Transforming education: the power of ICT policies - Commonwealth ...

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in each region as it relates to access and use of ICT will become more evident and therefore more integral to short and long term planning and investment. The MoE placed a high priority on two areas of policy at the commencement of its sector reform program. These were curriculum and assessment and also ICT, both of which were promulgated in 2004. Curriculum revision was perhaps the highest priority in ERfKE I. This entailed a major redesign of the Grades 1 to 12 and early childhood curriculum, moving it to an outcomes-based system with general outcomes and specifi c outcomes for every subject and grade level. From the very beginning the ERfKE reform has been designed with ICT as an integral part, an enabler of change and reform and a basic outcome for students’ knowledge economy skills. Existing MoE ICT policy places a heavy emphasis on the importance of providing teachers with Teacher Guides that provide good examples of ICT use. A constant theme in the MoE’s human resources policy and its guidelines for both new teacher and existing teacher professional studies is the importance of ICT in education. Central MoE human resources upgrading policy for curriculum developers, authors and subject coordinators have a strong emphasis on ICT competence. What linkages are put in place with the broader ICT policy? The MoE has several ICT-oriented committees. One is essentially an internal grouping of key offi cials involved in ICT. The other provides for dialogue between MoE offi cials, selected ICT consultants who act as advisors to the MoE, donor representatives, JEI representatives, private sector industrial representatives as well as other government agencies (e.g. Ministry of Information and Communications Technology). This group, during 2006-2008 played a key role in reviewing the initial MoE ICT policy (2004) and the three policy areas for ICT developed in 2006 and endorsed in 2007. This interchange of ideas and views on ICT policy in education extends to other dialogue relative to overall national ICT policy development. Included in this group are representatives from the ICT Industry and some of the exchanges are captured in their National Strategy, published in 2007. Monitoring and Evaluation How is policy evaluation conceived? A key principle of Jordan’s vision and mission for National Education is: “A quality education system enables universal access to educational opportunity, equality in the delivery of services, and to the benefi ts of modern information and communication technology.” 34 This principle has guided the MoE programme of policy evaluation. From the onset, evaluation was an integral part in the reform programme and perceived to be of utmost importance to provide feedback and to guide policy. Within the JEI framework, for instance, monitoring and evaluation activities are part of annual work plans and conducted regularly whether internally or externally. Regular site surveys, pre-piloting, piloting formative evaluation and summative evaluation activities are conducted regularly. For the entire education reform program, an autonomous evaluation centre was commissioned by the Government to conduct evaluation activities focusing mainly on impact assessment of reform initiatives including the JEI. Evaluation is also refl ected in almost all donor agencies programs. 34 National Education Strategy, 2006, p.12 120 | Transforming Education: The Power of ICT Policies
Within the MoE itself, each Managing Directorate and each Field Directorate are to prepare annual plans. These plans are based on a standard format that includes specifi cation of planned targets and reference to relevant policy guidelines. Where activities within specifi c plans are identifi ed and there is no directly relevant policy statement, planners must articulate the need for offi cial guidance. All plans are reviewed by the Policy and Strategic Planning Secretariat in conjunction with the Managing Directorates of Planning and also Finance. This iterative and collaborative process highlights areas requiring policy review and areas requiring new policy. This process is supported by the DCU monthly reviews of ERfKE implementation as well as its reviews of monitoring reports by donors, NCHRD, JEI, or other agencies. Policy evaluation, therefore, is an integral part of ongoing MoE operations. It was also a key component in ERfKE I’s management development work and continues to have a high priority in the proposed ERfKE II design. For ICT in education, evaluation has been greatly emphasized and deemed necessary by different policy groups for obvious reasons related to the basic questions: Does ICT in education improve its quality? How is ICT in education changing the way teachers are teaching and students are learning? Are there any new emerging paradigms in teaching and learning as a result of all these initiatives of ICT in education? Do the returns in terms of students’ achievement justify high costs of investment in ICT in education? How can we afford enough multimedia-capable,Internetconnected computers so that a classroom computer is always available for all students? How can we afford enough computers and telecommunications to sustain new models of teaching and learning? How can many educators who are disinterested or phobic about computers and communications be induced to adopt new technology-based models of teaching and learning? How do we prove to the public that new technology-based models of teaching and learning are better than current instructional approaches? How can educational technology increase equity rather than widen current gaps between “those that have” and “the have-nots”? If we use technology well, what should we expect as “typical” student performance? Basically, when it comes to ICT in education, the strategic concerns for the Ministry are: scalability of ICT initiatives at large and the JEI in particular to all schools, affordability of costs, sustainability of the initiatives, integration of ICT in all aspects of operations within the education system, institutionalization of initiatives within the system when additional funds are not made available, commitment of all partners to continue working within a coherent and effective frameworks, and commitment to change among teachers What ICT evaluation studies have been conducted? There have been extensive studies undertaken by the MoE, NCHRD, individual donors, the JEI, the British Council, and the private sector (national and international). These studies span the full realm of ICT-related elements, including network infrastructure, bandwidth, hardware and software distribution and use, other digital support equipment, management and teacher competence and application of ICT, etc. Individual Governorates within the Kingdom are also active in evaluating the extent to which their regions have parity with other areas and are providing an increasingly strong voice in overall Government planning. As part of the ERfKE programme management and ongoing design, the DCU has commissioned a range of studies, including specifi c studies conducted by NCHRD and by individual programme design consultants. The Managing Directorate of Curriculum and Textbooks, through its Digitization Directorate developed a set of evaluation criteria and instruments to be applied to the e-content products. This internal MoE team developed and fi eld tested the criteria and tools and now apply a system to fulfi l their monitoring and evaluation function. A list of the evaluation studies consulted is provided in Appendix G. Following are some of the key fi ndings. Case Study: Jordan | 121
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United Nations Cultural Organizati
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Published by the United Nations Edu
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Table of contents Foreword Preface
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Preface Information and Communicati
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Chapter 1 The Technological, Econom
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Five subsequent chapters review the
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Telephones Communications technolog
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Country Population (Millions) Econo
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construction, retailing) accounted
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organization structure shifts to ma
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(World Bank, 2005). With a national
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Beyond an impact on achievement in
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Chapter 2 A Framework for ICT Polic
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Education Tuned for Mass Production
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apple Providing the skills needed f
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subjects to understand and solve co
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a certain constellation of conditio
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Consequently, signifi cant change r
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Most often, a nation will combine t
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More than 30 countries have begun t
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as the knowledge society. These cha
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Chapter 3 Case Study: Singapore Phi
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apple students possessed basic skil
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The Context Singapore, located at t
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will be examined in the four core s
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Workforce Continuing Education Beyo
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expressed concerns that the fi gure
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Goals MP2 encourages the effective
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the schools’ initiatives by provi
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3. Improve the sharing of best prac
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Please don’t remove this word.ass
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items are usually included: manpowe
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Koh (2006) described a case where L
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these is the company, Playware Stud
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Koh and Lee further elaborated on t
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computer ratio of less than 10:1; S
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Chapter 4 Case Study: Namibia Shafi
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Page 77 and 78: 22% in 2002) and an estimated 15.3%
Page 79 and 80: In 2009, the GRN also made efforts
Page 81 and 82: extremely high levels of inequality
Page 83 and 84: It proposes that when used appropri
Page 85 and 86: problem solving; and learning to le
Page 87 and 88: The Implementation Plan places the
Page 89 and 90: The Policy Rationale The policy rat
Page 91 and 92: Stakeholder Category Stakeholder Ro
Page 93 and 94: Partnerships Currently in Existence
Page 95 and 96: Government stimulate the developmen
Page 97 and 98: apple That a number of successful c
Page 99 and 100: Chapter 5 Case Study: Jordan Taysee
Page 101 and 102: GCC Gulf Cooperation Council GITR G
Page 103 and 104: of the labour force is comprised of
Page 105 and 106: Table 2: Summary of Strengths, Weak
Page 107 and 108: Figure 1: Education Structure in Jo
Page 109 and 110: Policy Features Policy Objectives I
Page 111 and 112: The Ministry of Education has devel
Page 113 and 114: apple increasingly engaging various
Page 115 and 116: Intranet to facilitate data interch
Page 117 and 118: Table 7: A Comparison of the Comput
Page 119 and 120: Table 9: ICT Literacy and ICT Integ
Page 121 and 122: evenues could surpass USDone billio
Page 123 and 124: the Development Coordination Unit.
Page 125: delivery of ICT-related services, p
Page 129 and 130: In the case of education, the Minis
Page 131 and 132: Chapter 6 Case Study: Uruguay J. En
Page 133 and 134: Abbreviations and Acronyms AGESIC A
Page 135 and 136: Uruguay is categorized as an “upp
Page 137 and 138: As it can be appreciated, the gener
Page 139 and 140: apple Implement the national inter-
Page 141 and 142: Table 4: Education levels in Urugua
Page 143 and 144: Table 9: Indicators Related to Scho
Page 145 and 146: Policy Features Overview of ICT in
Page 147 and 148: education policy, but placed itself
Page 149 and 150: Implementation Framework What plans
Page 151 and 152: In case of a technical problem, use
Page 153 and 154: To illustrate the resources current
Page 155 and 156: What are the national conditions th
Page 157 and 158: apple Creating a grant fund for new
Page 159 and 160: Summarizing, Ceibal is a policy dri
Page 161 and 162: What modalities/mechanisms instrume
Page 163 and 164: equired actions to materialize the
Page 165 and 166: The design of the evaluation consid
Page 167 and 168: initiatives were part of the pilot
Page 169 and 170: Figure 17: Percentage of Children t
Page 171 and 172: Conclusion The information presente
Page 173 and 174: Executive Summary Rwanda has been a
Page 175 and 176: to the country’s shift towards su
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Rwanda ranks 143rd out of 154 count
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that are not designed for teaching
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These policy objectives are informe
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It also proposes that ICT be used i
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Figure 2: Finance Planning Framewor
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The Policy Development Process Step
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Table 6: Current Partners in ICT fo
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improving the quality of tertiary e
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Monitoring and Evaluation The ICT i
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However, the realization of Vision
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Introduction All of the countries r
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Technical support: Schools enjoyed
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apple structuring the education sys
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Pedagogical and Curricular Change T
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encouraged to apply project-based l
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to spur the economy. The country is
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Enablers This section focuses on th
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On the other hand, the case of Urug
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Monitoring and Evaluation The polic
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Scaling up in the context of this p
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way of transforming education so as
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Is Leap-frogging Possible? The effo
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the appropriate ICT resources and p
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technological literacy and pedagogi
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National Agency for Research and In
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--. 2009b. Working Out Change: Syst
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Gerster, R. and Zimmerman, S. 2005.
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--. 2009. Measuring the Information
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Linden, L., Banerjee, A., and Dufl
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Miniwatts Marketing Group. 2009. Ur
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Quale, A. Trends in instructional I
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United Nations Development Programm
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World Bank. 2008a. MENA Development
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For more information about the publ
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