Guide to measuring information and ... - unesdoc - Unesco

2. ICT in education policy frameworks
Many policy reports have argued that societies are changing from industrial societies into
‘information societies’, in which the creation and dissemination of knowledge is of paramount
importance (ERT, 1997). They contend that, in order to combat social exclusion and to maintain
competitiveness in a global economy, education must go beyond the framework of initial
schooling in order to prepare and support citizens for lifelong learning (European Commission,
1995; ERT, 1997; PCAST, 1997). Accompanying this argument is the belief that ICT can play
an important role in reshaping education to respond to contemporary information society needs.
Furthermore, it is believed that ICT in education will reduce the gaps that exist between socioeconomic
realities and the outputs of education systems (ERT, 1997).
With the challenges faced by the international community in meeting the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) targets, it seems unrealistic to
assume that conventional delivery mechanisms will ensure quality and equal educational
opportunities for all in affordable and sustainable ways by 2015. Indeed, the biggest challenge
for many education systems is to be able to offer training or learning opportunities on a lifelong
basis to all individuals and, more importantly, to the traditionally under-served or marginalized
groups (i.e. girls and women who face barriers to schooling; rural populations that are too
dispersed to populate regular schools cost-effectively with reasonable class sizes; children from
families in extreme poverty; special needs groups or persons with disabilities who have no
access to learning centres; etc.). According to Haddad and Draxler (2002), the rigidity
associated with conventional, face-to-face, classroom-based education delivery yields
unsuspected costs for society:
"Conventional educational systems offer limited flexibility. […] For low-income
students, schools offer even less; the wealthier schools lure the best teachers,
leaving the least prepared for schools in poor and remote areas. […] As a result,
these systems perpetuate social inequalities, lose many excellent students to
boredom, increase the costs of education through high dropout rates and grade
retention, and pass on to employers or other systems the costs of training their
graduates."
The challenges of traditional education systems are amplified by the rapidly changing skills in
demand in a globalizing labour market. New paradigms are also emerging where the delivery of
education becomes less about teaching and more about learning (i.e. via self-tutoring and the
use of individualized information research abilities). Education becomes increasingly less
confined within the sole geographical location of learners (e.g. a country) or less dependent on
a physical space (e.g. a classroom for pooling a critical mass of learners together). More
flexibility is required in order to be adjustable to learners, with modular curricula no longer
constrained by a rigid schooling path or predetermined certification goals.
Under the right conditions, it is believed that ICT can have a monumental impact on the
expansion of learning opportunities for greater and more diverse populations, beyond cultural
barriers, and outside the confines of teaching institutions or geographical boundaries (Haddad
and Draxler, 2002). Technologies can improve the teaching/learning process by reforming
conventional delivery systems, enhancing the quality of learning achievements, facilitating stateof-the-art
skills formation, sustaining lifelong learning and improving institutional management.
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