1. Transformation Ready programmeReview Workshop, 28 -30 June 2011: Presentation of the Education Sector Study Landscape Analysis; Opportunities and Challenges; and Country Case Studies African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

2. 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 ownership African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

3. TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

4. 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. African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

5. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

6. 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) African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

7. DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

8. 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 production African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

9. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

10. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

11. AFFORDABLE TECHNOLOGIES African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

12. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

13. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

14. 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

15. EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

16. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

17. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

18. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

19. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORKS African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

20. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

21. 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. African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

22. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

23. EMERGING ISSUES FROM COUNTRY CASE STUDIES (Only Uganda to-date) African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

24. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

25. 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. African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

26. 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 African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

27. 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. African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

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

29. 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. African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011

30. 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! African Development Bank – Transformation Ready programme – Education component Mid-term review presentation, 28 – 30 June 2011