National Policy on ICT in School Education

Position Paper for National policy on ICT in Education

The progress of our nation depends on the system of education that exists in our country. The aim of education is to mould the future of our nation by moulding young Indians with a balanced and well-rounded education. Over the past few years globalization, rapid technological developments and information explosion is compelling changes in the purpose and nature of education. Education in India is characterized by issues related to access, equity and quality. If India today aspires to emerge as a front-runner among the knowledge based societies, the usage of ICT in providing education of desirable quality can hardly be over emphasized.

While many states have their own ICT policy, it has been felt that a coherent and enabling policy for ICT at the national level would have tremendous benefits for the synergetic growth of our country. The National Policy would need to consist of objectives, guidelines, practices and must clearly articulate the role of ICT in school education. The most appropriate process would be a consultative one with all the stakeholders - educationists, ICT specialists, policymakers, community etc.

While creating this policy, we need to keep in mind the context of the emerging globalised economy, and position it at the frontier of this transition. This position paper has been divided into two sections. Section A deals with the Planning Context and Section B deals with the nuts and bolts of the Policy of ICT in Education.

Section A: The Planning Context

At the center of any task humanity undertakes, there is one factor alone that is consistent and that is �People�. Everything, resources, vision, technology and time are relevant to the task only if it is linked to �People�. Education aspires for the empowerment of people. In this process therefore, while looking at a policy for Technology in Education, it becomes pertinent to always remember, who are we looking at? Why are we doing what we are doing? What are the challenges and issues to be considered? How do we ensure quality in the scenario of technology and education? How will we face the challenges thrown up by Globalization?

Some issues that need to be considered while we are planning the policy for ICT in Education are:

a. Globalization: While recognizing the phenomenon of globalization ,The National Curriculum � Framework for School Education - 2006 speaks of the emergence of learning societies due to the multiplication of sources of information and communication, transformation of the nature of work requiring flexibility, necessity of team work and use of technologies. Integration of technology would have several other implications. This in turn would make demands on educational planners. Media production, interactive video and multimedia computer software shall have to be perceived as an integral component of the curriculum development processes, rather than external to it.

b. Technological Advancements: Unimaginable changes are happening every single day in the realms of technology. These advancements have been brought about due to:

Massive installation of undersea fiber-optic cable and bandwidth that have made it possible to globally transmit and store huge amounts of data for almost nothing.
Second, the diffusion of PC�s around the world.
Third , the convergence of a variety of software applications - from email, to Google , to Microsoft Office , to specially designed outsourcing programs - that when combined with all those PC�s and Bandwidth, make it possible to create immense technological advancements.

c. Changing Pedagogical Paradigms of the 21st Century: Today�s education faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how students live and how they learn. Students will spend their lives in a multitasking, multifaceted, technology-driven vibrant world and they must be equipped to handle the challenges of the 21st century effectively. It is obvious that the old pedagogical framework of de-contextualized instructional practices and fixed curriculum is clearly inappropriate. With information having increasingly short shelf life, education must empower learners to learn for themselves, and to continue to do so incessantly. It is important to understand the key learning skills of the future -Interpersonal Skills, Information Skills, Technology Skills, Basic Skills, Thinking Skills & Learnability.

d. National Curriculum Framework: The NCF clearly focuses on the child as an active learner. It takes into account the importance of children�s experiences, their voices and their participation. The NCF talks of the need for adults to change their perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge and that children can be an active participant s in the construction of knowledge. The school should recognize the innate ability of each child to construct his/her own knowledge, and the fact that every child comes to school with a fund of pre-knowledge. The NCF recommends significant changes in Language, Maths, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences with an overall view to reduce stress, make education more relevant and meaningful. NCF states: �Integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into schooling needs serious consideration. Teachers, educators, curriculum developers, evaluators and others will have to redefine their roles to tackle ICT rich environment and harness its full potential for the benefit of learners�.

e. Quality of Education: Planning for ICT Policy must definitely keep in mind the quality aspect of education. It is crucial to analyse what �quality� in education means, how it can be assessed and how it can be measured. Research conducted around the world reveals that using standardized quality standards enable schools to move towards organizational excellence. Quality bench marks in the areas of Visionary Leadership, Strategic Planning, Student & Stakeholder Focus, Workforce Engagement, Process Management, and diverse Results have now been accepted. The Criteria* are designed to help organizations use an integrated approach that results in delivery of ever-improving value to students and stakeholders, contributing to education quality, organizational stability and personal learning.

f. Current Challenges for ICT deployment in Education:

Professional Challenges: One of the challenges that face us in this scenario of a paradigm shift from teaching to learning is the professional competence of the teacher. Traditionally teachers have been visualized as repositories of knowledge which they transmitted to the students. Today technology has changed this completely. Yet teachers are not euphoric about the technology revolution. They doubt the potential of technology in meeting instructional goals and they continue to be tied to the �direct instruction� model.
Infrastructure Challenges: Investment in infrastructure is one of the major challenges in education today. We need to address the following issues when investment matters are raised:
- Is the technology investment essential to support instructional and educational goals?
- How do we address the issues of equity? Are all the stakeholders� needs for technology supported without bias to the rural / urban learner the economically deprived learner the differently abled learner?
- Investment in technology has emerged as a major priority for political leadership. Along with this policy reforms and educational reform is a precondition for major investment in education.
Challenges of Appropriate Content: There is a need to develop appropriate content which will support learning, teaching and administration local and relevant/appropriate education content, keeping in mind language, culture etc.
Challenges of Appropriate Approaches: Any ICT policy needs to adopt a systematic and holistic approach in which the following are addressed:
- Curriculum
- Assessment
- Instruction
- Integration of ICT into the school curriculum
- Designing a flexible curriculum model which would embrace inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary thinking
Challenges of Monitoring of Quality of Learning
- Challenges due to lack of benchmarks in technology usage: Quality bench marks need to be developed:
  - for technology products used in education
  - for usage of software and hardware in schools
  - for capacity building programmes
  - for learning outcomes

Section B: Policy Framework & Development

An Overview of the Policy Framework as envisaged

Underlying Philosophy

The ICT in Education Policy is a blueprint for the integration of Information Technology (IT) in education as a strategy to equip our children to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The ICT in Education Policy must:

continually anticipate the future needs of society, and work towards fulfilling those needs
develop appropriate ICT skills required for the future based on 21st century skills
address the issues of:

- Relevance
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Access
- Equity

Goals of the ICT Policy need to be made in the areas of:

1. Overall Policy

Policy and Organisational Framework: ICT policy must aim at policy and organisation issues in the education and training community aiming at:
a. Educational improvement
b. Educational innovation
c. Equity
d. Educational research
e. Resource allocation including funding policies
f. Strategic planning for ICT: Strategic plans relating to the use of ICT in education and training
g. Educational co-operation between different ministries of central government and between centre & state

2. People

a. Specialists: Provision of an adequate supply of people with specialised ICT skills who are required to provide front end and backend support
b. Professionals: Development of ICT skills for educators and educational leaders/managers
c. Educational indicators: Development of ICT skills accreditation and performance measures

3. Equity

a. Educational opportunities in order to address equity issues and reduction of inequities in ICT skill levels between rural and urban population, people from all races, economic backgrounds & gender. Access to remote learners who are otherwise deprived of quality teachers
b. Special educational needs, increasingly wide solutions for individuals

4. Infrastructure: ICT policy must addressing infrastructure development, including hardware, communications, technical support and emerging technologies.

5. Content, Applications and Services: ICT policy should aim at development of multiple models of delivering offline & online content and services for the education and training community.

6. Regulatory Framework: ICT policy must put into place regulatory issues in the education and training community:

a. Educational legislation which supports the effective use of ICT in education and training.
b. General legislation from external bodies which impacts on the effective use of ICT in education and training.

OPERATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF ICT POLICY
Operational dimensions of any policy enable vision to be translated into reality.

1. Curriculum, Pedagogy and Content Development

We have to prepare for a future in which information will be increasingly accessible and the renewal of knowledge in many fields increasingly rapid. The school curriculum will have to evolve a better balance between the learning of factual knowledge and the mastering of concepts and processes. Learning would shift from information receiving towards an emphasis on finding relevant information, learning to apply information to solve problems and communicating ideas effectively.

a. Integrating Technology into the Curriculum and Assessment

ICT should be integrated into the schools to meet the curricula goals.
Effective integration of ICT in schools must consider integration issues into both the curriculum and assessment.
When ICT is introduced into the assessment process, there is a need to reconsider the assessment approaches. There may be a greater role for formative assessment when ICT is integrated into the assessment process.

b. Shift in Pedagogy, Redesign of Curriculum and Assessment, and Greater School Autonomy

In order to optimize the potential of ICT, there should be a change in pedagogies, redesign of the curriculum and assessment, and more autonomy for schools. When ICT enters the school environment, everything in the environment has to change to take up the opportunities and address the limitations of ICT.
The shift in pedagogical approaches should be consistent with the goals and underlying principles of the education system.

c. Content Development that Supports the Curriculum

Local development of ICT-based resources is crucial to support the curriculum. It increases the relevance and enhances the authenticity of the resources for the students and teachers.
In order to develop high quality ICT-based resources, the MHRD should attract well-established education software developers to work with pedagogues. This will also promote the transfer of skills and technologies.
The ICT-based resources should be customizable so that they will meet the needs of the teachers and students based on their context.

2. Professional Development (Pre-service and In-service)
Teacher training is a key element to education reform, particularly training that focuses on classroom practices and engages teachers in a community of professional practice and development.

a. Policy in Teacher Training on ICT

The ICT professional development program for teachers must plan for the continuous training of teachers � from pre-service teacher education to induction to in-service professional development.
Train the trainer and fan model could be adopted for the training.
The ICT professional development program should focus on both pedagogical and technological aspects of ICT integration.
Faculty professional development in the teacher education institution is crucial to the success of the pre-service education program in ICT. There is first a need to re-examine the existing training model with regard to objectives, methods, costs, and effectiveness.

b. Need for ICT Competencies and Standards Before Training

The application of ICT competency standards allows teachers and students to seamlessly integrate learning materials from a wide range of sources.
The ICT competency standards should avoid software or product specific skills. Instead, the standards should focus on generic skills of particular applications.

c. Content Focus of Capacity Building for Pre-Service Teachers

The ICT professional development program of teachers should be planned based on the vision of the ICT Policy of the government.
The foundation course on ICT integration in the pre-service education program should focus on applying ICT skills to achieve pedagogical objectives, rather than teaching ICT skills in isolation. That is, ICT skills should be learnt within the context of classroom objectives and activities.
The pre-service teacher education institution should collaborate with private or public ICT training agencies to equip trainee teachers with the basic ICT skills. These agencies are specialists in ICT training and may be more competent and effective in the training. The teacher education institution can work closely with these agencies to develop the curriculum of the workshops, and leave the training to the latter.

3. Technology Infrastructure and Connectivity

a. Operational policies must include a provision and budget allocation for technical resources that are needed to accomplish the nation�s strategic goals.
b. This is typically a policy emphasis in the early stages of a country�s use of ICT in education.
c. Such plans often include the amounts and type of computer and multimedia hardware that will be purchased but they may also refer to resources related to television and radio, especially in developing countries.
d. Increasingly, the Internet and local networking resources are also included, along with a budget for educational software.
e. Technical support - Another important operational component is ongoing technical assistance, which teachers need not only in early phases of ICT use but as hardware and networking technologies become more sophisticated and educational applications become more complex.

KEY IMPLEMENTATION POINTS

The ICT policies in education should be an integral part of the overall ICT plan for the country. The MHRD must work closely with other government organizations, especially the MOICT. The ICT policies in education should refine, integrate and expand the scope of the pilot initiatives. For Example:

a. Development of a Practical Action Plan for Transforming ICT for Education Policy into Action
b. Creating a Legal and Regulatory Framework for the Use of ICT in Education
c. Obtaining Support of Policy Makers and Other Stakeholders of the Various Departments of the Ministry
d. Management and Financing (national and school levels)
e. ICT in Schools � Policy, Visions and Strategies
f. Supporting School Policies that facilitate uptake of ICT in Schools (School Leadership)
g. Parents and Community Involvement

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