SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA - infoDev

PREFACEThis study aims to bridge a crucial gap in our knowledge of the use of information and communicationtechnologies (ICTs) in Africa.Despitennnnnnwidespread beliefs that ICTs can be important potential levers to introduce and sustain education reformefforts in Africa;anecdotal evidence of increasingly widespread demand for and use of ICTs in education initiatives inAfrican countries;demonstrated interest from African policymakers in using ICTs to help meet Education For All (EFA)objectives;scattered and often uncoordinated initiatives utilizing ICTs to benefit education throughout thecontinent; andmuch rhetoric related to the ‘digital divide’;there has been no consolidated documentation of what is actually happening in Africa in this area, norcomprehensive baseline data on the state of ICT use in education in Africa against which future developmentscan be compared.A lack of information impacts planningAnecdotal evidence suggests that many African countries and donor agencies are struggling to keep track ofICT/education projects over which they have “no control” and about which they often have little knowledge,making it unlikely that lessons learned from these projects can inform strategy and planning related toICT use in education going forward. Many private sector firms and civil society organizations with aninterest in supporting education programmes and technology initiatives in Africa (especially where suchprojects may intersect) have expressed similar frustrations.A need for coordinationConversations with colleagues at a number of organizations—donors, governments, civil society, universities,and the private sector— interested in ICT and education issues in Africa suggest that many have beencontemplating similar or related types of data collection efforts in this area for some time. In order toaccelerate such activities, infoDev has coordinated with a wide variety of groups to help support andconsolidate the results from on-going data collection efforts and then share the resulting data as widely aspossible. At a minimum, we hope that this survey process should help prevent duplication of efforts, as wellas ‘survey fatigue’ on the part of potential information sources.No consolidated information resourceMuch relevant data collection has already occurred, but the results are scattered across a number of publicationsand databases (many of which are not widely known), held within individual organizations, not easilyaccessible to the education community, and/or, where public, not widely disseminated.This Survey of ICT and Education in Africa seeks to gather together in a single resource the most relevant anduseful information on ICT in education activities in Africa. We hope that this publication is a first step in awww.infodev.org Preface