National Policy on ICT in School Education

NATIONAL POLICY ON ICT IN EDUCATION
a position paper

Dr.(Mrs.) Sharad Sinha
Reader, RIE-NCERT , Ajmer

Introduction
Advances in information technology and communications are transforming the world economy and presenting new challenges to all countries. The challenge for developing nations is to compete effectively in an emerging information-based economy. Decision makers have debated for some time whether it is reasonable to invest money in technology for the educational system in countries with large segments of the population living in extreme poverty, rather than use the same money to improve living conditions of those in need. Taking into account human capital theory, the only way to reach a long-term solution for the economic problems of a country’s population is to raise the educational level to promote economic growth. Competitiveness in international markets, automation of industrial and commercial processes and even the use of technology in agriculture, require technology skills in the workforce. For all these reasons, the introduction of information and communication technology in education in developing countries like India cannot wait until a country has reached some predetermined state of economic and educational development. ICT policies and strategies have to do with education and all other areas of activity that impact on quality of life. They can be integrated into sectoral as well as broad national policies and strategies; for example countries may commit to introducing ICTs into schools in order to expand educational opportunities and increase the supply of ICT-literate graduates; they may extend internet access to rural clinics to improve the delivery of health services.

There must be perfect co-ordination between NCERT, NCTE, AICTE, other institutes under MHRD ,ministry of science and technology and ministry of information and communication technology for achieving common goal of E-LITERACY AT ATLEAST SECONDARY LEVEL.

As the use of the internet expands within countries a host of specific issues emerge: curriculum, privacy and security, intellectual property rights, access to government information are some of the examples.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD in its 172nd Report has recommended that we must exploit our ICT potential for its penetration to the Country remotest corner to expand the access to higher education.

ICT has tremendous potential to extend and augment quality in higher education. Its full potential has not been tapped. Under the Eleventh Plan, Central Universities can lead this process by providing campus based wireless Internet facilities, 24X7 computer labs. In collaboration with corporate houses, a laptop initiative can be put in place for postgraduate and research scholars. This will greatly enhance equitable access to knowledge base Satellite uploading equipment for each Central University should be established. The State universities have fallen behind in modernizing their administrative machinery and introducing e-governance.

Funds should be provided to State universities for ICT faculty. A key element of 11th Plan strategy should be to provide essential education and health services to those large parts of our population who are still excluded from these. Education is the critical factor that empowers participation in the growth process, but our performance has been less than satisfactory, both overall and in bridging gender and other divides. Overall literacy is still less than 70% and rural female literacy less than 50% with corresponding rates even lower among the marginalized groups and minorities. While the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has expanded primary school enrolment, it is far from providing quality education. Looking ahead, we cannot be satisfied with only universal primary education; we must move towards universal secondary education too as quickly as possible.

It’s unlikely that many people would deny that the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) has contributed greatly to worldwide education; however, it is likely that many people would agree that there needs to be a substantive evolution in the implementation of these technologies at the field level with teachers, school authorities, students and parents.

Initial policies were developed to address structural problems in each country. Therefore, ICT policies designed to address energy supply issues, promote the introduction of computers in schools and stimulate connectivity were the primary focus. However, these seemingly visionary solutions proved difficult and burdensome to manage in their day-to-day implementation. Some of the problems encountered included the difficulty of placing the computers in safe school environments, the financial constraints in training teachers on a large scale to be able to use the computers and the challenge to meaningfully integrate technology into the classroom. Therefore, a gap developed between existing policies and realities at the field level that translated into shortcomings in the primary goal: educational benefits to youth.

This opportunity to invite us to participate in the second phase of the national consultative process for developing a Policy on ICT in Education on behalf of the Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), Government of India presents an exceptional platform for the development of strategies to address these ongoing challenges.

Our main aim is to generate concrete policy responses from governments over time and represents a unique opportunity for: the collaborative identification of problems, the development of possible solutions and the evaluation of those solutions by high-level policy makers. The result will be to maximize the likelihood that these policies will be endorsed and implemented in by CETRE AND STATE Governments.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY

Education will become highly interactive, engaging the student every 20 seconds or so for a response, much in contrast to present-day passive lecture methods.
Education will become highly individualized, with world-accessible records of learning attempts by particular students, to enable computer presentation of education tailored for each student's past learning experiences and styles.
Education will become highly flexible in interaction, enabling natural-language tutoring
Education will become highly accessible, opening opportunities for the disadvantaged in this country
Education will become highly computer-mediated,
Distance education will begin to displace campus-based education because the high costs of an interactive computer-mediated course can be justified only through their use by a large number of students

WHY CHALLENGES ?

Knowledge Economy
Globalization
Information and Communication Technology
Life long learning
Increased level of competitions
High aspirations of people
Political will and pressure to excel at National and International level

CHALLENGES FOR 21ST CENTUARY

Global vs. local
Universal vs. individual
Traditional vs. modernity
Long term vs. short term considerations
Competition vs. equity
Extra ordinary expansion of knowledge and human capacity to assimilate
Spiritual vs. material

HOW TO EMPOWER TEACHER AND LEARNERS FOR FACING CHALLENGES
Traditional and conventional methods of teaching, learning and training simply cannot address the scale and scope of the education challenges.

In all other aspects of life technology has changed our lives by making many of the products and services that we use easily available, cheaper, and better, so is true for education .

THE FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES BEFORE ADOPTING TECHNOLOGY
Ensure that TECHNOLOGY is of good quality
Keep its cost low.
Make it widely available

IRON TRIANGLE OF TECHNOLOGY
This illustration shows the ways the different systems are stretched to meet competing needs of cost, quality, and access. The balance of these factors will determine efficient integration of Technology in our Education system.

The challenges ahead in the education sector are many, but foremost among them are need to be addressed immediately. Build an ICT infrastructure of high quality to meet the needs of all within the system. Equip all teachers with high level ICT skills and competencies. Combat the emergence of a digital divide among students.

Vision
Any effort to integrate ICT into the education system requires the leadership of the government and the education ministry, working together with other relevant ministries. This leadership must have a clear vision of why the government is enabling the use of ICT within the various sectors of the education system and the type of society it hopes to achieve by doing so. It also must have a clear vision of the mechanism that the government intends to use to implement ICT. This vision then needs to be integrated with national policies. The National ICT Policy should be aligned to the following vision statement: “ India to become a hub of ICT Infrastructure and ICT solutions that enhance sustainable socio-economic development and accelerated poverty reduction both nationally and globally.”

Aims
This Policy aims at building an ICT -driven nation comprising of knowledge based society by the year2015. In view of this, a country-wide ICT infrastructure will be developed to ensure access to information by every citizen to facilitate empowerment of people and enhance democratic values and norms for sustainable economic development by using the infrastructure for human resources development in all sorts of on-line and off line ICT enabled service.

Mission
The overall mission of this Policy is: “To enhance nation-wide economic growth and social progress by encouraging beneficial ICT activities in all Education Sectors through providing a conducive framework for investments in capacity building and in promoting multi-layered co-operation and knowledge sharing locally as well as globally.”

Objectives

-In order to give a thrust to the ICT in Education and expeditious development of Cheap Educational Software and hardware industry and its import and export required policy decisions about infrastructure facilities and legal frameworks to enterprenueers.
-Provide effective incentives for development of ICT sector to both local and foreign entrepreneurs.
-Develop an efficient ICT infrastructure that provides open access to international and national network;
-Promote and facilitate use of ICT in all sectors of the education for transparency, good governance and efficiency improvement;
-Establish legislative and regulatory framework for ICT issues like IPR, data security and protection, digital signature, e-Commerce, ICT education etc. as well as to ensure quality ICT education provided by different private organizations;
-Set up national database that are reliable and easily accessible to all the people of the country;
-Promote use of ICT by providing special allocations for ICT project implementation in the education sector. Train the decision markers in ICT use and promote a ICT culture;
-Develop a large pool of world class ICT professionals to meet the needs of local and global markets.
-Set up a very high quality ICT institution to continuously promote and foster ICT Industry.
-Enact Laws and Regulations for uninterrupted growth of ICT, in conformity with World Trade Organization (WTO) stipulations.

There is no single policy document or template that can meet the needs of all governments and address all contexts. There are, however, generic elements that policy on ICT in education should cover. These are: a careful analysis of the current context that the country finds itself in with respect to the type of society and economy that is being built and the education system necessary to contribute to it;research and analysis of international developments and trends in ICT use in education; and an outline of the key issues that need to be addressed together with proposed methods of doing so. Based on this analysis and research, a policy for introducing ICTs into the education system should address the following elements. Preparing all sectors of the education system to understand the investment in and value of technology

It is important for any policy to outline the preparatory steps needed to ensure that schools and other components of the education system are ready to use the technologies for educational purposes. Some of the criteria for education-system readiness include appropriate national and school level policies, awareness by school management of the advantages of ICT for education, a plan and management system for using ICT, potential management and administrative uses, initial investments necessary and expected recurrent expenses.

Preparing schools to accept the technology
This includes constructing a policy to enable certain basic infrastructure such as electricity, phone lines, school buildings, safe and secure environment and insurance are available. Certain minimum infrastructure requirements are important to enable the use of ICT.

Procuring and installing the technology
Any policy statement needs to address the type of hardware, operating systems and software that would be conducive to school environments in the county, or at least to identify a decision-making framework. This includes models for efficient, affordable, quality access to the Internet for schools. Such elements would also need to set student-computer ratio targets and technical support mechanisms.

Training teachers to use ICT
Teachers need to understand the application of ICT to support their teaching and administration. Therefore policy should identify ways of improving teacher capacity in the use of ICT as well as their specific integration into teaching systems and pedagogical models. The policy should also outline the type of additional staff required to support computers and related technologies.

Professional development for acquring tecnology skills by teachers and learners.
Word Processing Skills
Spreadsheets Skills
Database Skills
Electronic Presentation Skills
Web Navigation Skills
E-Mail Management Skills
Skill of using Digital Cameras
Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to the teacher education System
File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
Downloading Software From the Web
Installing Computer Software on to a Computer System
Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
Scanner Knowledge
Deep Web Knowledge
Educational Copyright Knowledge
Computer Security Knowledge

Developing and managing content
The value of using ICT in the schools is best realized when appropriate content is developed and used to enhance and support learning, teaching, administration and management. This involves the production and consumption of local, relevant and appropriate education content through multimedia application of ICT. Therefore, policy in this area is vital to provide for the development and use of content.

Planning for continuous evaluation and research
Policy on research and evaluation is critical within the context of dynamic and changing ICT and its application to the education environment. The constant research and evaluation agenda will ensure that improvements are made to how ICT is used in the education system, and this data and analysis will contribute to any review of policy.

Integrating curriculum
ICT on its own has limited uses in the education and training system. Its intrinsic value lies in the integration of the technology to support and enhance learning and teaching in various subjects. Policy options that identify mechanisms and frameworks that encourage this integration are, therefore, important.

Providing ongoing technical support
The use of ICT in the education system requires different levels of technical support. Policy on using ICT in education needs to identify the levels of technical support necessary and outline how those needs would be addressed. For example, the first line of technical support would need to be based within the school, which requires the training of teachers. Further technical support via help facilities, contracts with local technicians and companies could also be factored into the policy.

Providing ongoing curriculum support
The ongoing support of teachers is crucial to enable increased and better use of ICT. Such support would include how to integrate the use of ICT when teaching different subjects. Policy in this area will also indicate to the teachers what is expected of them and the type of support they could expect.

Developing partnerships
Implementing ICT in the education sector requires a substantial amount of money and skilled personnel. Therefore partnerships between government and the private sector, development agencies, school communities and others become important. The identification of this approach is important to include in any policy document.

The way a country is structured also has an impact on ICT in education policy. The level of centralization or decentralization of a country's education system will determine how policies are constructed, the nature of what is being proposed and how it will be implemented. It will also determine how "top-down" or "grass roots" the policy and implementation will be. In many African countries, using a decentralized approach could result in a lack of central coordination, implementation and funding. Such uneven development and implementation of the policy could result in new divides emerging in the education system. Therefore policy development is needed at a central level to provide a sound framework for ICT, while allowing for and enabling local community level involvement.

As part of this plan for infrastructure development, the building of the ICT economic sector through government purchasing power is also necessary. This will ensure that low costs for bulk buying, appropriate vendor support; content development companies and vendors are available throughout the country.

It is difficult to ensure that all of these activities get done within a department or ministry of education. Often the nature of the co-ordination between departments, development agencies, the education system (managers, teachers, teacher colleges, etc.), the private sector and others requires an agency that can focus on this as a full-time task. It is in this context that the value of schoolnet organizations as an agency of government becomes important to consider when developing ICT in education policies.

It is important to ensure that flagship projects are identified in the policy document. These projects offer policy makers, planners and those responsible for implementation an opportunity to engage with immediate activities, thus being able to get results that can serve to inform the education sector of the value of ICT. The key is to be able to work with teachers to develop their professional competence in this area, thereby realizing the policy in this area. It is generally accepted that teachers will use computers if they find a benefit for their work and their personal lives. It will be important to identify creative ways (as part of the flagship project) to make this happen. The other crucial group is the learners. Getting them to use computers and related technologies is often easier, and the benefit is seen more rapidly.

As noted earlier, governments need to recognize the cost implications of any policy. ICT is generally an expensive resource for schools and the education system, and more so in developing countries when funds to purchase equipment in foreign currency (generally US dollars) are scarce, education budgets are low, levels of teacher skill are low and where "the scarcity or non-existence of more traditional educational facilities and equipment in many areas often makes suggestions for introducing the sophisticated new technologies into the education system or into grassroots communities seem a denial of reality.This, together with other expenses like the telephone costs, Internet service provider costs, maintenance, software, etc. can cause severe strains on any education or school budget.

Conclusion
In talking about the policy requirements for ICT in education, I have raised a number of issues, all of them premised on the positive relationship between ICT and social and economic development as well as on the necessary relationship between ICT and learning and teaching. In outlining these relationships, and arguing that a systemic approach using policy as the mechanism to systematize it is the most logical route to follow, I further noted a range of critical issues that need to be addressed. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives one a good sense of the issues to confront when developing integrated ICT in education policy.

While this process seems daunting, it is an absolute necessity.