SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA - infoDev

ICT in Education inAFRICA: A Way ForwardThis survey has demonstrated that the progress being made in the adoption and diffusion of ICT ineducation throughout Africa, particularly in these early years of the 21 st century, is remarkable. However, interms of broad impact on learners, the process is just beginning. What follows are some suggestions andcomments regarding actions in key areas of ICT in education that will be important to attend to as theadoption process continues. As well, suggestions for a strategy to maintain and enhance the currency of thedata that has been gathered are included.Moving Forward on Implementation of ICTin EducationnnnnnMonitoring implementationThere are many excellent models of comprehensive ICT in education policies that can be pointed to asexamples of good practice in an African context. It would be useful to monitor the implementation ofpolicies in selected countries in order to investigate the processes used to determine if there are lessons tobe learned.ICT as the ‘silver bullet’There are a few countries that continue to have a rather singular emphasis on the development of ICTinfrastructure as the “silver bullet” for achieving socio-economic development. However, as noted in arecent study cited in the Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, investment inICT by itself does not foster human development, but must be accompanied by investment in educationand health as well. 28Total Cost of OwnershipThe efforts of organisations such as Global e-Schools and Community Initiatives, schoolnets, andNEPAD e-Schools to develop “total cost of ownership” models for ICT in education are exemplary andshould be supported. They need to be backed by good financing models that encourage budgetarycommitment on the part of governments and incorporates multi-partnership, multi-stakeholderapproaches.ICT in Education vs. Education in ICTWhile the practice of equipping schools with computers and using them to teach computer literacy anduse packaged content to augment teaching is useful, the goal of fully integrating ICT in educationaladministrative and pedagogical processes will continue to be constrained by the lack of access to ICTinfrastructure, affordable connectivity with sufficient bandwidth, and a reliable supply of electricity.Teacher professional developmentTeacher training needs to involve much more than the development of computer literacy skills. Teachersneed to be able to design and adapt content materials to suit student needs, to search and manageinformation, and to be aware of the ethics and dangers inherent in the use of ICT technologies. Theseare some of the ways in which ICTs need to be integrated into continuing teacher professional developmentand training programmes. The NEPAD e-Schools project in its Framework for Teacherwww.infodev.org ICT in Education in Africa: A Way Forward 29