Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has unveiled an e-book project in Arusha it is hoped will end shortage of textbooks in schools and improve education.
Pinda was speaking in Arumeru District, Arusha, and his main message to villagers was to look after the new devices, reported the Daily News.
He said: “I am told that one gadget can store up to 2,000 books and hence can be used as a ‘mobile or electronic library.’ Through this project there are 300 gadgets each with 100 books, where in this country will you find a school which can give 100 books to its students?
“I hail the brains behind this project since e-books have a longer lifespan compared to paper books which can easily get torn,” he praised.
Twenty-nine teachers have already been trained on how to use the e-books and they have started directing students on how to use them.
Pinda praised United States-based World Reader Organization for conducting a fundraiser to purchase 200 e-books and enable the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) to make 300 available.
David Risher, director of the World Reader Organization, said the inspiration behind the project came after he visited a library in the country and found it with obsolete books.
“Since my childhood my mother had a habit of leaving me at a library as she went to work, she would afterwards pick me from the library. Since then I developed a habit of reading books,” he said.
