for himself\u00a0 are not limited to Sierra Leone \u2013 for, he is utilizing his knowledge in an area desperately needed in Africa today: education.\u00a0 Africa is entrapped\u00a0 in an educational crisis today<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Africa is enmeshed in an educational crisis<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Africa’s\u00a0 education crisis is reinforcing inequalities and fuelling political instability, according to a new report published today by the Africa Progress Panel<\/span><\/b>, referring to both the quality and quantity of African education. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of children out of school dropped from 42 million to 30 million, but – with the world’s fastest growing population – Africa is still on track to have 17 million children out of school in 2025.\u00a0 The visible army\u00a0 of children who throng the streets of Freetown hawking daily are only a glimpse of this school dropout problem in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 Kofi Annan, Chair of the Africa Progress Panel,<\/span><\/b> said, “Many African children are receiving an education of abysmal quality. Far from equipping themselves for a globalised economy, millions of Africans emerge from primary school lacking basic literacy and numeracy skills. They face the prospect of marginalisation, poverty, and insecure unemployment.”\u00a0\u00a0 Tamba\u2019s computer library system will certainly\u00a0 give impetus to President Koroma\u2019s prosperity vision and strife\u00a0 for the next generations \u2013 hopes which can only be realized through quality, widely available, and affordable education.\u00a0 Bishop Archibald Cole, your prayers are being answered; your trust in President Koroma is being vindicated.<\/p>\n

by Oswald Hanciles, Freetown<\/i><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January, 2012, in a typically Sierra Leonean Satan-stamping-Jesus-lifting speaking-in-tongues fiery interdenominational Christian service at the Miatta Conference Center in Freetown,\u00a0 to end the week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":52837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,7154,7006,673,7010],"tags":[14817,14818,14819,769,14820,14821,14822,14823,6715,14824,1055,14825],"class_list":["post-52836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ict-for-development","category-ict-in-education","category-national-news","category-technology","tag-aleutia","tag-amadu-massaly","tag-computers","tag-education","tag-energy-efficient-computers","tag-lam-tech","tag-low-cost-computers","tag-low-cost-efficient-solar-powered-computers","tag-millennium-challenge-corporation","tag-national-information-technology-development-agency-in-nigeria","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma","tag-tamba-lamin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}