Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Education

This edition of The Soul Beat looks at the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) - in this case radio, computers and the internet - in promoting formal education and literacy in Africa. The newsletter features project descriptions, strategic thinking documents, materials and events that highlight how the internet and radio are being used to train teachers, improve the quality of education, retain learners, take education and literacy to remote rural areas and ensure equal access to education.

If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters please contact the Editor- Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com

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RIGHT AND ACCESS TO EDUCATION

1. Education for Empowerment (EfE) - Ghana

This Danish non-profit organisation working in Africa, Latin America and Denmark, is undertaking this 6-year (2004-2009) programme to protect the right to and quality of education on the part of children, particularly girls, between the ages of 6 and 15 living in refugee camps and in rural communities in Ghana. The objective of the project is to increase the numbers of children, particularly those out of the formal school system, in achieving basic literacy and numeracy, to improve the quality of education through educational change agent programming for teachers and community education volunteers, and to increase girls' retention and completion of the formal and non-formal education system through advocacy and community sensitisation programmes.

Contact ibis@ibisghana.com OR ibistamale@ibisghana.com

2. Changing Lives of Girls: Evaluation of the African Girls' Education Initiative

by David W. Chapman

University of Minnesota

December 2004

Published by The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) this evaluation report examines the African Girls' Education Initiative (AGEI) which is being carried out in 34 countries. By sharing details about the design and operation of the programme, evaluation findings, and lessons learned, UNICEF hopes to illuminate capacity gaps in designing, implementing, and evaluating girls' education programming all over the world. The organisation also hopes to stimulate reflection on the importance of finding innovative ways for including excluded children, particularly girls, in education, and improving the quality, equity and equality in educational systems and services for all children.

3. Global Survey on Education in Emergencies


This report presents information gathered by the Global Survey on Education in Emergencies (Global Survey). It attempts to offer information on how many refugees, displaced and returnee children and youth globally have access to education and the nature of the education they receive. The report contains information from Asia and Africa on issues related to students, teachers, curriculum, educational materials, schools, facilities and funding. It also lists a range of education programmes and numbers of students, broken down by gender, in developing countries that have refugee population.

NEW ICTS AND EDUCATION

4. New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) e-Schools - Africa

This initiative is a multi-country, multi-stakeholder, continental initiative, which intends to impart ICT skills to teachers and learners in primary and secondary schools in Africa in order to improve the provision of education on the continent. Led by the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, a NEPAD task team responsible for developing the NEPAD ICT programme and implementing its projects, the initiative is targeted at 600,000 schools across the continent.

Contact Matthew Chetty mchetty@eafricacommission.org

5. Imfundo Project - Sub-Saharan Africa

This is a programme launched by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, which aims to support the education sector in Africa through the use of ICTs. It is public-private partnership dedicated to finding new ways to improve the training of teachers and to identify the most effective way to improve the management and support of teachers in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, using new technologies. The project concentrates on the use of ICTs for distance learning and operates a Knowledge Bank of reference materials designed to foster the sharing of information on the use of ICTs for education in Africa.

Contact H-Stanley@dfid.gov.uk OR E-Harmer@dfid.gov.uk

6. Technological Infrastructure and Use of ICT in Education in Africa: An Overview

by Neil Butcher

This report seeks to explore various issues relating to education in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular it looks at how ICTs can support distance education and open learning making education more accessible to the majority of people in Africa. The report is based on a literature review and includes examples of current initiatives using ICTs for education in sub-Saharan Africa, with a specific focus on open and distance learning.

7. It's Hot for Girls! ICTs as an Instrument in Advancing Girls' and Women's Capabilities in School Education in Africa

Shafika Isaacs

SchoolNet Africa

November 5 2002

This paper focuses on attempts to introduce ICTs in formal primary and secondary school education in Africa. The paper contends that a clear conceptual framework in problematising the education crisis from a developmental, gendered and ICT perspective is lacking and is critical in providing conceptual clarity on appropriate strategies for using ICTs as a tool for women’s empowerment, particularly in Africa.

8. Impact Assessment of a School-Based Information And Communication Technology Centre in Binga District, Zimbabwe

Lynda Mujakachi

Rural & Urban Development and Environmental Management

November 2004

This evaluation report examines the impact of the Binga Information And Communication Technology Centre (ICTC) project, which was carried out in Zimbabwe by the Binga High School Development Association (SDA), Kunzwana Trust and Horizont3000. The document reports on how the Binga ICTC project has been successful in making computers and internet facilities availalbe to three schools and the general public. It shows that the internet is widely used as a source of information to pursue academic studies since books are very expensive and not easily available. The document also outlines recommendations that need to be pursued if the project is to realise its maximum potential and become sustainable.

9. ICT for Teacher Education in the Global South

Researching the Issues

Digital Education Enhancement Project (DEEP)

June 2004

This study reports on research that was carried out in and around Cairo, Egypt and the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The project involved teacher development programmes that allowed them to use ICTs to enhance their teaching of literacy, numeracy and science. The study reports on the programme implementation and its findings relating to: teacher confidence, ICTs enhancing teachers' professional knowledge and competence by developing subject knowledge, developing school knowledge and pedagogic knowledge, prior experience and provision of ICT, hand-held computer use and its limitations, as well as technical support, infrastructure, security and equipment survival and cost issues. It concludes with implications for policy and practice and suggests a number of key principles to determine the quality of ICT-enhanced school-based teacher education.

10. ICT and Literacy: Who Benefits? Experience from Zambia and India

Glen M. Farrell (Ed.)

Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada

2004

This report is intended to assist practitioners with the planning of ICT applications in the context of community-level adult literacy development. The report records the experience of literacy workers in India and Zambia who, with support and technical assistance from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), used modern ICTs to design, create, develop and deliver literacy programmes in the rural parts of these two Commonwealth countries over a 3-year period. Some of the key findings of the report are that ICTs can be used very creatively to produce locally relevant learning materials; that learning to use the equipment is both easy and highly motivating for learners; and the sustainability of ICT access centres is greatly enhanced when local communities are enabled to take responsibility for managing them and when use is shared with other community agencies.

11. Information Technologies and Education for the Poor in Africa

Recommendations for a Pro-Poor ICT4D Non-Formal Education Policy

by Dan Wagner, Bob Day, and Joseph S. Sun

This report focuses on what is being and has been attempted in information technologies and education in some of the poorest communities in Africa, with a special emphasis on South Africa and Ghana. The report provides broad conclusions, a set of recommendations with how to deal with the following issues: moving towards pro-poor Information Communication Technology-based sustainable development models; why local content is central to African ICT4D (information and communication technology for development); how information needs are critical both for individual development (broader literacy) and for project success; the growing role of capacity building in Africa; the need for credible action research; and the increasing need for multi-level coordination.

12. Enhancing Learning Opportunities in Africa

by Paud Murphy, Stephen Anzalone, Andrea Bosch and Jeanne Moulton

Part of the World Bank's Africa Region Human Development Working Paper Series, this paper is intended to increase understanding of how distance education and new ICTs can support education in Africa. It includes recent research, up-to-date statistics and recommendations for "the way forward".

13. Internet Access for Distance Learning Programme - Nigeria

Organised by the Fantsuam Foundation to increase Nigerians' access to ICTs, this computer-based distance-learning programme provides affordable Internet access to the Mobile Community Telecentre (MCT). Based in Kunyai, Nigeria, the MCT is a van carrying up to four computers to rural communities that lack electricity and phone lines. The project involves five villages within a radius of 15-20km providing them with access to email services from the MCT. The programme targets women, girls, secondary school students and teachers, and rural healthcare workers.

Contact info@fantsuam.org

RADIO AND EDUCATION

14.Quality Education Services Through Technology (QUESTT) - Zambia

by Piroshaw Camay and Anne J Gordon

This project aims to improve the quality of basic education delivery systems and to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children's educational experiences (both in and out of government schools) in Zambia. To accomplish these objectives, QUESTT is leading several initiatives to improve learning through the integration of Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) in government schools and community learning centres. IRI involves the broadcast of lessons via radio with the support of mentors to guide listening learners. The Education Development Center (EDC) is working in partnership with the Zambian Ministry of Education's Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS), churches, non governmental organisations (NGOs) and local community groups to use this method to meet the needs of AIDS orphans.

Contact Michael Laflin Mlaflin@edc.org OR Sera Kariuki skariuki@edc.org

15. Macallinka Raddiyaha (The Radio Teacher) - Somalia


by IRIN Films

Launched in 2002 by the BBC World Service Trust and the Africa Educational Trust (AET), this education project aims to teach rural Somalian men and women to read and write through radio programming and training. The programme includes three teaching elements: a half-hour weekly radio programme broadcast by BBC World Service, print materials, and face-to-face teaching.

Contact Karen Merkel Karen.merkel@bbc.co.uk

16. Radio Instruction to Strengthen Education (RISE) project - Tanzania

This project aims to teach children literacy, numeracy, life skills related to health, hygiene, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS prevention through interaction radio instruction (IRI). Interactive lessons are broadcast over the national radio station network and trained onsite mentors lead children through the lessons using printed guides. Wind-up and solar powered radios allow students and teachers to participate in the radio education programmes daily. RISE builds on the Department of Labor-funded Mambo Elimu Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) programme that began in 2002 and was completed in 2006. It also expands and deepens Tanzania’s application of IRI through a pre-primary IRI series called Tucheze Tujifunze, or “Play and Learn”.

Contact Suzanne Simard gsimon@edc.org OR Nadya Karim-Shaw nkshaw@edc.org

17. Formation des Enseignants par la Radio (FIER) - Mali

This project uses radio and digital technologies to provide support for both in-service and pre-service teacher training in Mali. The project involves developing and broadcasting radio programmes for teacher training and assists the staff of six pre-service training institutes to install and use technology-based learning centres in their institutions. A programme of the Ministry of Education (MoE) in Mali, FIER is implemented in collaboration with the Education Development Center (EDC) and the Academy for Educational Development (AED), and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

EVENTS

18. e-Learning Africa 2007-Building Infrastructures and Capacities to Reach out to the Whole of Africa (May 28-30 2007) - Nairobi, Kenya


This second International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, is entitled "Building Infrastructures and Capacities to reach out to the Whole of Africa". The conference aims to reflect on the efforts of African countries in setting up their national and regional ICT infrastructures to create access to education, training and services for all. It will also look at how Africa is providing the capacities for all stakeholders to efficiently exploit the huge potentials advanced telecommunications technologies offer for the benefit of Africa.

19. Fourteenth International Conference on Learning (Jun 26-29 2007) - Johannesburg, South Africa

This conference aims to address a range of issues relating to education today. According to the organisers, this is a conference for any person with an interest in, and concern for, education at any of its levels and in any of its forms - from early childhood education, to schools, to higher education and lifelong learning - and in any of its sites - from home to school to university to the workplace.

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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com