National Policy on ICT in School Education

ICT – Vision, Policy Framework and the Need

2. Executive Summary

2.1. Areas of Focus

India has got an excellent opportunity to initiate its efforts in re-formulating an education policy in such a way that – the following can be the key areas of focus:

1. Creativity, Cultural Values, National Need, Critical Thinking, Entrepreneurial Thinking and subject orientation formulate the content for students across school education
2. Education system is in continuous alignment to her economic-GDP 2020 vision of 44% of national GDP from agricultural income, 21% of GDP from manufacturing sector and 35% of GDP from the services sector
3. Develop knowledge resource not to meet just the national need but the global need on knowledgehuman resources

2.2. Approach It is important that the existing economic and digital divide needs to be bridged. Implementation and integration of ICT into the education system should address the following key-points:

1. Ensure that the gender, economic inequalities are bridged. Regardless of gender and financial status of students – education for every student should be the motto of ICT implementation
2. Provide cost-efficient delivery of education to build a strong equitable and economically strong knowledge society
3. Develop partnerships with government and private agencies for delivery of ICT education
4. Create inter-connected clusters of villages with a central hub. Each central hub connected to an urban city with basic health-care facility provided
5. Pilot test the hub-cluster model with 3 villages near an urban city

3. Country’s Need

3.1. Thoughts from Our Past and Present Leaders

ICT implementation has given an excellent opportunity for the Education Policy Implementation specialists to re-visit what we want our future leaders of India to be like. If we have a peek into the visionaries of India – past and present – we get an idea of

- what need to be taught
- who are our target audience across India
- how to reach out to each and every corner of India

Let us look at some thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Abdul Kalam.

“A student has to acquaint himself with the condition of things in his own country, try to realize the magnitude of the crisis with which it is faced and the work that it requires of him. I am against only a few lakhs of boys and girls receiving it at the expense of the poor tax-payer or at the expense of poorest..”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“in primary school, creativity is the focus, in the secondary school, preparing the students for selecting their future courses is the aim and in college and university education generating researchers and professional entrepreneurs is important. … and ….. our education system should re-align itself at the earliest to meet the needs of present day challenges and be fully geared to participate in societal transformation – leading to economic growth.”
- Dr. Abdul Kalam

3.2. Country’s Need

Country’s growth is measured by its economic state, literacy rate and health-care facilities. By 2020 employment pattern should aim at 44% in agriculture, 21% in manufacturing and 35% in service sectors. Of course, manpower reduction in agriculture has to be met with increased technological input.

Universities and educational systems should create two cadres of personnel: (1) a global cadre of skilled youth with specific knowledge of specific skills (2) another global cadre of youth with higher education. These two cadres will not only power the manufacturing and service sectors of India but also fulfilling the human resource requirements of various countries. The need therefore can best be defined along the following lines:

Throughput of higher education system should increase from existing 11% to 20% by 2015, 30% by 2020 and 50% by 2040

Hub-and-spoke model of inter-connected clusters of villages. And each hub of these clusters connected to an Urban city

Agriculture-based education to reach the rural schools and colleges – so that the urban movement of rural people can be reduced and technology-supported agriculture can grow and flourish

Awareness and reach to health-care facilities thru the network of clusters. Meaning – the rural areas getting internet-based basic health-care help

4. Vision & ICT Balanced Scorecard

4.1. Vision

Working backwards from the national 2020 vision we can derive a vision for ICT in schools. It is important to keep that the following points are the driving factors of that vision:

Ensure that when students leave school, they should be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, and more importantly understand the impact of those technologies on society

Prepare students for adult life when nearing the end of their compulsory schooling

Enable equitable and cost-efficient delivery of education to create a strong equitable, imaginative and economically strong knowledge society that which is globally integrated

Implement technology education – not as an end in itself – but as a means to promoting creativity, empowerment and equality, producing efficient learners, problem solvers, potential researchers and potential entrepreneurs

Support education and training workers to acquire and maintain the skills needed to take full advantage of the potential of ICT to transform learning

Partner across agencies at all levels of various ministries in the government to ensure the development of a policy and regulatory framework to enable acceptance of ICT in education and training

4.2. Focus Areas for ICT in Schools

In alignment to Dr. Kalam’s vision for Students:

ICT in Primary Education should work towards:
o Enhancing creativity
o Inculcating the indian cultural values

ICT in Secondary Education should work towards:
o Enabling the students to understand the subjects
o Enabling the students to understand the national need
o Inculcating the national pride in students
o Developing the critical thinking ability of students

ICT in Senior Secondary Education should work towards:
o Enhancing the critical thinking ability of students
o Developing the entrepreneurial thinking amidst students
o Informing the national need to the students
o Developing the Research & Development alignment for the nation
o Developing the career-orientation in alignment to the following sectors

                 1. IT & ITES Sector
                 2. Agriculture Sector
                 3. Manufacturing Sector
                 4. Other Services Sector
                 5. Vocational Services Sector

4.3. Goals – ICT Balanced Scorecard, Operational Targets and Challenges

4.3.1. Goals and Objectives

The Goals and Objectives can be categorized into following categories:

1. National Economic Contribution
2. Stakeholder Orientation
3. Operational Efficiency and
4. Future Orientation

Based on the aforesaid four categories – it is possible to develop an ICT Balanced Scorecard. This in turn can help the policy makers, administrative personnel and performance evaluators to derive the performance measures from the goals defined in the ICT Balanced Scorecard. Figure 2: Goals defined as an ICT Balanced Scorecard

Figure 2: Goals defined as an ICT Balanced Scorecard

4.3.2. Operational Targets

All schools in India to be a part of hub & spoke model – defined with-in the clusters of villages/locations within a year

All schools in India to have a technology package and a computer lab

All schools to have electronic library system

80% of school teachers to be trained in computer skills and computer-aided instruction

All schools’ collection and analysis of key performance measures of ICT-education impact to be automated in 3 years time

Develop an integrated Human Resources Information Network in 3 years – in collaboration with partnering-Corporate. This will be an integrated database of Skilled Manpower, education and training services, job opportunities

Complete implementation of ICT education by 2013

4.3.3. Challenges

Basic Software Content. Language diversity in India will force ICT to have content in multiplelanguages

Lack of trained teachers

Lack of motivation of all concerned authorities. Particularly school administration’s mindset to and non-appreciation of value of ICT to transform and improve education

Language diversity in India does not negate the lack of regional teachers – as the teaching may have to be in regional language. The advantages that developed countries (or single-language countries) have is not present in India – owing to its language diversity

Accessibility and affordability and networking

Annual budget

4.4. Stakeholders & Contributors of ICT

The various stakeholders of ICT are:

Figure 3: Stakeholders in ICT

Student: A student is the central focus of any education. Preparing the student for national growth and for his own personal growth should be the motto of (ICT) education

Parent: ICT education should enable active regular on-going participation of parent in their wards’ growth. In current setup – a parent is involved in the school education of their wards’ through infrequent PTA meetings and therefore a very re-active mode of participation alone exists. Webenabled applications can help in forming parent-teacher-student relationships

Teacher: Teachers should also be trained in the needs of the nation and in computer technology as they have the greatest influence (after parents) on the young minds – the future leaders of the nation. It is important that the uptake of ICT is routed thru these teachers

Policy Maker & Strategy Formulator: This is the administrative body within MHRD which formulates the ICT Education Policy and also formulates the strategy for the implementation of ICT across India. This body works closely with other related ministries within the government for smooth implementation policy and for consistent availability and use of ICT resources. This body works closely with international organizations such as UNESCO, OECD etc. who have a wealth of information on ICT implementation and integration

Education Performance Evaluator: The responsibility of this body is to develop key performance measures for analyzing the impact of ICT education. These performance measures will also help in evaluating the alignment of ICT education impact towards the defined ICT vision

Educator & Technology Committee: This body is responsible for designing the content. It is important that the educator and the technologists should be teamed together so that the dichotomy between educator and technologist does not arise. This will also enable the educator in designing content based on the limitations created by technology

Corporate Sponsors: It is important to not only initiate ICT implementation but also – sustain this on an ongoing basis. Corporate with social conscience should be given the recognition so that they sponsor ICT implementation on sustained basis

Content Provider: A content provider plays a key role in developing the content depending on the need of the school in alignment to the vision. It is best to bring in multiple partners from the private industry to build the content for ICT education. These providers will work closely with Educator & Technology Committee

Infrastructure Provider: It is important to provide connectivity between various clusters in the form of tele-communication for implementing ICT. Infrastructure related to tele-communication, computers, electronic-labs can be maintained only by partnering with appropriate providers

Work Opportunities Wing: This wing works as a bridge between students and the job opportunities in various vocational sectors that are available

5. Policy Guidelines for ICT

High-level policy guidelines for ICT are typically derived keeping in mind the National need of critical thinking, entrepreneurially spirited future leaders. The following key points can help in defining the policy guidelines:

To actualize the role of education and training in the strengthening of an equitable, imaginative and economically strong knowledge society

To improve and increase quality, accessibility and cost-efficiency of the delivery of education

To support education and training specialists to acquire and maintain the skills needed to take advantage of ICT and to transform learning

To create high quality digital content, services and applications

Work with partners and agencies for content, delivery and training and technology

Promoting connectivity and access to ICT in schools

Upgrading teacher competencies

Integrating ICT into curriculum

Improving quality of teaching and learning

Developing a cadre of citizens who can contribute to the workforce and economy – globally

5.1. Guidelines for Policy Formulation

It is important to understand that – in the name of ICT in schools – it is NOT enough to equip schools with personal computers and train teachers in their use. ICT in itself is not going to radically change education systems. But it does give an opportunity to re-visit what education and its system should be seeking to achieve. ICT can be a great enabler.

Some of the important points for Policy formulation in ICT are:

5.1.1. Macro-Economic Impact

To ensure that ICT does not become another source of gender and economic inequality. Contrarily, ICT should be used to bridge that disparity and create a leveling ground for gender and economically disparate society like ours

To translate the national vision of ICT to the last granular level. This would mean – translating the ICT national vision to each and every school’s vision on ICT. It is important to create an ICT master plan according to each and every school’s vision and its socio-cultural setting

To narrow digital divide by developing ICT education policy complementing other government initiatives viz. public education thru ICT, computers donation, internet access, health-care facilities’ access

5.1.2. Policy Development

To create a national policymaking, regulatory and implementing agency for systematizing collaboration between government agencies, ministries is enabled – this will help in harmonized implementation of ICT in education programs. The various stakeholders that may have to work together on this common platform could be: Human Resources Ministry, Education Division, Health-care Ministry, Information & broadcasting ministry, Telecommunication ministry, Infrastructure ministry, Private Sectors (particularly in content and hardware provision) etc.

To ensure transparency of decisions taken or amended by the policy makers to all stakeholders

To formulate an ICT bureau comprising of – education policy committee and education performance evaluation committee

o Education policy committee’s responsibility is to consolidate policies based on suggestions from stakeholders and also to work closely with international experience (for e.g. advanced countries. UNESCO also has done some extensive survey and research on ICT in education) . Interacting and taking inputs from organizations like UNESCO, PISA, OECD etc. can greatly enhance the policies and also can hasten the ICT implementation and integration

o Education performance evaluation committee’s responsibility is to formalize the framework for performance measures, implementation of the same, data collection and analysis of the measures to feed back for policy and performance enhancements

To develop standard budget based on school size and existing resources

5.1.3. Students & Parents

To establish criteria for partnership with content providers to provide and maintain content for primary, secondary and senior-secondary schools

To ensure that ICT should create a leveling ground for the disadvantaged and for those with special needs as well

To establish selection criteria for students to be considered for potential job-providers. Potential job-providers need to be consulted for the same (particularly for the vocational sectors)

To build a platform as a part of ICT Master plan, for parents to participate in their wards’ development. This can enhance the value of PTA meetings on an ongoing regular basis – instead of a quarterly hands-off PTA meetings

To build a platform for peer-learning for students

5.1.4. School & Teacher Training

To enhance acceptance of ICT in schools, school leaders to be considered as primary audience. They can help in adopting strategies to integrate ICT into the curriculum

To appoint an ICT coordinator in each school to ensure administrative and pedagogical support for teachers

To build a buddy system approach for novice teachers with expert teachers in an ICT classroom

To define incentive system and motivational strategies for teachers who promote ICT education.

Formal certification of in-service professional development could be encouraged

To provide autonomy to schools to select ICT personnel and resources as per their need based on the standards defined

5.1.5. Curriculum, Content and Pedagogy

To ensure that dichotomy between technologists and educators does not arise – by composing teams with both of them

To create a knowledge-base on good use of internet and technology. To bring in to education the safety issues pertaining to Internet an integral part of parenting as well as teaching and learning activities at home and in school

5.1.6. Software, Hardware & Infrastructure

To establish appropriate firewall and filtering mechanism for preventing access to undesirable websites – which otherwise can be counter-productive to a student’s growth

To ensure that pilot projects do not take more than 2 years as they have to battle the obsolescence rate of technologies

To create a definitive rule-set pertaining to intellectual property rights to educational materials

To create standards for software, hardware applications for implementation of ICT resources

To formulate multiple clusters, based on geography and ethnicity, of units (villages and locations) in India. Each of these clusters is strategically connected to an urban city. Create a hub-and-spoke model

6. Key Performance Measures (KPMs)

Key Performance Measures are used as evidence to assess or evaluate the intervention and implementation of ICT in education. The KPMs should not only take snapshot of current conditions – but also should point out directions for policy and thus considered as stimulus for change.

6.1. Guidelines for KPMs

1. Student outcomes information should be the focus of the reporting agenda
2. Performance measures should take account of State and Region curriculum
3. Assessment techniques should be innovative and model good assessment practice and wherever possible, assessment outputs developed at individual school, cluster, region or national level should be available for use by systems and schools
4. Develop privacy and confidentiality provision for data and their collections. Access to data collections should be available to interested parties subject to those privacy and confidentiality provision
5. Where performance in different years in a particular domain is the focus of measurement, a single domain scale or percentile should underpin the measurement of student achievement
6.2. Policy Planning on KPMs

The policy should help in assessing how ICT is raising the standards in education and serving as a catalyst for educational change. To achieve this objective, the following strategies need to be in focus:

Undertaking a situational analysis on existing projects/activities measuring the impact of the use of ICT in education within and outside the state and on this basis, identify an appropriate set of performance measures which could be adapted or developed for application

Pilot testing this set of measures in selected states

Developing a systematic mechanism and database for the collection, storage, analysis and dissemination of the measures based on a network of regional and sub-regional focal centers

Promoting data utilization and undertaking advocacy work to convince educational policy makers and administrators to mainstream the collection and maintenance of measures into their regional educational policies and management information systems

Building national capacity in the collection, processing and dissemination of measures and

Implementing an information repackaging program to ensure that the results/data collected dealing with these measures are disseminated and utilized for policy and program adjustments and improvements

6.3. Approach for formulating KPMs

In order to develop good measures it is important to have a clear knowledge of the following:

Purpose of measure and

What to be measured

Key concepts and methods of measure

Diagram below outlines how to formulate the KPMs.

Figure 4: Steps to define Key Performance Measures

6.4. Key Performance Measures

The various aspects that need to be measured are:

Measures classified into primary, secondary and senior-secondary school categories

Measuring content, teaching and improvement of learners in

o Creativity for Primary School
o Subject orientation for Secondary School
o Career-orientation in Senior Secondary School

Reliability and long-standing vision of the contents

Consistency in involvement of stakeholders and content providers

How much students think that they have improved

Impact of teaching methods

Availability of infrastructure for disbursing content

Change in teaching methods

Efficiency of clusters and its tele-communication links within and with the urban centers

Teachers’ confidence and acceptance in using ICT

Barriers to computer related activities

Percentage contribution to various sectors from senior secondary education

Classify measures into the following four categories

o National Economic Contribution aligned to national economic goals
o Stakeholders’ Orientation (Ease of use of content, students’ and teachers’ opinions and acceptance of content, training methods and technology, outputs to corporates for hire from vocational standpoint)
o Operational Efficiency (Infrastructure availability, infrastructure efficacy, teaching, implementation, data collection, students’ reach etc.)
o Future Orientation (Content, Training, Technology-Use, telecommunications’ setup, training methods)

Please refer Appendix 1 for a possible list of measures across the four classifications as defined in the ICT Balanced Scorecard.

7. Implementation Approach

Approach to implement ICT needs parallel development across the following components of ICT:

1. Educational Content
2. Teacher Training
3. Clear definition of clusters across India
4. Infrastructure & Tele-communication Connectivity
5. Forge partnerships across agencies (private sectors (telecommunication and computing) and government agencies) to get the initial funding, sponsorships and hardware for implementation
6. Choose a cluster in such a way that at-least 75% of that cluster already has tele-connectivity in place. Alternatively – if partnership with companies like Everonn can enable a kick-start on these clusters using their existing VSAT setup

Some key points to be kept in consideration for implementation are:

Initiate a pilot implementation

Chose one cluster which could constitute around 15 to 20 schools (to begin with)

Chose secondary school students (5th to 8th Standard) as the first target audience for content development. Secondary school students are chosen as against primary and senior secondary school students for the following reasons:

o Secondary school students are not required to take any national levels exams as expected of senior secondary school students (10th and 12th) and hence are not under pressure to try a new method of learning
o ICT education impact on Secondary school students could be more discernible and measurable than the impact on primary school students

Choose Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, English and National Pride as the first set of content to be reached for the secondary school students. While the first three subjects help us to develop quantitative measure of ICT impact – the last two subjects will give us a glimpse on qualitative measure of ICT impact

Partner with a private educational content firm like Everonn Systems to develop (or use existing) content for secondary school

7.1. Approach – A Pilot Implementation

7.2. What Can Everonn Systems Do?

7.2.1. Policy Formulation

Everonn Systems – given their pedigree in education system to schools can help in:

o Consolidating the responses for policy formulation and assist MHRD in finalizing the policy for ICT implementation
o Defining the clusters for schools in villages across India
o Defining the key performance measures
o Working closely with stakeholders in defining the content for ICT education

Everonn Systems can take an ownership-role alongside MHRD to ensure ICT integration into schools’ curriculum

7.2.2. Pilot Implementation

Starting the pilot project with the Everonn Systems network of schools – by defining a cluster around the schools within Everonn’s VSAT network

Providing the existing Everonn infrastructure and content support for these schools

Deploying an Everonn team to assist MHRD in defining the cluster

Providing an Everonn-ICT coordinator for the defined cluster

Capturing the data for key performance measures for ICT-effectiveness evaluation

Developing the web-enabled application for parent-student-teacher interaction

Developing the home-pages on the web for school

Annexure 1 – Key Performance Measures

This section outlines the possible list of KPMs. By no means, this section outlines whether these measures should be qualitative or quantitative. That is a separate effort by itself.