Survey of ICT in Education in Africa

How are ICTs currently being used in the education sector in Africa, and what are the strategies and policies related to this use?

Activity #	1272
Partners	Commonwealth of Learning

Summary

infoDev is helping coordinate a comprehensive study surveying the current landscape of ICT in education initiatives in Africa, and is interested in collaborating with partner organizations who may wish to be involved in this work.

The first stage of this activity is now complete.

infoDev released its first set of results from this work -- Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary Report, Based on 53 Country Reports -- in October 2007.

The complete set of individual reports comprising the Survey of ICT and Education in Africa (Volume 2): 53 Country Reports were published in December 2007.

During the course of this project, COL maintained a project wiki with the most recent updates on this project, including draft country reports posted for public comment.

You may also wish to see the related infoDev activity, Monitoring and Evaluation of the NEPAD e-Schools Demo Project. infoDev is also leading a Critical Review and Survey of ICT in Education in the Caribbean.

Background / Terms of Reference

Key questions:
- How are ICTs currently being used in the education sector in Africa, and what are the strategies and policies related to this use?
- What are the common challenges and constraints faced by African countries in this area?
- What is actually happening on the ground, and to what extent are donors involved?

Background

Need for coordination. Conversations with colleagues at a number of organizations -- donors, governments, civil society, universities, and the private sector -- interested in ICT & education issues in Africa suggest that many are contemplating similar or related types of data collection efforts in this area. infoDev is seeking to identify interested groups to help coordinate some of the data collection activities (where feasible) and share the resulting data as widely as possible. While different organizations have different objectives in collecting such data to serve various constituencies, it may make sense to coordinate efforts in certain areas, and infoDev is willing to help lead such coordination efforts. At a minimum, this should help prevent duplication of efforts, as well as 'survey fatigue' on the part of potential information sources 'on-the-ground'.

Lack of information impacts planning. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that many countries and donor agencies are struggling to keep track of ICT/education projects development projects over which they have no control and about which they often little knowledge so that the lessons learned from these projects -- let alone their existence -- can inform strategy and planning related to ICT use in education going forward. Many private sector firms and civil society organizations with an interest in supporting education programmes and technology initiatives in Africa (especially where such projects may intersect!) have expressed similar frustrations.

No consolidated information resource. Much relevant data collection has already occurred, but the results are scattered across a number of publications and databases (many of which are not widely known), held within individual organizations, not easily accessible to the education community, and/or, where public, not widely disseminated. Examples of useful resources in this area include the Imfundo KnowledgeBank, which is not longer on-line, and publications such as Towards a Strategy on Developing African Teacher Capabilities in the Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (PDF, 559k) and Mkusanyiko on School Networking (PDF, 635k).

This project seeks to gather together in a single resource the most relevant and useful information on ICT in education activities in Africa.

Eventually, it is hoped that eventually this data can be combined with data from other regions to help form a global database of information related to ICTs in education in developing countries.

Some Context

ICTs and EFA. ICTs are widely believed to be important potential levers to introduce and sustain education reform efforts. Despite evidence of increasingly widespread use of ICTs in education initiatives around the world, however, there is little guidance available for policy makers and donor staff specifically targeted at countries contemplating the use of ICTs to help countries meet the education-related Millennium Development Goals. Despite rhetoric related to the ‘digital divide’, especially in Africa, scattered and typically uncoordinated initiatives utilizing ICTs to benefit education throughout the continent, and interest in using ICTs to help meet EFA objectives and other education-related Millennium Development Goals, there is no consolidated documentation of what is actually happening in Africa in this area. In addition, there exists no comprehensive baseline data of the state of ICT use in education in Africa, against which future developments can be compared.

Types of data to be collected

In 2003-2004 UNESCO-Bangkok completed work on a landmark Metasurvey on the use of Technologies in Education in Asia and the Pacific (PDF, 2.3MB). infoDev proposes to use this survey, and the related survey collection methodology, as a rough model for its data collection activities.

For each Africa country, data will be collected related to a variety of themes. The types of data collected as part of this survey could, for example, be divided into the following general categories:

(a) General state of ICT use in education
(b) National and regional policies & strategies
(c) How MOEs treat ICT issues from an internal organizational and staffing perspective (including organograms of ICT responsibilities at the MOE), as well as other governmental entities (Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Science and Technology, PTT, etc.), as relevant/appropriate;
(d) Current levels of ICT access and use;
(e) Notable initiatives and programs;
(f) Constraints on the use of ICT in education;
(i) Donor activities;
(j) Other notable and relevant information;
(k) Additional information resources.

Particular note will be made of how ICTs are used in education at various levels of an education system, namely:

Primary education
Secondary education
Higher education
Vocational education
(Where information about ICT use to facilitate lifelong learning is readily available, this will be included as well.)

Timeline

It is expected that the first stage of data collection will commence in a first set of countries in mid-2006, with preliminary results available in early 2007. infoDev is hoping to make this information available on-line in a "wiki-like" format that will allow selected partner organizations and experts to help keep the information updated in an easy manner.

ICTs in Education vs. Distance Education?

It is expected that this survey will encompass and be relevant to both the "ICTs in education" and "distance education" communities (the lines between which are rapidly blurring).

An International "Public Good"

The data collected will be synthesized and published on the web to serve as a general 'international public good'. (Individual organizations could then re-purpose and re-package this data in variety of formats to help meet their own institution-specific needs, and those of their their clients.) It is expected that this database could serve as an important resource for a variety of follow-on studies and work.

Current and prospective partners

infoDev is working with a variety of potential partner organizations to facilitate this work.

In order to ensure that the data collected are of the widest possible utility, relevant to the needs of a variety of communities, and able to be easily updated regularly over time, infoDev hopes to be able to collaborate with organizations representing the donor community, civil society, research institutions and practitioners, and governments in this endeavor going forward.