After wide consultation and subsequent endorsement from Commonwealth Ministers of Education, COL has now embarked on its new Three-Year Plan for 2003 - 2006. Using a Results Based Management (RBM) framework and further integrating the UN's Millennium Development Goals and "Education for All" priorities, COL's new strategy identifies three priority programme areas and three sub-programmes to support its overall purpose of Building Capacity in Open and Distance Learning (ODL):
ODL Policies - fostering the adoption and implementation of open and distance learning policies within the broader educational and human resource development strategies and policies of member nations.
Sub-programmes:
ODL Systems Development - assisting in the development of open and distance learning systems that build on existing capacity or assist in creating new capacity appropriate for the contexts of member states.
Sub-programmes:
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Developing, strengthening and fostering regional centres of expertise
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Developing, strengthening and improving ODL capabilities at regional, national and institutional levels
ODL Applications - demonstrating how open and distance learning applications can benefit individual learners, institutions and member states by accelerating human resource development.
Sub-programmes:
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ODL applications for poverty reduction
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ODL for teacher education and alternate schooling
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Other Commonwealth priorities and the Millennium Development Goals, notably good governance, the unique needs of small states, and health issues
There are several "initiatives" within each sub-programme and several "activities" within each initiative. For example, one "policy" initiative is: "Conducting research and working with Ministries of Education to identify the need for ODL and ICT in education policy and develop plans to construct such policies." Another initiative, under "applications" is: "Addressing the massive need to improve knowledge and skills of small-scale farmers to enable them to participate in the increasingly complex global food production/market chains, and improve their livelihood."
Knowledge resources and management; fostering networks and partnerships with local governments and institutions, and with international development agencies and regional agencies; and stakeholder engagement are key to the success of the Plan.
Results Based Management is a planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process that is seeing widespread use in international development. RBM aims to improve management effectiveness and accountability by "defining realistic expected results, monitoring progress toward the achievement of expected results, integrating lessons learned into management decisions and reporting on performance." (Canadian International Development Agency).
COL's new Three-Year Plan provides a summary of COL's RBM process, including a corporate-level "impact" statement - "Citizens within the developing nations of the Commonwealth will have greater access to education and thereby the means of securing decent livelihoods, notably increased social and economic development as targeted by the Millennium Development Goals" - and programme-level "outputs", "outcomes", "success indicators" and a clearly defined monitoring and evaluation process.
With a straight-forward vision of "Access to education - Access to a better future", COL's mission statement remains unchanged:
Recognising knowledge as key to cultural, social and economic development, the Commonwealth of Learning is committed to assisting Commonwealth member governments to take full advantage of open, distance and technology-mediated learning strategies to provide increased and equitable access to education and training for all their citizens.
COL's Three-Year Plan, 2003 - 2006 also includes analyses on historical and global dynamics, regional needs summaries, criteria for the selection of specific initiatives, critical success factors, risk management and financial resources. It is available online or by request on CD-ROM or in print.
COL facilitated a national forum on open and distance learning (ODL) in Cameroon in December that was attended by all three education ministers - the Honourable Professor Maurice Tchuente, Minister of Higher Education; the Honourable Mr. Joseph Owona, Minister of National Education; and the Honourable Louis Bapes Bapes, Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training - and over 200 other policy makers and practitioners.
The forum resulted in a recognition of the need for Cameroon to develop an ODL policy as well as implementation strategies for the overall development of human resources in the Republic.
Participants formulated a set of recommendations and a plan of action and acknowledged the role of COL as a key support agency in policy development and capacity building in ODL. Other development agencies, such as the British Council and Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, also participated and confirmed that they too are ready for further collaboration and support.
The three ministers also publicly signed a Declaration, which endorsed the recommendations of the participants and affirms their commitment to promoting ODL in Cameroon.
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Participants at the 2003 management development workshop
for heads of Sub-Saharan teacher training college
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The third of a series of five annual management development workshops for directors and principals of teacher training colleges and institutes in Commonwealth Sub-Saharan Africa was held at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore, from 20 - 31 October 2003. These workshops are specially designed to help participants to address the challenges they face in training teachers toward achieving their "Education for All" goals, focussing on advantages of open and distance learning in teacher training.
Nineteen participants from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Uganda and Zambia took part in this year's session. The first two workshops were attended by 36 participants from Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The workshop series is jointly sponsored and organised by COL and NIE - and hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Singapore.
COL is collaborating with the World Health Organization in the South Pacific to create the Open Learning Health Net. This service automates the collection and updating of information of importance to about 2,500 health care workers in the region who serve a population of about 1.6 million. The service is built on the technology of COL's Knowledge Finder, which indexes about one million documents on education and development for researchers throughout the world.
COL and India's National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop teacher-training programmes for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
With funding from COL, NCERT will develop distance learning training programmes using various media to enable teachers of selected countries to upgrade their qualifications and skills through a post-graduate diploma in guidance and counselling. NCERT will also provide tutor training and assessment systems for the various local delivery institutions.
COL is also partnering with the Open University of Sri Lanka in the development of a Master of Arts in Teacher Education (MATE) to be offered in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This programme will use a variety of media and models to enhance the skills of teacher educators.
Its work with the National Teachers' Institute (NTI), Kaduna, is one of COL's major initiatives in West Africa. The COL/NTI partnership is designed to increase access to, and the quality of, teacher training and professional development of teachers in Nigeria through the use of open and distance education. More and better-trained teachers in the schools and non-formal sectors are essential for achieving "Education for All" goals.
NTI is unique as it is a single-mode distance education institution dedicated to teacher training. Established in the seventies it has been instrumental in training large numbers of primary school teachers in Nigeria. COL is providing expertise in reviewing and improving their course development and learner support systems. Training workshops on instructional design, course development, video scriptwriting and the use of audio-visual media have been conducted for NTI staff and COL has also helped in updating the infrastructure of the graphic and media units there. COL is working with NTI towards the establishment of a training resource group in the Institute that would organise orientation and training programmes for tutors and other leaner support staff. COL is also supporting the development of monitoring and evaluation systems and a quality assurance mechanism.
In addition to building capacity in NTI, COL is facilitating partnerships and linkages between NTI and other organisations in Nigeria such as the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), the Universal Basic Education Programme, the National Commission for Nomadic Children and the newly re-established National Open University of Nigeria.
In collaboration with COL, NCCE has developed a "benchmarking" system that includes performance indicators for teacher training in Nigeria. Capacity building, strong partnerships among agencies and institutions and the use of open and distance learning will improve the application of new and in-service teacher training and the ongoing professional development of teachers, teacher educators and other personnel in the Nigerian school system - an area where there is great and immediate need.
COL and the University Grants Commission (UGC), India held a dialogue on "Enhancing higher education through e-learning", held in New Delhi in November. Several international experts also participated. One of the key recommendations to emerge was that the UGC would create a system to support the use of e-learning by all higher education institutions in the country. An action plan with an ambitious timeframe was devised and the roles of both UGC and COL were identified. COL will facilitate the development of:
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shared of international experience and expertise,
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international partnerships and collaborations,
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content platforms, tools and techniques for the delivery and management of e-learning, and
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quality assurance protocols for e-learning.
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Participants in the inaugural workshop on gender mainstreaming
and first users of the new GMS Toolkit, Kuala Lumpur, January 2004
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COL partnered with the Commonwealth Secretariat to develop a "Gender Management System (GMS) Toolkit" designed to assist Commonwealth governments in ensuring that an awareness of gender issues informs their decision-making in all areas, and at all levels. The Toolkit was launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 26 January 2004. About 300 representatives of the Government of Malaysia, the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN), the diplomatic corps, universities and non-governmental organisations attended the launch, where Malaysia's Minister of Women and Family Development, Dato' Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, and INTAN Director, Dato' Dr. Zulkarnain Hj Awang, expressed the keen commitment of the Malaysian Government and INTAN for this initiative. The launch was immediately followed by a three-day workshop on how to use the GMS Toolkit that was attended by 80 participants representing all key sectors.
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The GMS Toolkit uses principles of open and distance learning to enhance access to and usability of the Secretariat's series of GMS manuals, which focus on gender mainstreaming in key areas such as finance, development planning and the public service, as well as cross-cutting development issues such as HIV/AIDS, poverty eradication and the Millennium Development Goals. The Toolkit transforms the manuals into a user-friendly, learner-centred, trainer-oriented package. It includes an Action Guide to facilitate individual learning, a Trainer's Manual for gender trainers, a Change Management Briefing for anyone committed to effecting gender equality through institutional change and a CD-ROM that contains all the original GMS manuals as well as the contents of the Toolkit.
GMS, the Commonwealth's approach to gender mainstreaming, calls for a broad-based partnership in society in which government consults and acts co-operatively with other key stakeholders, including civil society and the private sector.
COL's President and CEO, Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, presented the keynote address to the Southern Regional Consultation for EDUSAT at Anna University in Chennai, India, in January. The consultation looked at regional educational needs that the soon-to-be-launched satellite service could address.
Through its Indian Space Research Organisation, the Government of India will be dedicating the entire satellite to educational delivery. EDUSAT will provide "education on demand" - in the classroom, regional learning centres, at home, through work or whereever most convenient - and will also support Internet connectivity and web browsing. The satellite will have several channels that will deliver educational programming, facilitate high-bandwidth interactivity and broadcast multi-media content. Every part of India will have access through five regional "footprints", supplemented by national beams.
www.isro.org
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Schoolnets: Enhancing Education Through ICT
This is an edited version of a paper that originally appeared in OLTDE (Open Learning through Distance Education), published by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE).
Educators everywhere are increasingly turned on to information and communications technology (ICT) to get the job done. Educational radio, TV and the Internet are becoming mainstays in education delivery. Spurred by substantial, growing evidence that technology can effectively support learning and teaching, virtual education is a reality that shapes, and often drives, global education research and development.
Why the rush toward a plugged-in education? In the Education for All (EFA) imperative to make universal primary education a reality by 2015, there is urgency to find efficient, creative education solutions. The stakes in the developing world are high, raised by strained teaching and learning resources, the knowledge divide and the debilitating impact of HIV/AIDS on education communities.
But integrating ICT with a conventional education system, especially in the developing world, is a challenge. Given the considerable ground that needs to be covered, does a road map exist for successful integration of ICT in schools?
The schoolnet option
One possible, practical route to ICT integration is via a school network, or "schoolnet." School networking means what it suggests - schools regularly communicating and collaborating with each other on inter-school projects and on content and curriculum development, via the Internet and other ICTs.
In the past few years, schoolnets have mushroomed across the virtual education landscape. Recognising the far-reaching potential of electronic networking, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL, www.col.org) responded to calls from Commonwealth leaders to create the Commonwealth Electronic Network for Schools and Education (CENSE, www.col.org/cense) in 1998, a collaborative project with the Commonwealth Secretariat (www.thecommonwealth.org) and COMNET-IT (www.comnet-it.org). CENSE is a portal to the websites of individual schools, institutions, governments and non-government organisations (NGOs), throughout the Commonwealth and internationally. CENSE also links with other schoolnets and national education grids Commonwealth-wide, including SchoolNet Africa (www.schoolnetafrica.org), SchoolNet India (www.schoolnetindia.com) and Canada's SchoolNet (www.schoolnet.ca).
In Commonwealth Africa and elsewhere, many early schoolnets were NGO-funded, small-scale start-ups that formed part of an initial "technology push" from institutions eager to establish a localised ICT infrastructure of computers, computer networks and laboratories. More recently, governments and education-related ministries have earmarked resources, policies and funding initiatives for establishing schoolnets, and the accompanying ICT infrastructure, on a national level.
The necessary next step is implementing a long-term game plan that will popularise and familiarise the schoolnet concept, and use of the Internet and electronic media, with education professionals and learners. One such plan is the schoolnet value chain, a strategy that borrows a few concepts from the corporate world.
Critical elements for success
Originally a model for business resource management, the value chain concept was first applied to schoolnet management in 1999 by the former Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education (CETDE, a directorate of the South African Department of Education), in collaboration with SchoolNet South Africa. A similar model, based on CETDE's schoolnet value chain and jointly developed by this article's authors, includes the following elements for success:
Prepare all education sectors to understand the value of technology investment: Preparations should include appropriate national and school policies, an ICT-use plan and management system, ensuring school management's awareness of the advantages of ICT for education, and research into potential ICT uses in management and administration. Also identify initial necessary investments and recurrent expenses.
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Prepare schools for the technology: ICT implementation plans must provide for basic infrastructure such as electricity, security and insurance, although solutions exist even for schools situated off the electricity grid. An implementation plan should also ensure that any investment in technology, teacher training and additional staffing, is sustainable.
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Obtain and install the technology: Any new or refurbished ICT purchases should have a warranty and customer support. Internet-related hardware, operating systems and software must provide efficient and affordable Internet access to schools.
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Develop ICT-use teaching and learning models: Conduct dedicated instruction seminars on ICT use, and on how to integrate it with the curriculum. Foster "champion teachers" - those who excel in using ICT for teaching and learning.
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Develop relevant educational content: Produce locally relevant material either in-house or outsourced, using multimedia applications such as radio, television and CD-ROM. Consider evaluating and adapting content from other countries for local use.
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ICT evaluation and research: Ensure that any institutional ICT learning application and infrastructure improvements keep pace with developments in ICT.
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Curriculum-ICT integration: Optimise ICT-enhanced learning and teaching by fully integrating ICT with the existing curriculum.
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Ongoing technical support: Train educators in basic equipment troubleshooting, maintenance and repairs. Further local help, such as repair facilities and technicians, is also necessary.
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Ongoing curriculum support: Encourage pro-active feedback and suggestions from teaching staff on using ICT for different subjects, to increase and improve overall ICT use.
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Strategic partnerships: Develop a working partnership model, for example between schools, communities, key government players, the donor community and the private sector, to sustain schoolnets in the long term.
Recent studies on ICT use in African schools acknowledge the value chain's ten factors, and reiterate the importance of local follow-up to national or regional policies.
Additionally, applying gender considerations to schoolnet planning and implementation will ensure all needs are addressed.
Value-added education
To incorporate ICT into the education system of a country, you need a sound policy and implementation plan, and above all, leadership from national government. If the value chain approach is to find success, it must be recognised that the above ten elements of the chain are crucial to that success. Another key factor is a holistic approach, that uses strategic partnerships (one of the value chain's elements) to develop and enable all aspects of the framework concurrently once core development and infrastructure issues are identified.
Although the value chain may be a more gradual, less dramatic process of schoolnet development and ICT infrastructural growth than showcase projects and a piecemeal approach, establishing a value chain will lay the groundwork for all parts of the education system to work together with other relevant organisations and institutions (both locally and internationally), to establish and promote integrated ICT use.
The value chain encourages education officials throughout the system to re-think policy development, and learners to re-evaluate their relationship and approach to knowledge. Through implementing a schoolnet value chain, ICT can be used to add value to the education system - not merely project by project, but as a whole.
For more information, please contact the authors, Vis Naidoo, COL Education Specialist, Education Technology (vnaidoo) and Shafika Isaacs, Executive Director, SchoolNet Africa (s.isaacs@schoolnetafrica.org).
Schoolnet snapshots from Commonwealth Africa
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NGO-initiated schoolnet initiatives:
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SchoolNet South Africa (www.school.za): A national, donor-supported NGO formed from a group of NGO-based provincial schoolnets that promote ICT-based learning and teaching in schools. Many of its projects are short term and focus on curriculum, technology and teacher training. After four years, participation in the schoolnet includes 4,000 teachers and almost 5,000 of South Africa's 28,000 schools.
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SchoolNet Namibia (www.schoolnet.na): An NGO formed in 1999 through strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture, tertiary institutions and the private sector. It has introduced a youth-led ICT connectivity program for Namibia's 1,519 schools.
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Government-driven schoolnet initiatives:
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SchoolNet Mozambique: An in-house project of the Ministry of Education. Originally a three-year outreach programme at the University Eduardo Mondlane. The schoolnet plans to connect 200 of the country's 7,000 schools by the end of 2004, as well as train teachers and develop online curriculum.
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Egypt schoolnet initiative: Part of a government-led, national ICT strategy promoted by the head of state.
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What is a schoolnet ?
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Structure
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Services
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Sustainability
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Establishment and ongoing operation of a school networking institution/organisation.
Minimum number of five schools in regular communication and interaction on learning initiatives using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and media.
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Computer distribution and connectivity services offered by the schoolnet institution.
Inter-school networking and collaborative projects using the broad array of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Content and curriculum development and sharing.
Teacher training in ICT use to enhance teaching.
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Year-on-year growth of the country schoolnet initiative.
Financial sustainability increases from year to year with less reliance on external resources/funding.
Steady year-on-year increase in human resource capacity with less reliance on external resources.
Year-on-year consolidation of partnerships.
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Source: www.schoolnetafrica.net
