Giga Reaches Milestone Towards Connecting Every School to the Internet

Giga Reaches Milestone Towards Connecting Every School to the Internet
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Giga Initiative has reached a major milestone in mapping the location and connectivity status of one million schools. Founded by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2019, Giga aims to connect every school to the internet by 2030 and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice.

Mapping schools is a key pillar of Giga as it helps provide an understanding of the scale of investment, actions, and partnerships needed to bridge the digital divide and provide all school children around the world with access to digital learning opportunities. Over the past year, Ericsson has provided funding and applied data science to help map internet coverage in schools across seven countries. Along with contributions from multiple partners, this has helped Giga accelerate the mapping work and pass the one-million-school milestone.

Under the partnership, Ericsson has committed to help map connectivity in schools across 35 countries by the end of 2023, supporting Giga’s ambition of mapping every school in the world. Giga works on the premise that connecting schools to the internet is one of the most impactful ways of improving life chances. Through school connectivity, children have access to a wider pool of information, a range of learning styles and receive a higher standard of education.

The improvement in learning and the understanding of technology that results from internet-enabled education is vital to improving digital literacy and closing the digital divide. A workforce that has been educated to this higher standard is more likely to be innovative and foster ground-breaking ideas, leading to economic development and job creation. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report found that nations with low broadband connectivity have the potential to realize up to 20 percent GDP growth by connecting schools to the internet if access is affordable and accompanied by investment in skills, content, and devices.