Closing the Education Gap in Africa
Pascale Fromont, Vice President and General Manager of Media, Intelsat
For so many high school-aged students living in Africa’s remote and vulnerable communities, lack of access to quality education is a pervasive challenge that will hinder opportunities to secure self-sustaining employment.
South Africa’s Stellenbosch University has been on a mission to close the education gap and ensure all African high school students have equal access to quality education. For the past decade, the university has turned to Intelsat to expand the availability of learning beyond the country’s borders and make this vision a reality.
Using Intelsat’s reliable, high-performance satellite solutions, Stellenbosch has been able to reach and engage learners across Africa, delivering lessons and presentations broadcast live via satellite from the university’s professional studios. No matter where they are physically located, students can participate in classes, interact with teachers in real time, and access recorded content.
Throughout the partnership, Intelsat has worked closely with the university, as the quality and reliability of satellite solutions have evolved, to ensure they can continuously deliver a high quality, easily accessible educational experience for all distance learners across the continent.
Stellenbosch’s Zainab Suliman, Deputy Director at the Centre for Learning Technologies, explains how the low-cost, high impact nature of Intelsat’s solution, combined with the hands-on and highly involved nature of the Intelsat team, will enable the university to continue to scale its educational service offerings and ultimately remove barriers to education for all African students.