ICT for Development Education

Sara Hosseinzadeh PhD Student in Education Policy

S.hosseinzad@gmail.com 

Ali Azariifar PhD Student in Physics

Azarifar@gmail.com

Introduction

Information and Communication Technology is a relatively recent instrument in the fight to eliminate hunger and poverty. In its 2002 Strategy Paper on ICT², the World Bank states that: ‘information and communication technologies are a key input for economic development and growth. They offer opportunities for global integration while retaining the identity of traditional societies. ICT can increase the economic and social well-being of poor people, and empower individuals and communities. Finally, ICT can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of the public sector including the delivery of social services.’

The EFA framework recognizes that to achieve these goals greater cooperation amongst the development community and more resources alone will not be enough. New initiatives will also need to be employed. One such initiative is to harness the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It recognizes that, ‘these technologies have great potential for knowledge dissemination, effective learning and the development of more efficient education services’³ , and identifies a need to tap the potential of ICTs to:

• Support the professional development of teachers;

• Improve access to education by remote and disadvantaged communities;

• Provide opportunities to communicate across classrooms and cultures; and,

• Strengthen management and administration procedures from the central ministries through sub-national levels to the schools.

When examining the integration of ICT in support of achieving educational objectives, it can be said that, after almost one decade of using ICT to stimulate development, it is still not fully integrated in development activities. Greater awareness-raising is therefore required.

Education in developing countries

Developing countries are generally characterized by a rapidly growing, young population. Literacy levels are also low combined with high drop-out rates in schools. The cost of education is often too high for children to continue with their studies after a certain point.

Yet, governments give low priority to education which has resulted in limited educational facilities and a shortage of qualified teachers in most developing countries. However, in order to participate in the global economy and ensure sustainable national development, developing countries need to develop a vibrant education system. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be used to achieve the MDGs⁴ and the EFA⁵ principles described above as they can enhance the quality of education across the board at primary, secondary and tertiary level and also to support teacher training. Finally, ICTs contribute to a more conducive environment through the application of ICT in management and administration.

ICT for development and education

‘Many pupils learn in crowded, poorly furnished and unfinished classrooms, and often have to

share scarce textbooks. Many teachers are poorly qualified and poorly deployed, but in any case are often trying to do a good job with a minimum of basic resources. The curriculum is often seen as too diverse and in some ways irrelevant for many of the pupils and their life needs. Many teachers, head teachers and other education support staff are also poorly prepared for the management and quality assurance tasks demanded of their roles, but are also often trying to work to the best of their ability in isolated and under-resourced contexts.’⁶

Access to education can be hampered by a number of different factors. The gender balance is generally tilted with fewer girls receiving education than boys. People in rural areas have less access to the educational system than their peers in urban areas. In addition, the educational sector has until recently received rather low levels of political support. This has led to chronic under-funding of the education sector as a result of which educational establishments across the board are usually ill-equipped and understaffed. To compound this situation further, the education provided in most schools has not been adjusted to and does not correspond with the needs of the national labour market.

Teacher training, too, is often below par, with few possibilities for teachers to update their skills and few incentives for young people to choose teaching as a career in the first place. Those who do enter the teaching profession often leave because of poor wages and difficult working conditions.

Only a very small percentage of students enroll at secondary school level and even fewer go on to follow tertiary education. Finally, the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on the education sector in developing countries cannot be overstated, from the shortage of teachers to the large numbers of children who are forced to leave school prematurely either to stay at home with sick relatives or to take up work to sustain their families. The international community is trying to redress the situation via international strategic frameworks and goals such as the UNESCO’s Education for All declaration and the MDGs mentioned earlier.

Role of ICT to achieve international education goals

Introducing ICT as a tool to support the education sector has initiated substantial discussions since the late 1990s. A decade ago the emphasis was on Technical and Vocational Education and Training and training teachers. During the last few years an increasing number of international development agencies3 have embraced the potential of ICT to support the education sector.

UNESCO has played a major role in spearheading the Education for All initiative to harness the potential of ICT. The widely subscribed Dakar Framework for Action recognizes that, ‘these technologies (ICTs) have great potential for knowledge dissemination, effective learning and the development of more efficient education services’.

Furthermore, the United Nations ICT Task Force under Secretary General Kofi Annan recognized the potential of ICT for achieving the key Millennium Development Goals. It believes that one of the best ways to expand the use of ICT in the developing world is through schools and local communities.

When looking at the integration of ICT to support the achievement of educational objectives, it can be found that after almost a decade of using ICT to stimulate development, it is not yet fully integrated in development activities and awareness raising is still required.

Yet, there has been considerable improvement over the past decade. Initial disbelief about the potential contribution of ICT for development embodied in comments such as ‘Why does a farmer need a computer’?’ and ‘Shouldn’t we focus on clean water first?’ have gradually faded away.

International development frameworks and ICT task force that acknowledge the potential contribution of ICT have been put in place. However, the anecdotal evidence of projects needs to be transformed into a more systematic assessment of the impact of ICT.

Documenting and sharing lessons learned is necessary to derive best practices that can, in turn, be used to maximize the impact and effectiveness of future efforts. This study aims to provide more comprehensive and empirical evidence of the impact of ICT on education.

Role of ICT in national development strategies

Within these international development frameworks, individual countries have prepared their own Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), which report on progress in achieving specific development objectives. The PRSPs typically include strategies and objectives for the educational sector and are closely linked to the EFA goals described earlier.

The introductions of the PRSPs in 2000 have led to a strong focus on primary education in recent Sector Wide Approaches (SWAps) of the education sector. Yet, more recently, many governments have begun to recognize the need to expand their focus to include secondary education and teacher training. SWAps have received an increased level of donor support.

A SWAp is a process in which sector funding from governments and donors supports a single policy and expenditure program in a given sector under government leadership.

SWAps in education outline clear goals for the education sector but tend to be less focused on the use of ICT. As ICT for education lies at the crossroads of these two policies, ample attention is needed to bring them together. A conducive policy environment is required in which individual projects can be initiated, results up scaled, and eventually incorporated into the mainstream activities of governments and organizations active in the education sector. Remarkably, the need for ICT training and skills development is often more explicitly addressed in national ICT for development strategies than in education sector strategies.⁷

The ICT strategies are typically more focused on educational needs, than education strategies on ICT needs. National ICT policies provide a general framework for the use and development of ICT in a country. However, they generally focus on the telecom infrastructure and usually fail to address the development dimension, for example: the need for capacity building in ICT, or to invest in rural areas, or the sector-specific use of ICT. Moreover, they are not sector-specific.

In light of the above, governments are increasingly seeking to integrate the use of ICT in the PRSP and SWAps in education. Examples of this can be found in a growing number of countries including Bolivia, Egypt and Namibia, where ICT is now applied on a national level as part of the drive for enhanced quality and access to education for all.⁸ The governments of these countries have realized the contribution that ICT can make towards achieving broader development goals such as improved access to, and enhancing the quality of, education. To this end, they have developed an ICT for Education strategy.

ICTs for education

Over the last twenty years, industrialized countries and emerging economies have introduced ICT to their educational sector. This has changed the sector substantially and has had an enormous impact on the national economic development of the countries in question. Dramatic changes in the administrative processes and organizational aspects of the sector, including those within the curricula and the methodology of teaching, are inconceivable without the use of ICT.

In IICD’s vision, ICT is a cross-cutting tool that can improve development objectives in key development sectors, particularly in education. Often a distinction is made between modern ICTs (computer and Internet-based technology) and traditional ICTs (radio, printed matter, videos, telephones, and television). However, since traditional media can now be digitized, the distinction between the different media is gradually fading. All information and communication technologies that support the creation, collection, exchange and dissemination of information are equally valid and can play a vital role in catalyzing the development process.

In practice, IICD strives to integrate a mixture of both traditional ICTs (radio, television) and modern ICTs (email, Internet) in its education programs including elements of radio-based lessons, computer-based training, Internet-based training, or more interactive eLearning applications. Choices for combinations of applications are made on the basis of the local context considering the cultural, social and economic realities and competencies of partner organizations and their beneficiaries. The selected applications are chosen in direct consultation with the partners. This means that the ICT solutions chosen do not depend on what is technically possible, but rather on what is feasible and appropriate in each local context.

ICT-supported interventions in the education sector

The contribution that ICT can make to education has been described in detail in a study by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) which carried out an in-depth examination of the specific role that ICT can play in achieving the various MDGs.⁹ It provides details for assessing the contribution that ICT can have across the various sectors.

Participate in ICT policy and strategy development in education

A long-term vision on the integration of ICT in education is a clear necessity in order to provide guidance and motivation to enthusiastic early adopters and other stakeholders. A vision is also crucial to actively plan for the deployment of ICT in the sector. In the longer term, the active participation of the government is essential to ensure the sector-wide introduction of ICT in education. Government involvement is critical to source additional investments in the ICT infrastructure; to integrate ICT in the curriculum; and to facilitate the widespread diffusion of materials.

Impact of IICD-supported projects on the education sector

The participatory monitoring and evaluation approach designed by IICD with the help of its local partners captures and analyses the level of satisfaction and impact of projects by having project partners and the end-users of the projects fill in online questionnaires. For the past four years (2003-2007) data has been systematically gathered from 13 supported projects in the education sector in six countries. A total of almost 2,000 questionnaires among participating teachers and students in education have been collected and analyzed.¹⁰ Local monitoring and evaluation partners assist local partners in regular data collection and analysis of the results.

It is important to have a continuous mechanism in place to reflect on mistakes and to identify and share solutions and best practices to enhance the effectiveness of IICD’s activities and those of its partners. Therefore, partners and end-users organize Focus Group Meetings where they discuss the findings among themselves, exchange successes and challenges, and seek joint solutions to improve the operation and impact of their particular project. It is during these Focus Group Meetings that the actual knowledge sharing and exchange of experiences takes place amongst all the partners in a given country.

Who are the beneficiaries?

A basic question is ‘Who do the projects reach and how do they benefit from the projects?’. The data from IICD-supported projects show a varied profile. Not surprisingly, the majority of end-users from the education sector are students and teachers. Because of the high proportion of students, the target is a young population, 70% of whom are under thirty years of age. Most of the end-users have incomes that are either around or below the national average. One third of the participants come from poor families. This can be attributed to IICD’s efforts to locate projects in the rural areas and in the marginalized urban areas. Asked whether ICT is favoring access to ICT by more affluent families, 95% of the participants confirm that this is not the case. The gender balance in the education projects demonstrates that 46% of the participants are female. Even though not yet fully equitable, this is an encouraging figure for gender balance when it comes to ICT programs, which are often dominated by male users. This can be attributed in part to IICD’s proactive approach towards stimulating project teams to involve girls’ schools and female teachers in all the activities it facilitates.

Impact on education goals

It is important to know what effect these projects have on reaching educational objectives. The vast majority of the end-users state that they had reached their objectives and they are positive about the qualitative aspects of the projects, with over 80% of users claiming to be satisfied with the ICT training course, materials and quality of the information provided.

The users revealed that a high percentage – 90% – use the materials and services provided by the project at least every week and most of the end-users use the project in an electronic format – via a computer, CD or DVD, as opposed to using written materials or information provided orally. This use of electronic means has gradually increased over the years from 60% to 80%. Around 60% of end-users perceived a positive impact of the projects on access to, and quality of, education. This is attributed to the support provided by the projects in providing ICT facilities, development of appropriate content and curricula, and improved teaching Methods.

This implies that teachers and students perceive more personal satisfaction than a wider impact on education. Explanations of lower impact, and thus room for improvement of impact, can be found by:

• The limited satisfaction with Internet access - 60% - and access to sufficient computers.

Therefore, participation of a larger group of students and thus an institution-wide impact is still not reachable.

• Lower impact found by teachers and students in rural schools relative to urban schools. This is expected to be explained primarily by more limited access to Internet and to computers in rural areas, directly affecting the wider impact of the projects.

• Teachers and students from a number of projects commented on the lack of locally relevant content.

• Finally, despite the equal levels of participation by women, a significantly lower impact was experienced by this group of end-users. For the moment, no explanation can be found for these observations. Therefore, this whole issue needs to be studied in greater detail.

Conclusion

Participate in developing the national ICT policy and implementation strategy for education A long-term vision with regard to integrating ICT in education is a clear necessity in order to provide guidance and motivation to enthusiastic early adopters and other stakeholders.

A vision is also crucial in order to deploy ICT effectively throughout the sector. In the longer term, the active participation of the government is essential to ensure the sector-wide introduction of ICT in education. Government involvement is critical to source additional investments in the ICT infrastructure; to integrate ICT in the curriculum; and to facilitate the widespread diffusion of materials.

A frequent drawback during the initial stages of formulating an ICT policy is that there are often no clear lines of responsibility for ICT at the different ministerial levels. Therefore, it is important to set up a clear organizational structure for ICT to galvanize the formulation process and, eventually, the implementation process. It is equally important to train Ministry staff, both at the decision-making level and the technical level, in order to inculcate sufficient understanding of the possibilities and limitations of ICT for education. The strategy has to be integrated in the Ministry’s overall short-term and long-term education objectives, therefore a link must be made between the decision-makers and the technical staff as well.

A participatory policy-making process involving discussions and reflections by various stakeholders will ensure that governments take on board the needs of private sector partners and educational institutions at local level. Local educational institutions with ICT experience in the sector can also assist in the ICT formulation and implementation processes. This will enable successful projects in the sector to find recognition for their efforts. It also creates a win –win situation where the government gains access to on-the ground experiences and lessons learned and project partners in turn have the possibility to access additional funding opportunities. 

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Notes:

1 Information and Communication Technology

2 Information and Communication Technologies: A World Bank Group Strategy. Washington DC: World Bank Group, 2002.

3 UNESCO, 2000, Dakar Framework For Action, p. 21: unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf

4.MDG Millennium Development Goals

5.EFA: Education for All

6.Tanzanian Primary Education Development Plan 2007.

7. Cuban, L. 2008. Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

8. Rusten, E. and H. Hudson. 2002. “Infrastructure: Hardware, Networking, Software, and Connectivity”, in Haddad, W. and A. Drexler (eds). Technologies for Education: Potentials, Parameters, and Prospects. Washington DC: Academy for Educational Development and Paris: UNESCO.

9. Blurton, C.,“New Directions of ICT-Use in Education”. Available online http://www.unesco.org/education/ educprog/lwf/dl/edict.pdf; accessed 7 August 2008.

10. World Bank (2006), The World Development Report 2005/06. Quoted in Blurton, C., New Directions of ICT-Use in Education.