COVID-19: Airtel Uganda and Avaya partner to Enable Distance Learning in Uganda
In line with the Uganda government’s call efforts to ensure safety for everyone, education and business continuity from home, Airtel Uganda, has partnered with Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA), to enable educational institutions in the country to implement remote learning initiatives.
Through the partnership, Avaya will offer educational institutions in Uganda full–feature access to its flagship collaboration app, Avaya Spaces, on a complimentary basis, through Airtel Uganda.
Avaya Spaces is a cloud meeting and team collaboration solution that goes beyond integrating chat, voice, video, online meetings and content sharing – and delivers obvious use cases for virtual learning.
“We fully support the range of measures being taken by the government to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, we understand the challenges that these measures bring to the delivery of services in general, and the delivery of education specifically. Our partnership with Avaya supports this key sector by enabling educational institutions to maintain the safety of students as their top priority while ensuring minimum disruption to their education,” said [Airtel Uganda Managing Director, V.G Somasekhar.
“We have invested in rolling out the country’s most advanced telecommunications network as an enabler of business continuity. Today, this investment will support the continued delivery of education and ensure that young minds can continue developing, even when studying at home,” he added
Recognized for its ease and speed of implementation, Avaya Spaces works on all Android and iOS smart devices and can also be securely accessed on personal computers and laptops via Chrome or Firefox browsers. It enables teachers and administrative staff to reliably communicate with parents, students and each other to minimize learning disruption amid the school closure.
Using the app, students will be able to participate in virtual classrooms from any location, with the ability to download study materials and send assignments to teachers electronically.
Parents too will benefit from the new offering as the app allows them to hold virtual meetings with professors, share inquiries and observations, and establish dedicated digital forums where they can engage with each other as well as with teachers, administrators, or staff in the educational institution.
Since January, Avaya has seen an increase of more than 700% in video collaboration traffic on the Avaya Spaces platform. Several hundred universities, schools and other organizations worldwide have engaged Avaya to gain the connectivity and collaboration capabilities Avaya Spaces provides as they address the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic.
“As the COVID-19 crisis has developed, we have reacted quickly and decisively in providing collaborationtechnology on a complimentary basis to help those most affected. We are proud to be able to do the same in Uganda in partnership with Airtel Uganda, which is has shown its commitment to social obligations. Together, we aim to help Ugandan teachers and students save the school year,” said Fadi Hani, Vice President – Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Avaya.
Airtel Uganda also recently announced reaching a milestone of 2,000 network masts across the country. With the availability of this countrywide 4G LTE connectivity, students and teachers can access the app seamlessly.
