Toward an ICT in
Education Policy for India
A Supplier’s View
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Toward a National ICT in Education Policy for India
The ICT Imperative: Why ICT
The Concept Note issued along with the call for papers on a national policy on ICT in
education states, as we at SMART believe, “There is really no need to restate the
growing role of ICTs in enhancing the process and outcome of Education.” The
positive effects of ICT on academic achievement have been supported by research
and well documented over a number of years now.
As the Concept Note suggests, the question of whether and how ICT should be
implemented in India’s schools cannot be answered simply by affirming the
effects on student achievement. It is not enough to ask the question, receive a
positive response, and then be left struggling with the onerous task of determining
how best to implement a strategy that leads to the outcomes suggested by the
evidence. Rather, the answer must be more broadly understood within a complex
network of national political, economic and socio-cultural systems (Seymour B.
Sarason as cited in Kumar, 2004). Moreover, the answer must address the
implementation, as well as the results, of ICT in India’s schools.
The benefits of ICT in education extend far beyond individual student achievement.
Economic growth, equitable access, and future-oriented learning and work skills are
among the many gains that educational ICT can bring to society as a whole.
Economic Growth
In political terms, governments have profound effects on socio-cultural and economic
systems. In the face of falling trade barriers worldwide, India, for example, has
undertaken a series of trade and economic reforms that is enabling the emergence of
a new knowledge-based economy, particularly in the information technology (IT) and
business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors (India’s economy, 2007). These sectors
are now fuelling strong economic growth and a sense of opportunity.
Yet, while the country is enjoying strong economic growth, business and government
leaders recognise that human development is key to sustaining or increasing such
growth, and education is a key facilitator of human development (UNDP, 2005).
Knowledge societies depend upon a ready supply of tech-savvy knowledge workers,
and India must be in a position to develop them (UNDP, 2005). Within that context,
ICT enables knowledge work and is a critical component of any system of learning
that prepares those who will contribute to the new knowledge economy.
ICT also has the obvious potential to help deliver quality education and educational
materials across a vast geography at lower costs and greater speeds than has
previously been possible (UNDP, 2005). As the correlation between prosperity and
educational achievement is high, developing nations can use ICT to educate their
poor, in greater numbers, where they live, which provides a fast track, relatively
speaking, to more sustainable economic growth.
Access, Quality and Equity
In socio-cultural terms, as the use of ICT increases in Asia (UNDP, 2005) and around
the world (ADB, South Asia Economic Report, p. 22), one cannot deny its potential to
reach marginalised or excluded learners, including those with special needs, the rural
or remotely located, or the ill or infirm (ADB, June 2007). ICT holds the promise of
helping to close the digital divide by providing economically feasible, inclusive access
to information and services designed to help children learn, adults enhance skills and
organizations reach across barriers to connect with those in need. As India strives to
reach the Millennium Development Goal of universal elementary education by 2015,
ICT is beginning, and can continue, to help address issues of access, quality and
equity.
New Skills for a More Promising Future
However, simply introducing ICT into the current system is not enough. In a world
fuelled by the exchange of knowledge, students need to learn differently.
Competitive advantage in the world is no longer determined by one’s region, state,
or country but rather by one’s skills (Dede, 2006, slide 3).
Knowledge societies demand new skill sets that are not ideally developed through
the more traditional teacher-led styles of instruction and by rote learning. According
to UNESCO’s Delor Commission, knowledge workers must have the capacity to learn
to do, learn to be, learn to relate and learn to learn (ADB, September 2007). These
skills in turn arm students with the ability to create relevant solutions in the face of
new experiences, find information needed to support decisions and respond rationally
amidst the many contradictions and insecurities of 21st-century life.
As ICT enables just-in-time access to information and an order-of-magnitude leap in
our ability to acquire, process, assimilate and share knowledge (Norris, Mason,
Robson, Lefrere & Collier, 2003), and as the amount and complexity of information
continues to escalate, students must be prepared not just to use technology, but to
use it to learn. They must become fluent in a variety of media in order to effectively
and collaboratively seek, sort and synthesize their experiences (Dede, Korte, Nelson,
Valdez & Ward, 2005). These are the skills that give individuals hope for a role in a
knowledge-based world and nations hope that their citizens can move more
determinedly toward economic prosperity. The role of ICT in developing this new
generation of learners has become crucial.
The ICT Imperative: A Supplier’s View
India has been addressing issues of quality of education since before it won
independence from colonial rule (Kumar, 2004). It has introduced and made
headway with many initiatives designed to improve access, quality and equity in
education, and, although progress has been made in many respects, the overall goal
of education for all remains elusive (ADB, June 2007; UNDP, 2005). It is, however,
committed to the values inherent in this goal (Kumar, 2004), and developing a
national policy on ICT in education can perhaps mitigate an array of complex
challenges posed by an education system of such variation and scale.
SMART Technologies comes to these issues as an interested party that, because of
the explosion of interest in ICT in education, regularly finds itself in discussion with
ministries of education around the world. We have found that ministers responsible
for education largely understand the pressures to reform their systems of learning in
the face of globalization and intense economic competition among nations. These
pressures are fed, in turn, by continuing advances in technology itself, making the
process of keeping up as difficult sometimes as getting up to speed. In developing
countries in South Asia, the challenges associated with reforming an education
system to 21st-century standards co-exist with the challenges of “promoting human
development on the broadest possible scale” (ADB, June 2007).
The Experience of Others
At SMART, we have seen varying views of the role of government in relation to the
development and dissemination of ICT. Many countries are eager to learn from the
experience of others, and governments around the world are forging unique
partnerships with civil society, business and other interested organizations in order
to advance human development efforts.
The United Kingdom, for example, has led the ICT adoption charge worldwide, and,
with almost a decade having passed since the inception of its National Grid for
Learning strategy, it provides much wisdom on the potential rewards and hurdles of
adopting ICT in education within developed countries. Its efforts are largely directed
by a centralized government with supporting agencies being held accountable for
delivering policy initiatives. As it continues to modify its strategy and fund new
initiatives, it refines its view of quality, e-learning, access and equity. Today, its
education system is held up around the world as a model for the 21st century.
Coming from a completely different perspective, the New Partnership for African
Development (NEPAD) is in the process of hard-wiring the perimeter of the
continent, which will in turn establish wireless options inland, across its vast
geography, simply to address the problem of physical access to education. Not only
has Africa been largely excluded from the global arena, but poverty, isolation, HIV
and AIDs remain imminent threats, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, in the face
of and because of these threats, it is creating partnerships between government,
industry and civil society groups in order to fund education-for-all initiatives with ICT
components. Such investments reveal a fundamental belief that education will bring
the continent into a kinder future.
In all cases, the potential for ICT to bridge economic, geographic and social divides
underscores national policies on education, and, in many cases, national ICT policies.
SMART’s role in these developments over the last several years has become
increasingly complex as we are drawn into discussions that touch on topics as
diverse as network infrastructure, interoperability, social service infrastructures,
financial and administrative challenges, and educational attainment. The results of
these discussions continue to feed our fundamental belief in the extraordinary ability
of people to find education solutions to even the most compelling problems.
Approximately eight years ago, Mexico, for example, began investigating the
possibility of creating digitized versions of national textbooks. This study eventually
led to the creation of the Enciclomedia project, one of the largest interactive
whiteboard and education technology projects in the world. In 2006, making the
connection between student engagement and technology, it delivered 145,000
interactive whiteboards to each fifth and sixth grade classroom in the country
because these were the grades during which students were most likely to drop out.
With no way to quickly provide universal Internet access, the Mexican government
also decided to provide all learning materials on CD-ROMs, even while it worked with
suppliers to stage in Internet connectivity at a slower pace.
SMART was the largest interactive whiteboard supplier to the project and worked
closely with the Mexican government to create a unique, staged plan that allowed it
to purchase long-term supply and service contracts via local distributors who
understood the exigencies of their region but who were trained by SMART to meet
global training and service delivery standards.
Targets and Priorities
The sum of our experience to date forefronts some commonly cited challenges that
relate specifically to ICT adoption at the national level. A national policy that sets
clear targets for addressing issues of access, quality and equity, for instance, means
those implementing the policy can more easily plan for how to achieve those targets.
If, for example, a country’s policy states that access to ICT will become universal
within five years, then implementation targets could be set, funding plans developed
and partnerships created to deliver on that promise within the timeframe specified.
If, on the other hand, the policy places greater emphasis on quality, then
implementation plans may first cover the development of national curriculum
standards and accompanying education materials. Or a policy may state that quality,
equity and access are equally important, which would suggest a different dispersal of
resources.
Agency Models
So on the one hand, a national ICT policy needs to address the broader social,
economic and cultural imperatives that influence how education is delivered, to
whom and in what form. On the other, it can greatly assist this process by assigning
responsibility for ICT strategy and implementation to a government agency which
specializes in understanding the complexity of ICT adoption and integration incountry
and is, in turn, held accountable for meeting its goals. A national policy may
become the instrument for creating such an organization. The UK, for example,
created Becta, a government-sponsored agency specifically responsible for
developing and implementing the country’s national ICT strategy. In Italy, it is
INDIRE, in Mexico it is Enclicomedia, in Africa it is the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative,
and in Europe it is the European Commission’s i2010 initiative.
A Holistic Approach
We have found also that countries looking holistically at ICT adoption and integration
have had more success over the long-term than those that do not. It is difficult to
champion 21st-century teaching and learning without full consideration for network
infrastructure and connectivity, hardware and software requirements, development
and delivery of standards-correlated materials, teacher training, regional or
geographic requirements, and distance learning. While a policy may, for instance,
decide to stage in its adoption of ICT by first addressing connectivity issues, it can
plan to do so with an understanding of how, where and when it will stage in the
other components.
Training Requirements
Too often in the early days of ICT adoption, we saw expenditures on hardware and
software but none on teacher training or materials development, which meant ICT
sat idle while those it was intended to help felt they had been brought to the well
and not allowed to drink. A national ICT policy needs, then, to include consideration
for the people using ICT in education, namely teachers and students who must be
trained in its use and have ready access to education materials for which the
hardware and software become the medium.
Conclusion
Lastly, we have also found that countries viewing ICT as a means to an end, rather
than an end in itself, are more apt to put ICT in the service of human development
and universal primary education rather than the other way around. In our
experience, successfully harnessing ICT tools for the good of a country and the
promise of its citizens requires the long-term commitment of people, passion,
expertise, ingenuity and funds. As a producer of proprietary ICT, SMART understands
its role as a stakeholder in such discussions. We make these observations about our
experience and understanding of the issues from within that framework with the
hope that they offer some insight.
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