    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 28, 1998]
    [Page 464]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 464]]

    Interview With Johnathan Rodgers of the
    Discovery Channel in Johannesburg
    March 28, 1998

    African Education Initiative

        Mr. Rodgers. Mr. President, I was in Uganda when you announced your
    African education initiative. It was very, very impressive. Is there a
    role for foundation and the private sector in helping us?
        The President. Oh, absolutely. There's no way that just through
    Government aid from the United States and other countries we can do all
    this. And a lot of operations like the Discovery Channel can even more
    efficiently hook up these schools, give them the basics that they need,
    a television set, a satellite, the VCR's. Then eventually we'll be able
    to come in with the computers, and we'll be able to have interactive
    access to the Internet and even interactive communication across
    national lines.
        But we have to begin to put in place a technological infrastructure
    in these schools. And since we can now leapfrog a lot of the early
    investments that schools would have had to make 10 or 20 years ago, we
    can actually do it more cheaply. In other words, they won't have to have
    a thousand volumes in their library that they could never afford if we
    can do enough through educational television.
        Mr. Rodgers. You also talked about the relationship, in this case,
    between one school, I believe it's in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a
    school in Uganda.
        The President. That's right.
        Mr. Rodgers. Are there other things American kids can do to help
    here in Africa in terms of education?
        The President. Oh, yes. First of all, I think it's important to set
    up as many partnerships as possible. And if the children have access to
    the Internet in the African schools, if we can get that done, then they
    can actually communicate directly through the Internet.
        But there are lots of other things we can do. If we have
    partnerships--children in American schools, for example, could have book
    drives and send books to children--a lot of children in African schools
    don't have access to any of the books that American kids take for
    granted. Then they could write back and forth and talk about the books
    they're reading. Or they could make sure they have a television and
    access to some of your ``Discovery'' tapes, and then they could write
    back and forth and talk about what they'd seen together. I think that
    this is the kind of thing that we want to promote more of.
        Mr. Rodgers. Great. And the last question, Mr. President: I think a
    lot of Americans would be surprised that in many of the African
    countries boys are treated differently than girls. Do you see a change
    coming there?
        The President. Yes, we're working hard to support that. But you see
    this in a lot of developing nations around the world, where boys and
    girls have a different role in traditional society and where girls have
    not traditionally been educated. Now, as they move to a more modern
    society, young girls have the same aspirations: They want to develop
    their minds; they want to go out and live their lives. And we've worked
    very hard to support education for young girls.
        One of the things I like best about the Ugandan educational
    initiative is that they want universal primary education for all their
    children. And they're going out and recognizing the schools where the
    enrollment and the graduation rates are just as high for girls as for
    boys.
        That's a big priority. But it's a big change for Africa, but Africa
    is not alone in that. That's a worldwide issue we have to keep working
    on.
        Mr. Rodgers. Thank you very much, sir.
        The President. Thank you.

    Note: The interview began at 2:12 p.m. at the R.P. Maphanzela Primary
    School. Johnathan Rodgers is president of Discovery Networks, U.S. A
    tape was not available for verification of the content of this
    interview.