NEWS: Making ICT work

The Star

Sunday March 23, 2008

By SIMRIT KAUR

Officials from Southeast Asian countries share best practices and progress made through the use of ICT in education.

MANY believe that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) offers poorer countries a chance to catch up with their richer counterparts and level the education playing field.

The greater use of ICT will enable more countries to provide quality education to their citizens.

Unesco views ICT as a delivery medium that enables inclusion to those who have yet to access education.

“Due to the prohibitive costs in building and maintaining new schools, it is impossible for developing countries to meet increasing demands for quality education using the traditional pattern,” said the head of the ICT unit at Unesco, Bangkok, Dr Miao Fengchun. “New media and new models are needed if education for all is to be achieved.”

ICT offers an affordable and sustainable solution for children in remote regions. As examples, Dr Miao cited the use of multi- media learning packages in schools that lack sufficiently-trained human resources, and community learning centres in China and India.

Dr Miao was speaking in Kuala Lumpur recently at an ICT conference and exhibition held in conjunction with the 43rd Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation’s (Seameo) council conference and the third Asean Education Ministers Meeting.

The conference featured 37 speakers.

Seameo member countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia took part.

In his opening address, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said governments alone could not cope with imparting ICT knowledge and that smart partnerships should be formed.

“Teaching methods and educational goals have to be geared towards producing individuals who will work at developing their capabilities throughout their lives.

“It should equip students with the skills to seek information on their own, the ability to use technology to gain knowledge and to advance their skills,” he said.

Why ICT matters

In his plenary session paper, Dr Miao gave an overview of efforts to integrate ICT in teaching and learning at a macro level by countries in Asia Pacific.

He said the overall goal of the ICT in Education Programme at Unesco was to help member states harness the potential of ICT to achieve quality education for all in the region. Without education for all and quality learning as the goal, the adoption of ICT in education would just be “an aimless and endless digitalisation gimmick”.

He noted that mobile phone technology and US$100 (RM320) computers were lowering the barriers to digital inclusion. But, he asked: “Were these vendor-driven or education-oriented?

“Due to the prohibitive costs of building and maintaining new schools, it is impossible for developing countries to meet increasing demands for quality education using the traditional pattern.

“New media and new models are needed if education for all is to be achieved,” Dr Miao said.

Dr Tinsiri Siribodhi, deputy director with the Seameo secretariat, also spoke about the implementation of ICT in member countries.

She said that although resources were scarce in many countries, this should not be a barrier to ICT use.

“Success is not about the number or ratio of computers to students.

“Rather it is measured by what a teacher can do with limited resources to achieve maximum results.”

Making progress

Wide variations exist in the use of ICT among the Southeast Asian countries. While Thailand and the Philippines have achieved remarkable progress, poorer nations like Cambodia and Laos still lag far behind.

About 80% of all schools in Thailand have Internet access, which is delivered through dial-up, leased lines and satellite. And 55.3% of schools have a ratio of 20 students to one computer.

“Since 2005, only leased lines and satellites have been installed at institutions,” said Keartisak Sensai from the Education Ministry in Thailand.

“Besides allocating budgets to set up the network systems and computers, the ministry also provides funds for resources to support the teaching and learning environment.”

Elmer M. Guizano from the Department of Education in the Philippines spoke about initiatives taken by the department to use ICT to broaden access and improve the quality and efficiency of basic education services.

“Technology plays a major role in creating a new and improved model of teaching and learning, where education happens anytime and anywhere,” he said.

Over 100,000 ICT teachers had been trained through strategic partnerships and resource mobilisation between the public and private sectors in the Philippines.

Many obstacles

Recently, through a collaborative project with Waseda University, Japan, three public schools, local government units and a marine sanctuary in Bantayan Island, Cebu, were provided with a wireless transmission network.

“The recipient schools can now be a model of inter-island E-learning in the Philippines,” Guizano said.

In Laos, computers are used mainly for short-term courses and for the subject itself at technical and vocational institutions.

“Only computer teachers use power point to prepare overhead projector transparencies. In most cases, there is no Internet or e-mail access in these institutions,” said Soulikhamkone Sisoulath from the Education Ministry in Laos.

He acknowledged that there was a lack of ICT infrastructure, knowledge base, financial resources and awareness of ICT use in the country. However, there are plans to build a Wide Area Network between selected technical and vocational institutions.

In Cambodia, a lot of catching up is needed to bring youths into the digital age and produce a technologically literate, productive and critical-thinking workforce for the country.

“A national ICT policy, which is about to be approved by the National Assembly, espouses the need to use free and open source software,” said Sombath Eath from the Cambodian Education, Youth and Sports Ministry.

The ministry was sourcing for educational content from other countries, which could be translated into the Khmer language, she added.

Electricity is another problem – a few high schools have to use generators or solar power to run their computers.

“The country needs about 20,000 computers to reach a ratio of one computer for every 20 students in high schools. They have to be low power consumption computers, otherwise the ministry will not be able to afford the electricity cost,” Sombath said.