Educational Technology Policy in Southern Africa

IDRC Handbook

 Introduction 

Globally, there has been a proliferation of activity focused on using ICTs to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of education systems. This activity has two broad stimuli. First, the technologies themselves offer extraordinary potential functionality that has stimulated an innate desire to understand how best these functions can support and improve people’s ongoing learning. Second, it has been stimulated by a series of problems that face education systems internationally. These include: 

• Growing pressure on traditional education and training to provide access to far larger numbers of students, of all ages;

• A crisis of confidence in traditional approaches to education, which have often confused education with transfer of information; and

• Dwindling funding - in real terms - for education and training purposes in the public sector.

Inevitably, therefore, rapid development – and increasing convergence – of ICTs has stimulated significant debate about the roles that these technologies might play in accelerating education. This is particularly relevant for developing countries, where several of the broad challenges facing education systems are magnified by a low skills base, significant resource constraints, and a range of non-educational social problems (such as widespread poverty, disease, and political instability) that make the creation and sustenance of any stable social system harder. 

Education is in many ways the most complex of all social processes, and also the one in which most vested interests within any society have a stake. Establishing new education policies is, therefore, inevitably a complicated and difficult exercise, in which efforts to change strategic direction need to be balanced against the importance of ensuring continuity and stability. Education policy focusing on use of ICTs sits at the heart of this challenge. 

Developing policy frameworks to respond to these trends is no easy task, made all the more complicated by the challenging economic, social, and physical environments in which much education implementation occurs in Southern Africa.

 Where technologies can most effectively support education 

Before any consideration can be given to the use of technologies in the teaching and learning process, there has to be an understanding of the various modes of communication that underpin such activities. Communication can take place in various ways: 

• Face-to-face, for example, in classes, tutorials, or practical sessions; 

• Via correspondence, whether it involves post, courier, fax, or electronic mail; 

• Using printed media of various kinds, which can either be distributed via correspondence or in face-to-face sessions; 

• Using audio such as radio, audio cassettes, telephone calls, or audio conferencing; 

• Using video, for example, one-way broadcasting, video, or video- conferencing; and 

• Using computers and computer-based multimedia, whether they be stand- alone or part of a network. 

Policies about the use of technologies in education also require a clear understanding of the varied teaching and learning environments they aim to support, as well as their potential functions.  These can be categorised into three broad applications for technologies: 

1.       Technologies to Support Delivery of Educational Resources  

Technologies can play a crucial supporting role in delivery of educational resources, particularly course materials. These technologies are made up of a wide range of ICTs, from the printed book and other printed materials, through television and radio, to multimedia computers and the Internet. Although printed materials do not fall within the boundaries of common definitions of ICTs, it is critical to ensure that education policies do not set up artificial boundaries between groups of technologies, and that traditional media are not ignored as decisions are taken. The need for centralised expertise in evaluating the growing range of products and technologies thus becomes increasingly important. 

Investment in course materials design and development becomes a prerequisite -behind this lies increasing use of computers – word processors, graphics programmes, desktop publishing, and the Internet to support development of printed or electronic resources. Valuable educational resources can be centrally packaged, updated, and delivered rapidly, sharing costs of assembling appropriate, up-to-date educational materials among many educators. However these benefits can only accrue if the establishment of centrally shared resources is effective and supported by all stakeholders. 

2.       Interactive Technologies to Support Teaching and Learning 

Aside from the provision of static course materials, there are many technologies that might support more interactive teaching and learning processes. Some of these can be used generally in any education and training programme, such as white boards or overhead projectors, while others might be referred to as specialist technologies, such as woodwork equipment or language laboratories. The technologies covered by this group range from the very simple, such as pen and paper, to the very sophisticated, such as computerised simulators and the Internet. The latter has gained the most recent public attention as an important new tool in the classroom and many governments have developed programmes specifically to support connectivity in the education sector. 

3.       Technologies to Support the Education Provider’s Administration 

Technologies have a crucial role to play in supporting the educational provider, particularly in the day-to-day management and administration. Often this important use is neglected, both in policy statements and in the deliberations of decision makers involved in the planning of technology support for education and training. 

While some basic technologies, such as telephones have long been in use, there is a growing understanding that ICTs provide significant opportunities for generating savings in education and training and also for leading to more effective management and administration systems. For example, the growing use of databases and information warehouses, together with the explosion in the use of e-mail to facilitate quick, low-cost communication are two relatively simple applications that can prove very cost-effective.  Places of learning can benefit greatly from being connected to local or national electronic procurement systems and having real-time access to Educational Management Information Systems to improve the quality of education.  Where national implementation of education systems is required (and this includes ICT-related implementation), such management systems become critical to ensure management of the technology, collection of data, and quick distribution of administrative materials. 

Convergence in the functionality of technologies is blurring the roles of technologies that directly support teaching and learning processes and those that support provision of course materials. For example, educators may use video conferencing both to deliver pre-designed resources and to support live discussion between geographically separate groups (or to deliver live lectures). Likewise, e-mail can be used to support communication amongst educators and learners, as well as to deliver pre-designed resources.

 What policies affect use of ICTs in education?

Education, in common with all social processes, does not exist as a discrete, isolated system. Some of the policies impacting on education and training are reflected on elsewhere in this book, but a number of the more significant ones require further mention.[1] 

Economic Policy

Economic policies (and more importantly, economic growth) have a direct bearing on use of ICTs in education. Without the establishment of policies that promote economic growth, the historically under-resourced public educational sector is unlikely to receive sufficient investment to allow it to adequately deploy ICTs effectively. Simultaneously, the relatively small populations and the sheer geographical challenge of reaching people requires sharing of resources in order to build economies of scale is necessary. In Southern Africa, this suggests that regional cooperation will also be an increasingly important economic strategy, with sector coordinating offices established by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in key areas such as Culture and Information (based in Mozambique); Employment and Labour (based in Zambia), Finance and Investment (based in South Africa) and Tourism (based in Lesotho) poised to play an important role in this regard.

Telecommunications Policy [2] 

Sustainable educational ICT use is inextricably linked to dramatically reducing the high cost of telecommunications, which is a primary barrier to the deployment of ICTs, especially in remote areas. The most important national policy to adopt in this area is to accelerate the introduction of full competition in the telecommunication sector, which can drive prices down and improve the deployment of infrastructure in rural areas. Increasing numbers of developing countries are beginning to realise that open competition is the best strategy for achieving universal service goals. For example, Brazil and Senegal have both recently announced that their telecommunication sectors will be opened to full competition in 2002, and India has declared that Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will be deregulated next year. At the same time, e-rate[3] policies and Universal Service Funds (USFs) can be an effective means to direct profits accrued in the urban areas to rural communities. In South Africa, the USF was used to assist in the establishment of rural telecentres providing access to surrounding schools. 

Broad ICT Policies 

Some countries in Southern Africa have begun formulating broad ICT policies to cover a number of areas in which ICTs are seen to be important in terms of general national priorities (including sectoral applications such as health, tourism, mining, education, and e-government). Mozambique and Namibia, for example, have both instituted ICT policy processes, in which education and skills development are covered as part of a broader ICT policy[4]. Establishing such policies has clear implications for use of ICTs in education. It has the potential to set up a more receptive social environment in which effective educational applications can evolve, as well as eliminating wasteful duplication. However, such policies do run the risk of leading to educational choices driven by technological preference rather than educational need if they are not carefully integrated with existing educational policies. 

Education Policies 

Several related educational policies have a bearing on ICT use. For example: 

• School governance policies have a bearing on ICT use, as, when parents become more structurally involved in the management of schools, the drive to integrate ICTs into schools tends to increase (even in poorer communities, the importance of acquiring ICT skills is evident is coming to be regarded as important). 

• Education management information policies tend to have a bearing on ICT use, as governments across the region are generally coming to see the value in gathering information about education systems more systematically. Often ICTs come to be seen as a prerequisite for greater efficiency in collecting data. 

School Administration in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province   In South Africa’s Northern Cape province the provincial government is working with USAID to develop prototype management information systems for the Kimberley district (which will then be rolled out to pilot districts in other provinces in the country). The logic behind this is that accurate, up-to-date management information is critical to successful operation of the schooling system, and that a well-designed administrative system harnessing computer networking to replicate data from school to district to provincial levels provides such information. This has led to complementary allocations of funding to put computers into every school participating in the district pilot project.

 Education Technology Policies 

Some policy processes at national level have a specific focus on the role of technology in education (and, in a few cases, a more specific focus on ICTs). These will constitute the primary focus of this chapter.

[1] Other relevant policies not mentioned here include labour policy, rural development, electrification, water supply, and security.

[2] A detailed discussion of South African ICT policies is covered in Chapter 3 of this Handbook.

[3] An e-rate (educational rate) is a special rate for delivery of telecommunications services to education providers. Usually established through some form of policy intervention, e-rates are intended to make connectivity more affordable to the education system.

[4] More detailed information can be found in Chapter 2 of this Handbook

 The Southern African policy environment 

There is a significant distinction to be made between South Africa and other countries in the region regarding national ICT-related education policy. South Africa’s investments in policy on integrating ICTs into education eclipse those of other countries, and are hence dealt with separately below. In the remainder of this section, therefore, we focus on some of the trends emerging from examination of policy development processes being followed by different countries. 

The Range of Policy Approaches 

Within Southern African countries, there is significant variance in terms of the work that has been done, characterised by a range of approaches to establishing national policy frameworks. Countries can be categorised according to the level of policy activity in education as follows: 

There is presently no evidence of policy that attempts to either regulate or stimulate use of ICTs in education (Malawi and Angola)

• A broad ICT policy covers use of ICTs in education (Mozambique and Namibia)

• Policy statements on the use of ICTs are integrated into general policies on education (Swaziland).

• Broad policies on use of technologies in education are established, and strategies – at national and provincial levels – to build specific use of ICTs in education emerge from this broad policy framework (South Africa).

• Policies are developed that focus specifically on the use of ICTs in education (Namibia).

• Specific policies on equipping schools with ICT infrastructure are developed (Botswana). 

The general perception, however, is that there are very few policies covering use of ICTs in education. Where they do exist, they tend to remain vague and make little reference to implementation. A draft national policy statement on education from Swaziland illustrates the problem. Its statements concerning technology are limited to: 

The Ministry of Education shall introduce and develop Information and Communication Technology Education in the school system to equip citizens to meet challenges of the 21st Century. 

 

and

 

Various calls have been made for reform of overall curricular content, information communication technology, and special needs. In order to be in a position to respond to these needs, there is an urgent need to reorient teacher education.[1]

 

This highlights that, for the majority of education systems in Southern Africa, ICTs do not yet constitute a significant policy or financial priority. There are significant shortfalls in local expertise in the field of educational technology that need to be redressed. There are several competing priorities – budgetary constraints, administrative and management challenges, teacher supply, impact of HIV/AIDS on education, and so on – all of which vie for the attention of local policy makers. ICT-related education policy still needs to establish itself within this set of priorities. 

The Namibian Open Learning Network  The Namibian Open Learning Network (NOLNet) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture, the Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Employment Creation, the University of Namibia, the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL), the Polytechnic of Namibia, and the National Institute for Educational Development. These organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2000, in terms of which they agreed to ‘establish a network of open learning centres throughout the country at which certain facilities will be shared and services offered on a collaborative basis’. The intention is to maximise the use of existing centres by improving their facilities. Funds were available by the European Union, as part of the Namibia Human Resources Development Programme, to provide equipment and materials for these centres. The aim of this initiative is to enhance opportunities for supported, independent learning for adults and young people who cannot take part in conventional, institution-based education. Although the primary target group includes students registered with publicly-funded distance education institutions, it is expected that other providers will make arrangements for their students to have access to these centres as well. Once equipment and materials have been put in place, any other user of the centre will be able to avail of the facilities to obtain information or engage in individual study.  In this way, the Open Learning Network will improve the services provided by some community libraries, Teachers’ Resource Centres, school libraries, NAMCOL tutorial centres, and Community Learning and Development Centres.  NOLNet is currently in the process of awarding tenders to deliver computer and audio-visual equipment, as well as books.  It is hoped that these will be supplied and installed on site by the end of June 2001, so that NOLNet can be officially launched in early July.

Predominance of Donor-Funded Initiatives

Most policy work outside of South Africa on use of ICTs in education has been funded by donor agencies, rather than by national government. In itself, this is no problem, but in practice it has also often meant the processes are not conceptualised and owned by national governments (in some countries, such as Namibia, Botswana, and Mozambique, this sense of ownership does however exist, although in some instances not yet below the level of national government structures). 

In addition, consultants who do not live in the region have written large quantities of policy research in Southern Africa. Although the quality of much of this work is high, this inevitably raises questions about whose vision for Southern African countries is being articulated and for what purpose. There are several possible reasons why local expertise is so thin on the ground, including weak higher education systems, difficulties retaining skilled personnel in government positions, and emigration of skilled labour. The same trend extends to local ICT-related activity, scans of which quickly reveal the existence of international projects (see below), but far less often reveal locally initiated and funded projects. This again highlights the reality that use of ICTs in education remains a low policy priority for most education systems in the region. 

The African Information Society Initiative[2]  In the field of education, AISI has established an initiative called the African Learning Network, which emerged as result of activities . after the African Development Forum held in 1999. The African Learning Network has three pillars:  ICTs in schools, and the creation of a regional SchoolNet Africa structure that aims to support national and regional school networking activities; VarsityNet, which establishes connectivity at universities and related institutions of higher learning and research, and stimulates the development of content production and information sharing within this environment. OOSYNET, a youth networking initiative that addresses the needs of Out-Of-School Youth (OOSY) at both national and regional level.[3]

Focus on Schooling

Another significant feature of ICT-related education policy projects is that they tend to focus almost entirely on the schooling system. Most practical work that has occurred has clustered around the theme of school networking, with various donor agencies investing extensively in projects to put computers in schools and to develop national ‘SchoolNet’ agencies. Such agencies exist in several countries, including South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Lesotho. 

There is practically no policy work being undertaken in the higher and further education sectors, which differs significantly from developed countries where extensive investments in such work are currently taking place. Even in South Africa, where policy work has been most intensive, policy focus on these sectors has been minimal. There is, however, a growing focus on ICTs in the most recent South African policy position on Higher Education (the National Plan for Higher Education released in February 2001), but this still remains largely at the level of principle. The only practical recommendations in that report conflate use of ICTs with distance education, thus creating little strategic direction for the system as a whole in this area. 

School Networking in Botswana Policy consideration about ICTs and education in Botswana has a history at least as long as any other country in the region. According to a recent conference paper delivered by the Ministry of Education,  ‘In 1994, the Government of Botswana accepted as policy that all the learners should be given some computer skills at all levels of their schooling’.[4]   This paper noted that the government’s Revised National Policy on Education contains several recommendations relevant to use of ICTs in schools:  Computers in particular should constitute some of the equipment in the proposed resource centres for primary schools to ensure early exposure to computing as a learning resource; To develop in all children computer literacy and readiness for the world of work; With respect to the Junior Certificate curriculum, the Commission recommends that each student should take a Basic Computer Awareness Course; All senior secondary school teachers should acquire computer literacy and the schools should be allocated enough computers to enable all students to develop computer skills.  The curriculum aims to equip learners with computer skills that can be applied in all subjects. The department has adopted an  ‘infusion strategy’ whereby all teachers and learners are equipped with basic computer skills. The department has taken care to train all teachers irrespective of subject specialisation. This is intended to counter the historic focus on mathematics and science teachers, which has developed a kind of aloofness amongst these teachers in schools (created by perceptions that people teaching such subjects are ‘more important’ than other teachers).   All Junior Secondary schools already have computer laboratories, which were built in preparation for rollout of computer equipment. The eleven pilot schools were equipped with 20 networked computers. Each school has been given a modem for dial-up Internet access and each school has been allocated a single e-mail address. A further 25 schools were equipped with computers, and a project memorandum to equip the remaining 169 Junior Secondary schools has been completed. A UK organisation, the Internet Learning Trust has been involved in the pilot project, offering technical expertise and drawing on UK experiences.  Besides these, many schools have already acquired computer equipment through their own efforts and relationships with donors or businesses. It is anticipated that the pilot schools will be maintained as prototypes for computer use, and that more schools are added to the project annually. (No audit of computers in schools has been conducted). Most schools already have between one and three computers for administrative use.[5]

Working Off a Low Technological and Skills Base

By international standards, Southern African countries have a very low base off which to implement ICT-related education policy interventions. This makes policy work much more challenging, as a low skills base, a weak technological infrastructure, and the dearth of contextually appropriate ICT educational resources significantly increases the costs of any sustainable intervention. Many schools are not even electrified in the region. 

Lesotho provides a good example of the challenge facing school networks. According to research undertaken by USAID, the status of school networking in Lesotho in 1998 was as follows: 

Schools	Number of schools	Schools with computer activities	% Schools with Computer Activities
Primary	1,250	1	N/A
Secondary	204	15	7.3

 As a result, 

The University of Lesotho started a school networking project in 1999 which is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). This project will introduce ICT to schools by giving schools near two telecentres access to the centres as well as training. These will be demonstration sites which will give schools exposure to ICT and will raise awareness of the technology and how it can be used.[6]

 

The project goes on to note that one of the two centres to be used is the Institute of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of Lesotho, and that ‘there are 10 schools and 4 tertiary institutions in the vicinity which can use this centre’. Even this intervention, therefore, will have only a very limited impact on schools in the country. 

Technology Use in Malawi Education Malawi provides a good contrast to the South African experience. Most technology infrastructure in Malawi is still government-controlled, although processes to privatise some of this have commenced. Malawi’s postal service has recently been privatised. Levels of ICT infrastructure and use, both in government departments and educational institutions, in general, are very low. E-mail access in government departments is almost non-existent and many government departments and offices are not yet issued with computers.  Research visits to Malawi in 1999 revealed no existence of policy processes specifically targeting use of ICTs in education. This is unsurprising, given that Malawi has one of the most under-resourced educational sectors and among the poorest telecommunications infrastructures in Africa, with only 37,400 connected lines in 1998 and a telephone density of 0.36 line per hundred population.[7] Access to ICTs for staff and students in educational institutions remains very restricted. For example, only staff at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, have computers and e-mail access. The Malawi Institute of Education has Internet access and is well equipped with a range of ICTs and printing equipment. By far the majority of schools do not have any access to computers, and there are some schools that do not have telephones. Support staff in educational institutions still commonly use electric typewriters. The Malawi College of Distance Education (MCDE) has two computers only, one of which is used for desktop publishing of materials.[8]

 Mozambique’s national ICT policy highlights problems associated with operating off such a low base. Policy indicates that, in order to derive benefits from the potential of ICTs, government will:

• Provide incentives and develop the teaching of computer science at various levels in the National System of Education;

• Generalise the use of the Internet in schools;

• Select teachers to be especially trained as promoters of ICTs in schools;

• Promote courses and national expositions about ICTs for the benefit of young scientists;

• Progressively endow schools with equipment indispensable for access to ICTs.[9]

These are laudable goals in their own right, but still require a strategy for implementation. The only sentences in this regard, in a later section on implementation and evaluation, note that: 

As much as possible, this programme will comprise projects to be implemented by various state sectors and institutions, the private sector, and other organisations within society. In this context, the areas to contemplate are:

• Education: distance learning, school administration, electronic libraries for schools, etc.[10]

This approach to implementation should be contrasted with the introduction to a report about Mozambique entitled Knees, Blackboards, and Logs, also produced in 2000. It notes: 

During the field visits, many classrooms and teaching spaces were observed without blackboards, or with blackboards in such a bad state that they cannot be used. Many children sit on cold, damp, concrete or earth floors in school. As a result, they get colds which develop into bronchitis, sore throats and ear infections, and many have to stay away for longer periods of time owing to illness. Some children’s hearing has been impaired by repeated ear infections. If the children had something to sit on – such as levelled logs – going to school would not make them ill.[11]

 

The policy positions outlined above, when contrasted with the realities of implementation, highlight the enormous challenges (and high risk of failure) presented by education in developing countries. The low institutional, human resource and infrastructure base raises barriers to entry because ICT policies focusing on education are forced to engage with all of these related gaps and weaknesses, massively increasing the scale of the challenge. Simultaneously, this significantly increases the cost of possible policy interventions (in systems where budgets are already overstretched). It also reduces the level of locally initiated participation or initiative that is possible because the basic conditions for such participation do not exist. This highlights the importance of ensuring that articulation of such roles in policy statements is imbued with a concrete understanding of the challenges of implementation. 

The Southern African Implementation Environment

Notwithstanding the relative dearth of education-specific ICT policy in Southern Africa, there are some initiatives focusing on harnessing the potential of ICTs to support education. Most are funded by international donor agencies. Examples of such projects are the World Bank’s World Links for Development (WorLD) programme, SchoolNet Namibia which is funded by the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA), and the Acacia Initiative, led by the IDRC. 

Extrapolating from examples such as WorLD and Acacia, as well as many of the other projects examined in compiling this handbook, some general observations can be made about ongoing education projects in Southern Africa. 

Unrealistically Ambitious Objectives 

A feature of projects in this area is that they often fall prone to setting unrealistically ambitious objectives (often a reflection of the number of problems that need to be solved simultaneously in order to ensure effective use of ICTs). In 1998, WorLD set the following ambitious goals: 

WorLD aims to fulfill its mission by linking students and teachers in at least 1,200 secondary schools in 40 developing countries by the year 2000. WorLD linkages will facilitate the exchange of science projects, writing exercises, historical perspectives, artwork and dreams between students in developing countries and their peers around the world. 

To date, WorLD is currently involved in approximately 600 schools in 27 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The evaluation component of the WorLD web site reveals little of the impact achieved to date. A recent evaluation commissioned by the IDRC of WorLD schools operating in Mozambique, however, revealed significant difficulties encountered in trying to achieve these goals in one country. It faces significant challenges as a consequence of unsustainably high telecommunications costs (which increase as one moves away from major centres such as Maputo), a dearth of skilled capacity, and problems in maintaining technical infrastructure. This suggests that the WorLD Schoolnet project is still some way off achieving its broad goals. 

WorLD in Zimbabwe  World Links for Development (WorLD), a project of the World Bank, is building global, educational on-line communities for secondary school students and teachers around the world in order to expand distance learning opportunities, enhance cultural understanding across nations, build broad support for economic and social development and train teachers to integrate information technology into the classroom.[12] It has set itself the following programme goals: Improve educational outcomes for participating students; Facilitate the global spread of information technology; Narrow the information gap between students in developing and industralised countries; and Build bridges among the leaders of tomorrow.[13] It aims to achieve this by employing the following strategies: Promoting ‘connectivity’ for developing country schools; Supplying educational content for collaborative learning and link schools around the world; Training in a wide range of educational applications of information technology; Encouraging telecommunications policies which lower operating costs; Supporting monitoring and evaluation of the educational impact of this programme; and Leveraging additional resources through other agencies and corporate In Zimbabwe, WorLD will consist of a national network of schools or centres. As part of the WorLD programme in Zimbabwe, twelve ICT centres are being established, one in each provincial capital (Bindura, Bulawayo, Chinoyi, Gwanda, Gweru, Harare, Marondera, Masvingo, Mutare) and three others in growth points (Gutu, Kwekwe, Mpopoma). WorLD Centres will be equipped with computer and Internet resources. Each pilot centre will have 8 – 10 computers, printer, a separate phone line for Internet access, and a trained teacher who will introduce the appropriate use of computers and Internet across the curriculum.  Each pilot WorLD centre will be strategically located to serve a surrounding cluster of schools (e.g., five schools). Future centres could be developed in schools with computer labs or having just a few or no computers. Zimbabwe-WorLD will serve as the backbone for the development of a SchoolNet-Zimbabwe initiative overseeing the implementation of ICT in schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reliance on ‘soft’ funding 

A key contributor to the above problem is the fact that the vast majority of projects in this area rely on ‘soft’ money – grants from funding agencies or earmarked finances – for their funding. Thus, models of financial sustainability are not encouraged to emerge, rendering the medium- to long-term future of projects very fragile. This can be exacerbated by projects which do not ensure that the pre-requisite ownership by intended recipients is in place before proceeding, resulting in these initiatives remaining very much at the margins of social activity and limited in impact. 

Importantly, few government education administrations have acknowledged that innovative financing models will need to be used in the medium- to long-term if projects seeking to harness the capacity of ICTs to support education are to make a meaningful impact. Sharing of ICT resources and connectivity across sectors (for example, the rural health clinic, school and community) and generating revenues through provision of public access services to offset costs have yet to be discussed, however, at a national or regional level in Southern Africa.

Lack of institutionalisation of programmes and over dependence on the enthusiasm and energies of few committed individuals 

Reliance on a few individuals poses serious problems for sustainability, as projects so easily collapse when those individuals move away from the project. Similarly, because an undue amount of their time goes into making the project work, these individuals also find few – if any – opportunities to undertake meaningful succession planning. This is an indication of the lack of skills in this area in Southern Africa, in just about all areas of project management and implementation. It also serves, at least in part, to explain why so many of these projects have international links or are initiated by international agencies. Aside from directing resources to capacity building, strategies to counter this problem might be to

• Ensure the project has the support of the key decision-makers before starting

• Ensure there is a formalised ‘mentorship’ or understudy programme to diffuse skills in-house; and

• Centralise and share support functions once connectivity is achieved, which allows most maintenance issues to be dealt with online, remotely. 

It is also worth noting that this extends to weak capacity in the private sector, where both ICT skills and entrepreneurial capital are much more limited than in most other parts of the world. This makes it significantly more difficult to generate innovative local solutions to educational problems, and also raises the cost of attempting to maintain technology-dependent projects.

 

[1] Global Distance Education Network Southern African web site (http://www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm).

[2] See Appendix 1 for further background on the AISI.

[3] http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/pfsedu.htm.

[4] Busang, C. et al. 2000. A Botswana Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Educational Development Perspective. Paper presented at the Schoolnet Africa Conference, 17 – 20 July, 2000. p. 3.

[5] Information taken from Global Distance Education Network Southern African web site (http://www.saide.org.za/worldbank/countries/botswana.htm) and School Networking in Africa Compendium Draft, August 2000.

[6] School Networking in Africa Compendium Draft, August 2000. p. 8.

[7] NICI. NICI Malawi Country Report. http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/nici/malawi/malab.htm.

[8] http://www.saide.org.za/worldbank/countries/malawi/maloverview.htm

[9] Commission for Information and Communication Technology Policy. 2000. Draft Policy for Information and Communication Technologies. Unpublished paper. p. 7.

[10] ibid. p. 17.

[11] Joint Technical Mission. 2000. Knees, Blackboards, and Logs. Unpublished paper. p. 2.

[12] http://www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/english/html/goals.html (accessed 15 April, 2001).

[13] ibid.

 Educational technology policy in South Africa 

In South Africa, the use of technology in education has been on the policy agenda since late 1995. As the country emerged from many years of colonial and apartheid rule, the country’s first democratic government was faced with a plethora of large-scale educational problems. Thus, the possibility of using a range of ICTs to find solutions received greater attention. Predictably, this interest also brought with it a proliferation of technology carpet-baggers, who traversed the post-apartheid educational terrain marketing specific technologies as ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions to the country’s educational problems. 

In response to this, the Ministry and Department of Education initiated the Technology-Enhanced Learning Investigation (TELI), in order to establish a clear policy framework in which effective decisions about use of technologies in education could be made. In 1996, the South African Minister of Education published a call for nominations of persons to serve on an Investigating Committee relating to the development of a national framework and a strategic plan for technology-enhanced learning. This led to a series of policy processes, which is illustrated below. 

The TELI Process

The initial TELI process consists of two related documents, a Discussion Document and an Implementation Plan.[1] The TELI Discussion Document focused on developing an enabling infrastructure for the effective use of technologies in education and training and not on providing inflexible, top-down ‘solutions’ that take no account of differing contexts. It aimed to outline key principles relevant to use of technologies in education and then to identify some key initiatives focused on developing an enabling infrastructure. The purpose of this policy framework was, therefore, to provide a framework within which planners, decision-makers, administrators, and educators at all levels and in all sectors of the education system could start making more effective use of technologies in their teaching and learning environments. 

This document is important because it established a clear commitment to a particular approach to making decisions about using technologies in education and training. It stresses the importance of examining teaching and learning environments in depth before choosing which technologies to integrate into those environments. Further, it suggests that it is necessary to identify strengths and weaknesses of different technological options, and to use this to inform decisions that are taken. The report stresses throughout the danger of allowing technology choice to drive educational decisions about how to integrate technology use into teaching and learning environments. It offers a decision-making framework as a strategy to overcome this problem. 

The TELI Decision-Making Framework  In its work, a TELI team appointed by the Minister of Education developed a framework and set of guidelines for making decisions about which technologies to introduce into teaching and learning environments. The team presented a tool to facilitate the processes that people may go through when making decisions about different technologies to use in education and training programmes, regardless of whether the decisions are being taken by government departments, single institutions, or consortia of organizations, whether at local, provincial, or national level.  The decision-making framework consists of four modules:  1.    The Teaching and Learning Environment Module The primary aim of this module of questions was to enable decision-makers to develop a picture of the teaching and learning environment in their planned or existing educational programme. To facilitate this, the teaching and learning environment has been broken up into various components: Learners; Teaching and Learning Processes; Communication; Course Materials; Sites of teaching and learning; and Educational Provider. Of course, this is a highly artificial separation. Education is a complex social process, in which the various components are intertwined in many ways, often creating difficult tensions. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider each component part in attempting to paint a picture of the whole environment.  2.    The Technologies Module The aim of this module was to give decision-makers information about the range of available communications technologies which can enhance education and training. Using this information, decision-makers would be expected to make some preliminary decisions about which technologies, if any, they would like to use to enhance their planned or existing education and training programme.  3.     Module on Integrating Technologies into the Teaching and Learning Environment The purpose of this module was to take decision-makers through a set of questions, which would help them to understand the implications of introducing certain technologies into a teaching and learning environment. The answers to the questions posed in this module would lead to a refined understanding of the teaching and learning environment when certain technologies are used to enhance it.  4.    Costing Module When deciding which technologies to use to enhance education and training, it is essential to understand the financial implications of introducing a particular technology to a teaching and learning environment. For maximum benefit, it would be ideal to run comparative costing processes on different combinations of technologies. Together, these processes would make it possible to determine, with a fair degree of insight, the cost benefits of investment in the selected technologies.  People making decisions about which technologies to use to enhance education and training will be doing so in one of two basic circumstances: While planning a new educational programme or course. While planning to modify and enhance an existing educational programme or course. In this case planning might be taking place either specifically to introduce technologies to enhance the programme/course or might form part of a broader formative evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme/course. The tool described above was developed with these different circumstances in mind, and suggests different pathways through it depending on the needs of the decision-makers using it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This framework emphasises appropriateness of technological choice to educational context and need as a prerequisite to ensuring that scarce resources are used as effectively as possible. The decision-making framework contained in the TELI Discussion Document poses interesting challenges for implementation planning processes for any technology-enhanced learning strategy, and provides an essential starting point for any investigation of the possibility of using different technologies to support education and training. 

The intention of this approach was to guard against technologically driven educational projects, which invariably do not provide effective or sustainable educational solutions. Questions posed in it remain a crucial reference point for any planning processes focused on using technologies (including broadcasting) to support schooling. They help to locate the use of technologies within broader teaching and learning environments and to identify where the gaps and potential weaknesses of the use of such technologies lie. This information can then be used to try to fill these gaps and remedy weaknesses through the establishment of appropriate partnerships with educational providers, government departments, educational resource developers, and other key agencies.

The Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education (CETDE)

One of the first concrete outcomes of the TELI reports was the establishment of the Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education (CETDE) in early 1997. The CETDE was set up as a sub-directorate of the national Department of Education. Its mandate is to ‘promote Open and Lifelong Learning through the use of media, educational technology, libraries and distance education’[2]. The centre sets out policy guidelines for the educational sector, supports the use of technology through research, coordinates initiatives and organises partnerships between government and the private sector. 

Also of relevance is the TELI implementation plan and list of proposed projects. The plan outlines nineteen related projects, of which six were identified as lead projects: 

• Audit of information and communication technologies in South African schools. The University of Western Cape, Education Policy Unit has produced a report on ICT use in schools.[3] 

• Multi-Purpose Community Centres. The centre has carried out research and produced a report on the role of technologies in supporting the development and provision of education and training through multi-purpose community learning centres.[4]

• Technical Standards and Protocols. A Departmental Committee developed technical standards and protocols for educational technologies. These were placed on the website of the Department of Education as a reference guide for practitioners in the country.[5]

• Clearing House of Information. A tender for the design and development of a website of information relating to technology-enhanced learning initiatives in South Africa was awarded recently. A printed version of aspects of the information available on the website will be available, and distributed quarterly as part of The Teacher, a mass, teacher-focused newspaper.

• Coordination of Library Services. Responsibility has been allocated for this function, which includes investigating the future of library services and norms and standards for school libraries.

• Educational Broadcasting – the CETDE has worked with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to produce comprehensive reports relating to school based educational broadcasting service for South Africa and educational broadcasting interventions in the field of adult education and youth development. 

The CETDE has also developed a framework of quality standards for distance education. It is important, because it contains several value statements that can effectively be used to measure the quality of a technology-enhanced learning project. These standards were, of course, designed with distance education programmes and systems in mind, but, as the boundaries between face-to-face and distance education blur rapidly, it is becoming clear that many of them can be applied to any educational programme or system. While all of the standards set out in the framework have potential relevance, those possibly most directly useful are the standards covering course design and course materials. Specifically, the framework endorses the broad TELI approach in the following standards: 

• The choice of media and type of technology is integrated into the curriculum design, and is justified in the light of the aims of the course, the required learning outcomes and learner needs and contexts.[6]

• Learners are supported to a considerable extent by the provision of a range of opportunities for real two-way communication through the use of various forms of technology for tutoring at a distance, contact tutoring, assignment tutoring, mentoring where appropriate, counselling (both remote and face-to-face), and the stimulation of peer support structures. The need of learners for physical facilities and study resources and participation in decision-making is also taken into account.[7]

As education is a provincial matter,[8] the CETDE does not have direct responsibility over implementation of initiatives at school level. However, it has been instrumental in many initiatives at the national level, which have indirect effects on use of ICTs in education. For example, the CETDE, together with the IDRC, played an important part in the founding of the national SchoolNet SA initiative, set up in November 1997.[9] It has also now established an ICT Forum (discussed below) to coordinate the work of public and private sector organisations interested in supporting use of ICTs in education.

Schoolnet SA

Schoolnet SA had its forerunners in a few local NGOs and ad hoc groups founded by teachers with the aim of providing computers and Internet to schools. However, most suffered from lack of funding and infrastructural support. To secure and extend their work, a national umbrella organisation was established with support from the IDRC. During 1997, the IDRC brought together possible partners and started negotiations between the local NGOs and government. 

It was decided that the CETDE would coordinate the initiative and Schoolnet SA be set up as an independent entity. Its mandate stipulates that the organisation should stimulate ICTs in education and the support of educational systems in four main areas: 

•          Connectivity and technology;

•          The development of human resources

•          Online-content and material in function of the curriculum; and

•          Marketing and promotion. 

Schoolnet SA is unique in the South African context as the organisation is managed by an Executive Council comprising representatives from NGOs, the CETDE, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, the Department of Communications, and the Department of Trade and Industry. Initially, Schoolnet funding largely originated from donors and international organisations. By 2001 however much of the funding originated from the private sector, either in terms of direct funding or through delivered services and infrastructure. Through its operations, the organisation has shown that partnerships between the public and private sector can wield considerable benefits. 

Schoolnet is currently driving several projects to roll out ICT infrastructure in South African schools, most notably the Thintana i-Learn Project and the Telkom Supercentres Project, which between them are providing computer laboratories to 300 schools. In addition, it has set up an organisation called NetDay to provide affordable network solutions to schools. NetDay aims to ‘offer low cost network solutions, with at least 5 computers, internet, e-mail and training, for less cost than 2 new computers’[10]. Schoolnet also works alongside international projects such as WorLD and Thinkquest (a global web site development competition run for school children[11]), as well as organising regular conferences and workshops on related issues. 

South African Broadcasting Policy relating to Education

The South African broadcasting arena was active even before the democratic elections in 1994, with promulgation of the 1993 Broadcasting Act.[12] A new broadcasting policy (and ensuing legislation) under the new regime was, however, only developed in 1999, with a number of educational aspects included in the policy. 

The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) 

The IBA was established by Parliamentary Act 153 of 1993, which described its purpose as providing ‘for the regulation of broadcasting activities in the public interest’,[13] and proposed the following objectives 

Promote the provision of a diverse range of sound and television broadcasting services on a national, regional and local level which, when viewed collectively, cater for all language and cultural groups and provide entertainment, education and information;

Promote the development of public, private and community broadcasting services which are responsive to the needs of the public;

Ensure that, in the provision of public broadcasting services…the need for educational programmes…are duly taken into account.[14]

These provisions collectively stressed the responsibility of broadcasting to play a constructive educational role. This was developed further by the IBA in its Triple Enquiry Report of 1995, which states that: 

The planning process would need to plan simultaneously for the production and dissemination of educational programming, the equipping of schools and community centres and the development of ongoing user support systems.[15] 

It also stressed the importance of local relevance and appropriateness, a mixed media approach, responsiveness to the challenges posed by new technologies, needs-driven planning, a balance between quality and quantity, and developing appropriate schedules for educational programming as conditions for the success of educational broadcasting. 

White Paper on Broadcasting 

The White Paper on Broadcasting contained many references to educational broadcasting. It referred back to the Green Paper, broadcasting requirements set out by the IBA, and various models for the SABC. It devoted a chapter to ‘Broadcasting and Human Resource Development’, in which two distinct areas of broadcasting in the human resource strategy of the country were outlined: 

• The use of broadcasting to support the provision of education and information to the South African population; and 

• The Human Resources Strategy to develop broadcasting practitioners and skills.[16]

The first is obviously most directly relevant to public educational broadcasting, as it relates to the use of broadcasting as a resource in support of both the formal and informal education. In this context broadcasting is a tool for the dissemination of educational materials to learners in all corners of the country in a timely and cost effective way. Broadcasting is used as a support structure in the provision of materials for human resources development aiding the educators, teachers, trainers and learners wherever they may gather for educational purposes.[17] 

The White Paper articulates objectives for broadcasting in human resource development and roles for the public broadcasting sector, the commercial sector, and the community sector. In this, the role of the public broadcaster is articulated as follows: 

The public broadcaster must shoulder the main responsibility to provide programming that is educative as well as curriculum and skills related through its Public Broadcasting Services. These services target a range of audiences that need and require different educational resources and can therefore go a long way towards developing a culture of life-long learning.[18]

In contrast to the public broadcaster’s role, the paper separates the commercial sector’s contribution into two components: 

• ‘Commercial educational services’, which refers to the role of broadcasters in providing educational materials with the convergence of technologies; and 

• ‘Social contributions’ which refers to educational contributions to priority areas as part of contributing to the Public Interest.[19]

The paper states that the community sector ‘is ideally placed to deliver developmental and educational programmes at a grassroots level’.[20] It goes on to state that: 

The Government is of the view that education should be included as an integral object of the community sector. Educational institutions and developmental organisations should be encouraged to forge partnerships with the community sector for the provision of educational and developmental programmes.[21]

 Finally, the possibility of introducing a dedicated educational channel is mooted. 

The paper alludes to a possible role for new technologies in educational broadcasting, with this statement: 

Government is aware that broadcasting can play a meaningful role if it is integrated into a coherent system of educational delivery through multi-media approaches involving the Internet, print and other non-broadcast media.[22] 

It makes clear government’s more specific priorities with regard to use of new technologies, by articulating objectives for South African production: 

Multi-media production for CD-ROM or Web sites in the mid- to long-term will be crucial. Priority for the immediate term will be on production of conventional radio and television materials that can be made available to a wide range of South Africans. Of course, such productions can be re-purposed for use in multi-media.[23]

 School-Based Educational Broadcasting 

In April 1998, SABC Education and the national Department of Education commissioned a strategic planning exercise, which culminated in a report entitled, A School-Based Educational Broadcasting Service for South Africa - Strategic Plan Developed for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The aim was to prepare for the phased implementation of a school-based educational broadcasting service that supports teaching, learning, and whole school development. The report describes a strategic plan that will ensure educational relevance and financial sustainability. 

In developing an understanding of the nature of the service, the point of departure was that the research would support implementation of a school-based service. This is important because it implies that broadcasting will occur during school hours, and will be used by learners and teachers at schools. The process developed a clear in-principle understanding of the implications of establishing such a service. In doing this, it located a school-based service within a broader broadcasting service supporting schooling through a wide range of broadcasting interventions. 

The in-principle approach required an exploration of the relationship between education and broadcasting. This closed off unnecessary debate about whether or not there was any educational role for television or radio. In South Africa, this has already been resolved in the affirmative. This changed the focus of the planning significantly, because it recognises that the public broadcaster has an educational mandate that it must fulfil. The plans were therefore informed by broadcasting prerogatives, not just educational ones. Linked to this, too, was the fact that other role players and policy makers have – during earlier planning processes – prioritised school education as a focus for SABC Education. Consequently, these plans focused on roles that a broadcasting service could most usefully play in supporting school education, in terms of: 

•          Curriculum support;

•          Professional development of teachers; and

•          Governance, management, and administration of schools. 

The school-based educational broadcasting service was launched early in 1999. There are several conceptual and logistical challenges associated with this. Therefore, the focus of school-based educational broadcasting was limited to Foundation Phase education.[24] 

A Perspective on Educational Broadcasting in South Africa 

As the above analysis reflects, the policy environment for broadcasting is possibly the most developed of all educational technology environments in South Africa. There are two primary reasons for this: 

• Broadcasting is always regarded as a key power structure in any society, and hence the public broadcaster constituted a critical focus of policy contestation in the years leading up to and immediately after South Africa’s first democratic election. This led to well-defined policy positions, which extended to the public broadcaster’s role in education; and secondly 

• Broadcasting is a mature technology, effective educational applications for which have evolved over the past 25 years. It is therefore simpler to establish clear policy frameworks around educational broadcasting than it is around other ICTs. Interestingly, the educational broadcasting environment has led to some of the world’s most innovative educational television broadcasting, as the continued popular success and international recognition of series such as Soul City (a soap opera centred on health issues) and Yizo Yizo (a drama series focusing on problems in schooling) illustrate.

The Vision of a National Educational Network[25]

The most recent development in South African educational technology policy has been the establishment of a vision to develop a national education network. This vision emerged from earlier attempts at exploring the viability of establishing a dedicated educational broadcasting service, and was a joint exercise of the national Departments of Education and Communications. 

Essentially, the vision proposes that government establish an educational technology network, which incorporates four core functions: 

•             Content acquisition and dissemination;

•             Communication;

•             Administration and management;

•             Network rollout and maintenance. 

The report notes that, notwithstanding clear trends of convergence in functionality of ICTs and broadcasting technologies, there will remain a vibrant and distinct terrestrial broadcasting sector in South African communications for the foreseeable future. It proposes that the SABC television and radio services continue to ‘nest’ a range of educational and educative programming within existing channels and stations as they do currently, expanding and augmenting these services as money becomes available to do so. Thus, while there is a growing focus on supporting structured education, in areas such as schooling and adult education, there is also some informal educative programming on both radio and television that harnesses many of the greatest potential strengths of educational broadcasting. 

The vision also proposes that educational broadcasting investments, as summarised above, be augmented by judicious investments in open and flexible computer networks that will link a wide range of teaching and learning sites in South Africa. It envisages the system harnessing the potential of a range of satellite, telecommunications, and information technologies to provide various forms of support to different elements of the education and training system. These will include many functions, ranging from resource delivery to communication and administrative services. 

The vision is based on a belief that a key strength of harnessing converging technologies is that it allows for slower growth in use of resources being delivered using such platforms. Such resource delivery mechanisms generally grow too quickly, off a low base, making it unaffordable to maintain the infrastructure to the point where it can achieve economies of scale through mass use. However, the vision of an educational network proposes offsetting the costs of rolling out this infrastructure by applying such technologies in a range of innovative ways, thus allowing evolutionary growth in use of the system for resource delivery and other similar educational functions to take place over five or six years. 

The concept of an educational technology network implies a need to roll out technological infrastructure on a large scale. In this regard, the report proposes judicious investments in networking teaching and learning sites (including schools, adult learning centres, health clinics, multi-purpose community centres, and a range of other potential sites) around cluster hubs. Via a wide area network, these hubs would provide access to network servers for the teaching and learning sites connected to them. They would provide connected teaching and learning sites with the full functionality of a distributed computer network, including access to web sites, e-mail facilities, and centrally stored database systems. The report anticipates that this distribution network will be connected nationally via a combination of satellite bandwidth, telephone lines, and wireless technologies. Each network server will be equipped with the hardware capability to serve its teaching and learning sites as if they were thin clients. This will provide individual teaching and learning sites with maximum flexibility in terms of deciding what equipment they wish to use to connect to the network. This flexibility will be facilitated by ensuring that everything that is sent via satellite to the cluster hub is developed using Internet protocols. This will ensure that all engagement by individual sites can take place using web browsers. 

The model proposed above has various key strengths in addition to those already mentioned. These are: 

• Multiple applications. Such a technological network has a wide range of applications, both in terms of the functions it can support and in terms of the different education and training sectors that might harness its potential.

• Technological flexibility. The technological model proposed is based strongly on flexibility and open standards. This means that investments already made can be incorporated into the network as it grows. In this way, the model does not constitute a ‘new’ investment in traditional terms. In many ways, it will consolidate and build on investments already made and infrastructure in place. In addition, this technological flexibility will accommodate a range of directions within different aspects of the education and training system, thus not forcing people to accept any particular constraints in deciding to connect their teaching and learning sites to the broader distribution network.

• Linking to existing initiatives. The proposed technological model will link a range of existing initiatives rather than constituting a single new initiative.

• Enhancing productivity. A central strength of the model proposed above is its capacity to enhance productivity in basic ways. Simple illustrations of this are providing computerized tools to help administrators compile school timetables and using e-mail networks to provide cheap, quick policy and administrative communication.

 The vision developed at national level by the Departments of Education and Communication is clearly ambitious, and will take some years to achieve. Nevertheless, it represents continuity in the policy approach of South African government, which has favoured the creation of broad national visions and frameworks (the latter being most recently reflected in the Value Chain released by the national Department of Education, which outlines conditions/phases for successful integration of ICTs into educational environments). Further, several projects now being launched in South Africa, either at provincial level or through involvement of private sector partners, operate within this broad vision and framework, suggesting that there has been some success in adopting this strategy. Many of these represent sizable investments. Schoolnet SA, for example, is currently managing projects that will lead to installation of networked computer laboratories in over 300 schools. GautengOnline.Com, a provincial project of the Gauteng Department of Education, constitutes a R500 million provincial investment in ICT between 2001 and 2003, while there are similarly ambitious plans presented in the Khanya Project of the Western Cape Department of Education.  

The South African Department of Education’s Value Chain[26]  1. PREPARING PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THE INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY All mangers, educators and other key people of the education and training system need to understand the role and value of information and communication technology (ICT). Such an understanding needs to include its educational, management and administrative use, as well as issues of cost and sustainability. This element illustrates the need for an advocacy campaign that shows the value and benefit to various sectors of the education and training system of using ICT.   2. TRAINING OF EDUCATORS TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE TEACHING AND LEARNING  This element requires the educators to understand the application of ICT within the education and training system. This requires an understanding of the technology, its application to various learning areas and the ability to manage information and knowledge.   3. GETTING INSTITUTIONS READY TO ACCEPT TECHNOLOGY The institution needs to display a commitment to wanting and using ICT within the education and training system. Such a commitment includes the institution establishing its basic infrastructure (phone lines, electricity), safe and secure environment, insurance etc. The institution’s plan would also need to include issues of budget and sustainability of the investment and the use of ICT within the institution and community. This plan also needs to be constantly updated to stay abreast of developments and constraints within and around the institution’s community.   4. PROCUREMENT AND INSTALLATION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR IMPLEMENTATION Procuring ICT (new or refurbished) requires various strategies and would need to note the standard infrastructure required (both hardware and software), as well as contracts and guarantees. This element also includes the installation of the equipment as well as the establishment of an educational network designed to facilitate access to relevant educational information. 5. DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF APPROPRIATE CONTENT The value of using ICT in the education and training system is best realised when appropriate content is developed and used to enhance and support the system. This process is vital to educators and managers to enable immediate value when using ICT.   6. CONTINUOUS EVALUATION AND RESEARCH The need for constant research and evaluation on the use of ICT and ways of improving its use is vital in the context of a dynamic and changing ICT and education environment. This will enable the education sector to make changes that require improving the use of ICT in education.   7. CURRICULUM INTEGRATION Technology on its own has limited uses in the education and training system. Its intrinsic value lies in the integration of technology to support learning and teaching in various learning areas and subjects as well as to integrate learning areas within the curriculum.   8. ONGOING TECHNICAL SUPPORT The use of ICT within the education and training system requires different levels of technical support. The first line of such support would need to be based within the school. This requires the training of educators to undertake the first level of technical support. Further technical support via help facilities, contracts with local technicians and companies are also necessary.   9. ONGOING CURRICULUM SUPPORT The ongoing support of educators is crucial to a quality education and training system. Such support would also need to focus on the use of ICT to support and enhance learning. All support mechanisms would require information and training on the integrated use of ICT within the curriculum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ICT Forum

The above processes have all now led to the establishment of a national ICT Forum, which was jointly launched by the Departments of Education and Communications early in 2001 as a first step towards achieving the vision described above. This Forum is intended to bring together private and public sector players to support implementation of the vision of a dedicated national education network. The Forum met for the first time in February 2001, with a view to soliciting active support from the private sector in supporting rollout of ICTs throughout the country’s education system. It intends to develop a comprehensive plan of action by September, 2001.

[1] Both of these documents can be viewed online at http://education.pwv.gov.za/teli2/default.htm.

[2] http://education.pwv.gov.za/teli2/default.htm (accessed 15 April, 2001).

[3]UWC Education Policy Unit. 2000. Audit of information and communication technologies in South African schools. http://education.pwv.gov.za/teli2/research/default.htm

[4] http://education.pwv.gov.za/teli2/policydocuments/default.htm.

[5] Department of Education. Technical Standards and Protocols. http://education.pwv.gov.za/teli2/policydocuments/std-protocol/Default.html

[6] Department of Education, 1996, A Distance Education Quality Standards Framework for South Africa, Discussion Document Prepared by the Directorate: Distance Education, Media and Technological Services, Department of Education, Pretoria, p. 61.

[7] ibid, p. 63.

[8] In South Africa, the apartheid education system divided education across racial lines, and also promoted the creation of ‘independent’ homeland education systems, which resulted in the creation of eleven separate education departments. One of the first challenges of the post-apartheid government was to merge these disparate units, and create a single system. In achieving this goal, a decision was taken to split management functions between a single national department and nine provincial departments. Thus, systems such as higher and teacher education are currently managed at a national level, while adult basic education and training, further education and training, and schooling are managed by the provincial departments.

[9] http://www.school.za

[10] ibid.

[11] The web site for Thinkquest can be located at: http://www.thinkquest.org.za/index1.htm.

[12] A full discussion of broadcasting policy processes, and its regulation is included in Chapter 3.

[13] Parliament of South Africa. (1993). Independent Broadcasting Authority Act 153 of 1993, Cape Town. http://wn.apc.org/iba/legis.htm.

[14] Parliament of South Africa. op cit.

[15] Independent Broadcasting Authority. (1995). Triple Enquiry Report. Johannesburg: IBA. p. 16.

[16]Department of Communications. (4 June 1998). White Paper on Broadcasting Policy, http://www.polity.org.za/govedocs/white_papers/broadcastingwp.html.

[17] ibid.

[18] ibid.

[19] ibid.

[20] ibid.

[21] ibid.

[22] ibid.

[23] ibid.

[24] Foundation Phase education refers to the first three years of schooling.

[25] This section is drawn from the Executive Summary of:

Departments of Communications and Education. 1999. The Feasibility of Establishing a Dedicated Educational Broadcasting Service in South Africa. Unpublished paper. pp. xiii-xiv.

[26] http://education.pwv.gov.za/teli2/Value Chain/Default.htm.

 Emerging Lessons 

As the above examples illustrate, there is significant variance in national approaches to use of ICTs in education within Southern Africa, ranging from no engagement with the challenges through to elaborate, detailed visions and plans. There are, however, some common lessons emerging from this work and particularly from the extensive work undertaken in South Africa, which warrant further exploration.

Uncharted Territory

As we have noted above, despite the optimistic rhetoric of technology vendors, the long-term impact of ICTs on education systems is still largely a matter of conjecture, and will only really start to become fully clear over the next ten to fifteen years. This makes it particularly difficult to establish frameworks to regulate or direct the systems into which they are being integrated. Nevertheless, certain trends in ICT use are emerging: 

• ICT networks are allowing for exponential increases in the transfer of data through increasingly globalised communication systems;

• ICT networks have significantly increased the potential for organisations to expand their sphere of operations and influence beyond their traditional geographical or sectoral boundaries;

• It is expanding the range of options available to education planners in terms of the teaching and learning strategies they choose to use, providing an often bewildering array of choices in terms of systems design options, teaching and learning combinations, and strategies for administering and managing education

• It is reducing barriers to entry of potential competitors to public education institutions, by reducing the importance of geographical distance as a barrier, by reducing the overhead and logistical requirements of running education programmes and research agencies, and by expanding cheap access to information resources. Where economies are weak, this runs the risk of undermining the public sector without leaving viable alternative forms of educational delivery.

Given the tentative nature of these trends and still largely uncharted territory of integration of ICTs into educational systems, it becomes clear that the only way to learn how to manage integration is to support well-planned exploration and develop a system where lessons learned from such exploration are systematically integrated into new projects. To achieve this, simple flexible policy is critical. A simple example of this emerges from policy processes in South Africa, where policy debate between 1996 and 1999 returned regularly to the notion of establishing a dedicated analogue-broadcasting channel to support education. With the benefit of hindsight (as well as the lessons of similar projects in countries such as C’ote D’Ivoire), it is clear that establishing this as a policy direction would not only have had dubious educational value, it has also been overtaken by technological developments. These technological developments have emerged far faster than processes of establishing new policy can.  

Likewise, new lessons about the strengths and weaknesses of using ICTs for different educational applications are being learned globally all the time. Policies cannot be changed to absorb these lessons, but can be designed in such a way that implementation strategies can be changed. The TELI decision-making framework is a good example of a framework that has been designed to allow this type of flexibility, because it establishes policy around a process of making effective technology choices rather than embedding those choices in the policy itself.

Regulatory Frameworks and Complexity

Emerging specifically from South African policy developments are illustrations of the problem of over-regulating the implementation of education, a problem accentuated by growth and development of ICTs. Despite significant achievements in creating a new policy environment, South Africa’s intensive attention to educational policy has not necessarily all had its desired effect. The country’s education policy processes have been the location of some of the most creative ideas internationally, ideas that have been drawn from extensive research and from detailed discussion and debate involving a wide range of interests. Unfortunately, though, the relatively rapid aggregation of too many ideas has created a policy environment that is weighing down effective, large-scale delivery of high quality education because it has become far too complicated for a system the size of South African education. It has also created unrealistic demands in terms of speed of delivery. Other countries would do well to learn from these experiences. 

Various features of the South African education landscape have exacerbated this problem, and continue to do so in higher education as much as any other sector. Below we describe some of the most relevant. 

Attempting to Solve All Problems Simultaneously 

Developing countries share at least one common problem; there are more urgent social problems to solve than there are time or resources to solve them. Faced with so many urgent problems, it becomes very difficult – some would argue almost impossible – to establish priorities, as focusing on one course of action over another often involves taking decisions that may be construed as ignoring fundamental human rights or even – at its most extreme – leading to loss of life (through poverty, disease, unemployment, and other core social problems). This makes it increasingly tempting to want to solve all problems together, as prioritisation simply forces decisions that are too difficult to take. Education policy reflects this dilemma. In a very short space of time, South Africans have sought to develop policy solutions to almost every conceivable educational problem. Unfortunately the resources simply do not exist to solve all these problems, with the result that a scarce resource base has been stretched over an impossibly diverse range of implementation processes. 

This has at least four consequences: 

1.         It heightens awareness of problems amongst education practitioners, leaving them feeling increasingly concerned about the scale of educational problems and increasingly powerless to solve any of these problems. This occurs not only because education policy raises awareness about specific problems, but also because it places responsibility on these practitioners for implementing policy. Thus, policy commitments are not only commitments on the part of government, but also set the direction for all members of the system for which the policy is intended. Thus, even those fully committed to educational change and provision of high quality education lose focus and the will to continue the good work they are doing. 

2.         It diffuses resources – human and financial – across many problem-solving exercises, with the result that very few problems ever actually get solved in a sustainable way. Because people are working in crisis mode to solve so many problems in education and implement so many new systems, success is very rarely achieved. Not only does this lead to loss of productivity, as these efforts and activities are spread so wide that they very seldom lead to results, it also fosters disillusionment amongst those who perceive there to be no progress in educational delivery. 

3.         It erodes opportunities for professional development. A feature of the South African education sector is that a small number of skilled people are responsible for the bulk of work in that sector, most of whom are working unusually long hours simply to deal with their workload. This workload proliferates as policy seeks to tackle more and more educational problems. As policy proliferates, the opportunities available for these skilled people to support the professional development of others – which, in whatever form and structure such professional development takes place, remains the only way to build the capacity of other people and the country as a whole – is eroded. This is a dangerous self-reinforcing cycle, as well as a major threat to meaningful affirmative action aimed at redressing racial inequities in the country. 

4.         Strategies to harness ICTs effectively are generally moved to the bottom of priority lists by default. This is not because decision-makers do not appreciate the importance of such strategies, but rather because, in the face of so many pressing short-term problems, it becomes difficult to find time and mental space to engage with the complexities surrounding effective integration of ICTs into national education systems. This is at least one key reason why so many ICT-related projects focus almost exclusively on the somewhat easier, but on its own, futile task of purchasing and installing ICT infrastructure. 

Policy as the Response to Educational Problems 

Many policy instruments are developed with only the problem they seek to solve in mind, thus leading to the danger that they might create tensions with existing policy positions. For example, this has become a particular issue in the area of schooling in South Africa, which is now split across two policy implementation areas, General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Training (FET). The result has been a sense of confusion about the relative status of different policy pronouncements pertaining to these different areas and how these pronouncements affect a sector undergoing rapid transformation. 

Solving the Policy Proliferation Cycle 

In summary, South Africa’s policy implementation environment is caught in a self-reinforcing cycle that looks something as follows: 

 It is important to stress that the above diagram is not intended to describe the only possible systemic cycle for policy development, it simply outlines current cycles. Policy per se is not problematic, only when it contributes to the above self-reinforcing cycle. In South Africa, this has emerged in large part not because the policy framework itself is problematic, but rather because the timeframes for its implementation – set in acknowledgement of the urgency of the problems it seeks to resolve – have created impossible demands on the system and its human resources. Proliferation of policy and regulation, as well as of the structures established to implement them, poses serious risks to the capacity of education systems to administer themselves effectively and to cope with growing competition from different sources. It also undermines the possibility of being able to harness ICT applications effectively in support of these goals. 

Too Many Regulations 

Flexibility is becoming increasingly important as education systems are expected to serve an ever-growing diversity of needs and target groups of learners. It is also fundamental to harnessing ICTs to support education systems effectively, as integration of ICTs into systems inevitably creates ongoing pressures for change to the structures of those systems. The more complex policies and procedures become, the less flexibility they allow in the operations of people and organisations governed by those policies and procedures. There is also a serious risk that, by creating regulatory frameworks that are too complicated to be administered effectively, one opens the door to serious subversion of the system, as rapid growth in ‘fly-by-night’ education throughout Southern Africa has demonstrated. The simpler policy and regulatory frameworks are, the better, both in terms of flexibility and quality assurance. 

Macro and Micro Level Models

Although ICTs are being used successfully by individuals and in projects right across the education spectrum, there can be little doubt that the major impact of ICTs educationally will be at the systemic level. The reasons for this are twofold:

• Investment in ICTs is now, for the first time, being mobilised – in South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia at least – in significant enough quantities for their systemic impact to be of serious consequence (and there is sufficient anecdotal evidence to suggest that this level of spending may well spread to other countries in the region); and

• At the systemic level, efficiencies to be derived from using any particular technology have an impact that eclipses use of technology in micro contexts (for example, use of technology in support of a specific course).

At the individual level or micro level, the justification for using ICTs is usually quite easy to establish. Individuals can, with the right focus and skills, deploy technologies to increase their efficiency and productivity significantly. Small projects stand to benefit significantly from intelligently considered integration of ICTs into project management, whether this be to improve communication, to generate project documentation more efficiently, or to harness the power of currently available software applications (Destktop Publishing, graphics packages, and so on). Likewise, it is possible to construct small-scale educational interventions that demonstrate the educational potential of ICTs. 

However, there are associated problems when it comes to scaling up these projects. Most importantly, scaling a system of any significance does not, by definition, improve the efficiency or productivity of that system.[1] Indeed, what works well at the micro level can be disastrous at the systemic level, because it may require levels of complexity that a large system is unable to accommodate sustainably. More often than not, models of successful ICT use at the micro level are evolved by dedicated, highly proficient individuals, and depend on these people’s personal traits and commitment for ongoing success. Such models do not translate easily or at all to the systemic level. On the contrary, attempts to escalate such models of operation to the systemic level may have a seriously destabilizing effect on a large system. 

Linked to this problem is the concern of financial impact of scaling up successful small-scale educational practices. Certain distance education practices provide adequate evidence of this problem. The South African Institute for Distance Education has costed models of distance education developed for use at a very small scale (say, 30 to 250 learners), which are pedagogically very sound and sometimes even work successfully financially because participating individuals are willing to invest huge amounts of time and energy into their implementation. Taken to scale (thousands of learners), however, they would overload the systems in which they operate, as they would place impossible financial demands on those systems. In one example, a sustained loss of R40 million over ten years was projected for a distance education programme being planned because it attempted to translate the logic of micro-level teaching to a very large programme.[2] 

Further, it is much harder at the systemic level to justify the massive levels of investment that would be required in ICTs. In addition, as we have noted above, at the micro level, it is usually quite simple to control ICT use in a way that more than justifies investment. However, at the macro level, project planners lose this control, often with serious unintended consequences. The implications of failure at the macro level also significantly raise the stakes of integrating ICTs into systems. If use of ICTs fails in a single university course or at one school, the consequences are relatively easily contained. However, if technology is integrated into mission-critical systems (for example, deployment of a new, computerized student registration system), the implications of failure are much more serious. 

Ongoing policy research, development, and implementation processes need to be aware of the significant differences between micro and macro models of ICT use. By definition, national policies will be primarily interested in models of ICT use that are relevant at the macro level, and care should therefore be taken to ensure that these models do not simply draw on successful models of ICT use developed under very specific circumstances at the micro level. 

Technologically-Driven Educational Solutions do not Work

When technologies fail to deliver solutions to new educational challenges, a key reason for this is often that the technology to be used is identified before a clear understanding of the educational challenges and needs has been developed. Many decision-makers fall into the traps identified by South Africa’s Technology-Enhanced Learning Investigation: 

In most cases, decisions about what technology to use in the learning environment [are] made on the basis of the technological preference, rather than by determining which technology [is] most suitable for the learning objective[3]. 

The reasons for this unsystematic approach to making decisions are manifold; well planned and executed marketing strategies can easily create unrealistic expectations about new inventions. This can lead to very real political pressure to make investments in such technologies, either at government or institutional level, as decision-makers understandably wish to demonstrate their willingness and ability to stay in touch with the latest trends. Such pressure can be exacerbated when the technology has its own ‘missionaries’, people whose love of the invention and its capacity to perform certain functions generates tremendous enthusiasm and a well-intentioned desire to demonstrate the technology’s capacity to solve educational problems. Such energy, together with the novelty value of recent inventions, can be very persuasive, especially in Southern Africa, where the pressure to respond to educational challenges very quickly and in a highly visible way is so great. Unfortunately, the desire to find quick answers often leads to short cuts in planning – for example, cutting out rigorous and systematic processes of clearly identifying educational needs before making decisions – sometimes with disastrous, and very costly, consequences. 

The following pointers are, therefore, worth taking into consideration. 

• Educational principles and issues have to form the foundation of decisions about what technologies to use and how. 

• Before making any contractual commitment, test the viability of using the particular technology or technologies for the intended educational purposes by exploring its potential in a chosen area with the best available educators. 

• Never take marketing jargon at face value. 

• Do not get locked into contractual arrangements that force commitment to a particular technological solution for an extended period.

• Ensure that the choice of technology does not lead to imbalances in fixed and variable costs.

• Ensure that technological resources are affordable and cost-effective.

• Regardless of technological choice (often influenced by intersecting educational, financial, social, political, and economic interests), ensure that sufficient time for planning, designing, and developing an effective educational programme is scheduled.

• Ensure that projects – even pilot projects – are not driven by the technology supplier.

Technologies as a Catalyst for Transformation or as a Mechanism for Maintaining the Status Quo

Educational discussions about the potential role of ICTs have an undeniable ability to generate tremendous interest, enthusiasm, and excitement. If harnessed effectively, there is a distinct possibility that this might be a very powerful catalyst for transforming dominant education practices. This task is sometimes made easier because development and use of ICTs have contributed strongly to eroding myths of the teacher as the source of all knowledge. Unfortunately, though, most uses of ICTs still tend to enhance the role of the traditional teacher, using new gimmicks as ‘high-tech chalk’. The assumption seems to be that the ‘talk and chalk’ approach is still the most effective way of organising educational opportunities and that a key function of technologies should be either to enable teachers to do this better or to make his or her lecture available to more students at one time. 

Using this as a starting point, there seems also to be an assumption that use of ICTs is a valuable exercise in itself. In many examples we have examined, there is little questioning of the content being provided using these technologies and of how they could most constructively be used to enhance this provision educationally. There is often very little rigorous effort to match choice of technologies to learning outcomes and processes of courses and programmes. There also seems, in many cases, to be a lack of sophistication in mixing media and technologies to achieve learning objectives. 

This points to the importance of ensuring that projects integrating the use of ICTs into education seek to create learning environments wherein exploration of educational roles for the technologies available can function as a catalyst for effective educational transformation and for building high quality education. It is also necessary – particularly given the scale of particular educational problems and backlogs in the region – to focus on developing teaching and learning models that can be taken to scale cost-effectively. 

Finally, it has often been noted that development of new technologies can also entrench, or even widen, the gap between rich and poor, both between countries and within them. This trend is one of the most difficult with which Southern African countries have to deal. In general, people and countries with large resource bases are much better placed to take advantage of the educational benefits arising from using ICTs in teaching and learning than are people and countries with few resources. This is not an easy problem to solve, but clearly it cannot be solved by pretending that it does not exist. Rather, it is a problem that Southern African education systems have to work through in order to ensure that access to ICTs is opened up to marginalized communities in innovative and cost-effective ways. Above all, not tackling the problem head on is, as much as anything else, likely to be an act of perpetuating economic, and educational,marginalisation.

[1] Here, ‘efficiency’ and ‘productivity’ are used as a shorthand to describe the two complementary gains that a technology must demonstrate before investment in it can be justified: either it must demonstrate potential to allow a system to produce what it was able to produce without the technology at lower cost (increased efficiency) and/or it must demonstrate potential to allow a system to produce more – or operate better – than it was able to produce (or operate) without the technology (increased productivity). Although this sounds like a crude generalization, it is a fundamental rationale behind any technological investment, subversion of which will undermine the system’s ability to function over time.

[2] Reference not available as research was done as part of a confidential analysis of a higher education programme.

^[3] Education (1996). Technology-Enhanced Learning in South Africa: A Discussion Document. Pretoria, Government Printer. 39.

 Conclusion 

Although it is still relatively brief, the history of educational-ICT policy making in Southern Africa clearly illustrates that there is no single approach to policy that provides a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to the challenges of integrating ICTs effectively into education systems. Southern African countries are experimenting with a variety of approaches as they navigate this still largely uncharted territory. Progress and success across countries is varied, but certain lessons have emerged from work undertaken in the region to date. Particularly, it is becoming clear that policy frameworks become problematic when they make undue demands of the systems for which they have been developed. From this perspective, it appears that simple, flexible policies are critical to supporting effective integration of ICTs into education systems. This creates an environment that supports well-planned exploration, and develops a system where lessons learned from such exploration are systematically integrated into new projects. As important, an integrated approach to policy development is critical, as it ensures that the policy environment does not become weighed down by complexity or contradictory approaches. 

Equally, it is emerging that what works well at the micro level can be disastrous at the systemic level, because it may require levels of complexity that a large system is unable to accommodate sustainably. National policies need to focus on macro level strategies that will create conditions for successful, organic growth of micro-level activity. Given the contextual realities of Southern Africa, this has to begin with:

• Strategies to improve basic national infrastructure (roads, telecommunications) and to reduce the costs of using this infrastructure sustainably;

• Building the professional capacity of people and organisations throughout all levels of the system who will, in some way or another, take responsibility for use of ICTs in education;

• Ensuring financial accountability by integrating expenditure on ICTs into sustainable budgets at national and institutional levels.

Focusing on these basic building blocks in national policies is likely to create the conditions most necessary for successful integration of ICTs into education systems, and thus to ensure that the potential of these technologies is realised in the shortest possible time. Given the challenges facing the region’s education systems, this endeavour becomes a matter of some urgency.