etransform africa: education sector

Transformation Ready programme

Review Workshop, 28 -30 June 2011:

Presentation of the Education Sector Study

Landscape Analysis; Opportunities and Challenges;

and Country Case StudiesAfrican Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education componentMid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

Specific Objectives:

To document the context: where and how is ICT being exploited in education around the world?

To document best practices: Scaling up, emulation; adoption

To identify opportunities and challenges;

To generate specific action recommendations for stakeholders

To start creating ownershipAfrican Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education componentMid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education componentMid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

Core Issues/Findings Integration of ICT in education requires

competence of all educational role players –students, teachers, administrators, management, and policy makers.

Teacher competence training needs to be integrated into the entire teacher development process, with special emphasis on CPD.

ICT competence should not be seen as a standalone aspect of training – it should be integrated into courses where it is applied so that learning is motivated by appreciation of utility.


Challenges Absence of well thought out strategies

for ICT teacher professional development Lack of experience in identifying suitable

models for ICT teacher professional development

Lack of awareness of benefits and impact at the policy levels leads to underfunding of ICT teacher professional development and lack of incentives for teachers to use technology as well as their training;

Focus on teacher training alone without training of technical staff and principals


Opportunities Guiding frameworks: NEPAD parameters

of good practice; UNECSO ICT Competency Framework;

Delivery models that can be recruited, based on fit for purpose, context and cost.

Models like communities of practice, which are cheaper in terms of capital outlay;

Available reputable programmes like Intel Teach, IEARN, and Microsoft PiL lead to cost savings in course development

Existing best practices (Namibia; Australia, India, etc)


DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES


Core Issues/Findings A balanced mix between digital and

printed resources is required; Content models should create a diversity

of competitive resources, giving educators and learners choice about what best suits their needs;

Investment in content creation ensures compliance with African curricula, or local language demands, motivating usage by teachers and learners;

Online resources stimulate educators to contribute content, altering dynamics of content productionAfrican Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component

Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

Challenges Shortage of skills and incentives for

content development, especially among the teachers and learners

Absence of the required technology environment for collaborative content development

Lack of awareness among policy makers about the need to make the financial investment required to establish a technology and policy environment that promotes collaborative content creation based on common intellectual capital


Opportunities Increasing number of ICT-literate

instructors and students; Increasing computerisation and

networking at institutional, national, and regional levels;

Wide range of: knowledge management systems and strategies to store, curate, and share educational content; and content management and authoring tools .

Wide range of open source tools


AFFORDABLE TECHNOLOGIES


Core Issues/Findings Technology should always be considered

in the context of the broader trends in ICT in education.

Mobile phones are currently closest to what can be affordable on a mass scale

There are challenges for sustainability:Low cost computing models - have

been considerably dependent on subsidy

Mobile phone models - users are expected to pay for their own devices

Mass market for low cost computers might make them a viable alternative to mobile phones


Challenges Lack of (or expensive) infrastructure:

electricity, connectivity, end-user devices, etc.

Limited competence of potential users in integrating technology in the learning process

Limited global experience and objective assessment of existing and emerging technology

Lack of reliable information on total cost of ownership and realistic sustainability models

Limited scope for localization of devices High cost of developing special software/

tailored content


Opportunities Multiple choice of technologies; Mobile phones:

cheaper and owned by more teachers and learners than other devices

affordable for many without government, private or development sector support

Increasing community of m-application developers in Africa

Low cost computing devices are dropping in cost – shared use of computing can also significantly reduce costs African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component

Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS


Core Issues/Findings EMIS requires planning/ identification of

data needed for decision making Also requires identification of goals and

objective, analysis of existing demand and supply, and development of progress indicators

Data is core to the development of EMIS, and needs to be relevant, reliable, timely and multi-source.

Africa lags far behind Asia and Latin America in the deployment and use of EMIS


Challenges Sustainability of largely donor driven

EMIS Quality and consistency in the collection,

organization and dissemination of educational

Integration between diverse data resources and interoperability of systems

Ability of decision makers at all level to turn data to a meaningful use

Capacity to migrate to distributed, decentralized and integrated EMIS that support decision making at school, district, provincial and national level


Opportunities Advances in content management

systems and distributed databases Improved access to broadband networks

at schools, district and national levels Increased interest in educational data to

facilitate decision making Proliferation of independent systems

such as School Record Management System, Higher Education Management System that use open standard protocols that facilitate easy integration


NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORKS


Core Issues/Findings

African academics and researchers are intellectually isolated due to the high cost of bandwidth

NRENs are still new on the African continent (10 years old);

Mobile phones are a mass access opportunity: How can NRENs exploit this?

There is mutual benefit in NRENs in Africa extending services to schools/schoolnets


Challenges Cost of connectivity – has gone down

significantly over the last two years, but still a challenge;

Human resource capacity, both technical and managerial; and poor understanding of NRENs

Disabling policy and regulatory environments, including monopoly markets;

Part-time staff Poor resource base – most are not

operational and are therefore cash-strapped;

Generally poor campus networks & limited PCs for users.


Opportunities Increased awareness by African

governments about the development dividend of NRENs;

Increasing fibre to and within Africa and dropping prices

Increased development partner support to REN activities in Africa

Internet aware students who demand modern learning environment

The wave of NREN growth in Africa, including regional networks


EMERGING ISSUES FROM COUNTRY CASE STUDIES(Only Uganda to-date)


Core Issues/Findings There appears to be a fairly wide

understanding of the potential benefits of ICT in learning among the key stakeholders – none expressed ignorance;

Government initiatives for ICT in learning are technology driven – do not involve the key players (teachers, students, parents) at the definition stage;

Diverse groups working on ICT in education are unaware of each other; lack a common forum;

Mindset is a cross-cutting challenge at all levels;

Corruption; very low salaries; - Both barriers


Challenges Cost of access - cost of devices and cost

of access via mobile a barrier to m-education applications;

Silo approaches – projects; content; teacher professional development; etc

Lack of content - compounded by lack of skills and tools for content creation;

Lack of a human capacity; Antagonistic rather than cooperative

approach between public and private sectors;

Poor quality of service in mobile networks;

Phones not allowed in primary/secondary schools.


Opportunities The mobile platform – high penetration

of coverage and phone ownership; The high percentage of the working

population that want to continue their education;

Increasing awareness and improving quality of ICT in government and in educational institutions;

The national fibre backbone; External and national funding

opportunities to support ICT in education initiatives;

Growing number of m-education applications in Uganda and regionally


Summary 1: Pedagogy and Content

Teacher professional development and digital learning resources should be recognised as the most critical elements in integrating ICTs in learning at all levels of education and must be the core emphasis in the transformation of learning delivery;

Teacher competence also directly relates to the other core challenges: development and tailoring of content to local curricula and sometimes language;

ICT is not THE solution, but it is a key aspect.


Summary 2: Access Individual access - a major challenge

(device cost and cost of access). Mobiles - exploited in various sectors in Africa, with increasing examples of m-education; (Mass market) low cost computing devices also have potential.

NRENs can provide an important low-cost national networking and backhaul opportunity for all levels of education, enabling delivery, resources sharing, and collaboration; but are still generally weak in Africa.

Sector policy and regulation are often barriers.


Summary 3: Management, Administration, and Operations

Educational Management in an ICT-enabled environment - a challenge in Africa due to very limited deployment of EMIS.

High risk of EMIS failure if driven by ICT rather than user needs, aspirations, and definition.

Technical skills required to support selection and deployment, and also assure availability of ICT services and systems, are very scarce - worst at the primary & secondary education levels: NRENs that also reach out to schools are an opportunity for addressing this.


Summary 4: Moving ahead The five themes are all mutually

synergetic: Holistic approaches to action are required.

Recognise and address barriers that fall outside “ICT” to create an environment for high likelihood of “ICT in Education” success.

Which of the many cases documented goes beyond novelty to potential for sustainable adaptation and scaling up?

What frameworks do we recommend to different stakeholders to maximise chances of success?

Thank you!


etransform africa: education sector

Business

content management

teacher training

educational content

collaborative content

suitable models

requiredcontent models

low cost computing models

policy environment