A clear and considered approach should be taken to the design of lots, or groups of schools, that are eligible for support as a single project. The lots should be designed based on either:
- Schools located within a single geographic area to facilitate the aggregation of demand, benefit from economies of scale and reduce infrastructure costs. This approach will have the added benefit of facilitating the connection of communities beyond schools.
- A single product area, for example, bulk procurement of devices, so that manufacturing and development costs are kept to a minimum and economies of scale and scope can be leveraged.
Once the project has been designed, there is a need to identify a vendor or vendors to provide the services. These services should have a local presence and could relate to any aspect of the service such as connectivity, digital literacy and training or consulting on reporting frameworks.
In addition to the generic information to be included in an RFP (see Checklist: What to include in an RFP) , project specific information must be indicated in the RFP. Thus, a list of project specific reference documentation and key contract terms should also be provided to enable the bidder to understand:
- relevant national objectives and regional objectives (e.g. education policy, broadband policy or digital agenda);
- an overview of the school / school district (or the ‘lots’ of schools).
- current ICT environment (as -is/baseline) – the status of connectivity (the needs analysis report);
- current educational environment (as is/ baseline) – the status of the school infrastructure (the needs analysis report).