The students of the Comprehensive school of Tricarico-Calciano and those of the primary school of Babati, in South Africa, are now officially twinned through the Sway4edu project, funded by Openet, the European Space Agency and the Region of Basilicata.
The Sway4Edu launch event has been an occasion to present the opportunities offered by the satellite technology in those rural areas that are not served by broadband internet network.

The conference saw the participation of the CEO of Openet, Mr. Vito Gaudiano, the Regional Minister for Education and Labour, Mr. Raffaele Liberali, the Principal of the Tricarico School, Mr. Luigi Iuvone, and of the Principals, teachers and stakeholders, who were interested to the Project.
Two satellite connections were performed during the day. The first with the students and the principal of the Primary School of Babati (Southafrica), the second with Mr. Francesco Feliciani, Head of Commercial Application Demonstration Projects Section, Department of Telecoms and Integrated Applications, Noordwijk, in the Netherlands.
“This experience – said the Ministry Liberali – is a national model of innovation. It represents an example of what the Italian Ministry of Education aims to realize at national level in the next future and Tricarico today is at the vanguard of this pilot project. This is also the right way to solve the problems of the so-called “multi-classes”. Another characteristic of the Project we financed is is the internationalization. It is necessary that our students learn English from the primary school and the twinning activities with schools from England, Germany, France or any other country in the world could facilitate the learning process. Tricarico and Basilicata – concluded Liberali – can be the drivers for Italy in this are“.
“Thank to Openet and the region we are at the center of a wonderful project – said the Principal of Tricarico Mr. Luigi Iuvone – Now we are on the net and I expect that next year we will be able to relate to schools of Italy and Europe to seek and compare the best practices for education “.
The CEO of Openet, Mr. Vito Gaudiano, explained the main features of the Sway4edu of project: “The project is the result of a decade of collaboration that our society has with the European Space Agency. Through this initiative, we manage to overcome the infrastructural gap on TLC affecting our rural schools by offering immediate access to media contents and advanced training programs for teachers and students. It is a project exportable to all Basilicata, where there are many areas that still do not have fast internet connections and where the satellite can offer an immediate solution while waiting for the completion of the internet infrastructures by the region. ”
” The ESA – said Mr. Francesco Feliciani – is very interested in the schools twinning and in the creation of cultural bridges as that we built between the Basilicata and South Africa. It is an exciting challenge to support “.