From Aitape to Anywhere: A Digital Resource Centre Connecting Rural Learners and Agribusinesses to the World

Vanimo, Papua New Guinea – A Digital Resource Centre with full internet at St. Ignatius Secondary School in Aitape, a small coastal township in West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, is giving new opportunities to students and the surrounding community. Before its establishment, students, teachers, and communities had no access to IT infrastructure for e-learning and the digital tools and skills needed to market their produce beyond the local area.

Now the centre, set up by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, is equipped with 25 computers, two smart display televisions, two printer-copiers, and has reliable solar power. Students and farmers can now access global information, online learning and digital tools that help them study better and run stronger small agribusinesses respectively.

Although the centre is located inside a school, some of the earliest visible changes are in how local farmers and agripreneurs do business.

This Digital Resource Centre is one of 20 being set up in key locations across the greater Sepik region by the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, where there is limited internet and technology access, gaps in digital skills and inadequate information and communication services. At St. Ignatius, the centre also serves the wider community by offering a smart and practical tool for agribusiness development. Local farmers and agripreneurs not only use the computers on their own; they also join organised training sessions held at the centre.

As part of the EU-STREIT PNG Programme’s broader efforts to strengthen local agribusinesses, ITU has delivered three rounds of training covering basic computing, e-commerce, e-marketplaces, social media, online marketing and financial literacy at the centre. A total of 90 participants (43 women), including 75 agripreneurs and 15 teachers have been trained. Farmers now search online for price information, record basic business data, advertise products and connect directly with buyers reducing reliance on middlemen.

Among the trainees are Ms Dianne Akas from Nings United Cocoa Group, Mr Joseph Malisa, Agriculture Teacher at St. Ignatius Secondary School, and Mr Joseph Wotom, a lead farmer from the Yakamul community.

Dianne used the new skills to market cocoa products online and expand her small trade store business “I am a female cocoa farmer, and I also sell goods that I buy in bulk from wholesalers and retailers. I attended both Basic Digital Skills, E-Commerce and Financial Literacy Training at St Ignatius Secondary School Resource Centre. I learned how to use Facebook and WhatsApp to safely sell and promote my cocoa field and my canteen business.”

She added: “The training also gave me the confidence to open a bank account with Women’s Microbank (Mama Bank) at the beginning of last year. I have saved enough money to take my first loan which helped me to increase the stock for my canteen business. I am almost done paying it off, and I plan to take another loan to grow my business. This has improved my farming and selling skills, made me more confident as a businesswoman, and helped me support my family and my community.” 

Mr Malisa, an Agriculture Teacher at St. Ignatius Secondary School, used his new digital skills and financial literacy to help create the St. Ignatius Secondary School Enterprise website, which promotes the school’s agricultural activities and other income-earning projects. This online presence helps the school “to showcase our agricultural work, cocoa seedling and other school projects. Our students now see the connection between agriculture and technology.” This also helped the school to reach potential buyers and show parents and partners how agriculture supports the school. These initiatives are showcased on the St. Ignatius Secondary School Enterprise website.

Mr Wotom, a lead farmer from the Yakamul community, created a website for his turmeric group. “Through the e-commerce and financial literacy training at St. Ignatius Resource Centre, I created a website for our Yakamul Turmeric Group. We now advertise our products online, and we’ll be exporting our first turmeric batch early next year.” This effort is showcased on the Yakamul Turmeric Group’s website.

Other farmers like Mr Aaron Wama, also learned to use digital tools to market cocoa beans directly to interested buyers, helping negotiate better prices and secure more reliable sales channels.

Beyond training, the facility provides a space for farming groups and agripreneurs supported by the EU-STREIT PNG Programme. They meet at the centre to draft simple business plans, produce flyers and posters, upload photos of their products, check market information and learn how to respond to customer enquiries online, turning the Digital Resource Centre into a practical business support hub.

To manage the facility sustainably, the school has set up a simple business model. Community users pay a small, affordable fee that helps cover internet and equipment maintenance.  The school also registered a business arm with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) enabling proper management of revenue to keep the centre operating. This helps the centre continue to serve both students and farmers without depending on external support.

The Resource Centre is also changing teaching and learning at St. Ignatius. With 842 students (48% female) and 37 staff, St. Ignatius previously relied almost entirely on traditional classroom instruction due to the absence of digital tools. Despite this, the school has focused on forming students with a strong emphasis on attitude and character and has achieved good academic results over many years. 

Now, students from very remote areas, who had little or no exposure to digital technology in their early school years, can learn using computers and the internet. Building on this base, the principal notes that the project’s benefits are already visible and “tangible”: better learning, safer and healthier study conditions and improved welfare for students and staff. “We relied heavily on traditional teaching and learning methods where teachers facilitate almost 90 percent of students’ learning in classrooms. We’re privileged to be selected and to utilize this initiative, the Digital Resource Centre; we’re adopting a combination of internet learning plus effective classroom teaching,” says school principal Mr Ronald Raintangken. He adds: “We’re optimistic this interactive approach will raise academic performance of our students next years and onward.”

For rural students, computers and connectivity open a new world. “For many of us, it was our very first time to use a computer. We were confused and didn’t know how to begin but our teachers were very helpful,” explains Ms Aquina Kipma, an 18-year-old Grade 12 student. “My first computer experience was just last year and now I feel very confident to use a computer and internet search tools.

Aquina and her classmates now find up-to-date information for assignments across subjects, instead of relying only on a small library with limited books. The connection also makes it easier for teachers to bring up to date examples from agriculture, business and science into the classroom and show students how technology is used in workplaces, including on farms and in agri-processing.

“This connectivity helps to bridge the ‘digital divide’, levelling the playing field between rural and urban students and providing them with equal chances to succeed by offering access to experts, interactive learning platforms and vast research materials that might otherwise be unavailable in the form of books in their school library,” explains Mr Kanagat Alyshbaev, Project Officer for ITU-STREIT. “With this facility, students and farmers can learn online using the Learning Management System (LMS) developed by ITU and hosted by the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT).”

Teachers benefit as well. They use the centre to prepare current, high-quality lesson materials and to access training modules tailored to their needs. The school has an IT officer and a dedicated technician for routine maintenance; virus checks and operating-system updates and is seeking hands-on training for cadets to build in-house skills to manage and maintain the facility over time. Connectivity is provided via an internet VSAT, covering the initial two years of service fees, with the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA), ITU-STREIT’s national partner.

The school also benefits from a solar mini-grid installed by UNDP under the EU-STREIT PNG Programme. Reliable electricity keeps computers running, supports evening study sessions, reduces power bills, and has significantly improved school security, no break-ins have been reported since installation. “We now have a grid, powered by solar, and it’s a huge saving for the school in terms of power bills,” says Mr. Raintangken.

He expressed gratitude to the European Union on behalf of the Board of Governors, students and parents. “The investment is beyond words. It has transformed learning, strengthened our community and opened new opportunities for both students and farmers.  

About the EU-STREIT PNG Programme

The EU-STREIT PNG Programme is the European Union’s largest grant-funded initiative under the EU Global Gateway Strategy in Papua New Guinea, implemented as a United Nations Joint Programme led by FAO in partnership with ILO, ITU, UNCDF and UNDP. It focuses on boosting sustainable, inclusive rural development by enhancing returns and opportunities in the cocoa, vanilla and fisheries value chains (FAO) and by strengthening key enablers: digital inclusion (ITU and FAO), digital financial services (UNCDF), sustainable, climate-resilient transport infrastructure (ILO), and renewable-energy solutions (UNDP and FAO). The Programme directly benefits the East and West Sepik Provinces.

Cocoa