Monrovia, Liberia – A significant step toward closing the digital divide and modernizing the country’s educational system has been taken with the signing of a historic deal between the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) and Starlink Liberia LLC to supply high-speed satellite Internet to 156 public senior high schools nationwide.
The agreement, which was completed last week, is a component of Starlink’s Impact Plan, which provides underprivileged communities with routers, Internet kits, and a one-year data subscription. Under the government’s National Digital Transformation Program, the donation, which is valued at more than US$160,000, will go directly into the LTA’s School Connect Project.
Speaking at the signing event, LTA Chairman Clarence Massaquoi called the project a “great leap forward” for Liberia’s goal on digital development and education. According to Massaquoi in order to close the technological gap and improve learning outcomes, public senior high schools in every county should have access to fast, dependable Internet connectivity.
He stressed that the collaboration supports President Joseph N. Boakai’s goal of empowering Liberian youth and promoting national development through the use of information and communication technology (ICT).
The selected schools, all of which have already been outfitted with computers and solar electricity as part of the Ministry of Education’s Improving Results in Secondary Education (IRISE) project, will receive Starlink kits from the LTA in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
In the upcoming weeks, Liberia should receive the Starlink kits for prompt deployment. Once implemented, the program will be the first extensive rollout of satellite-powered public school Internet, guaranteeing access to digital learning resources even in the most isolated regions of the nation.
The program is also a component of the government’s decentralization goal for the educational system. It’s well-known that most high school students in rural areas struggle to keep up with their urban counterparts when it comes to technology use. Starlink kits are thought to help rural students balance the equation, particularly when it comes to research and prestigious tests like WASSCE.
