ADEA shares its role in ICT in Education at UIS workshop in Harare

22nd – 24th September 2014: ADEA WGEMPS participated in the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) Sub-Saharan Africa regional workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education Statistics in Harare. This workshop, attended by over 16 countries and three international organisations, was co-funded by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS) and UIS. The main objectives were to develop the statistical capacities of national respondents from ministries, National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and associated government agencies to complete the UIS survey on ICT in education and review ICT in education policy-relevant indicators.

KERIS presented its role in ICT in education and a questionnaire the institution has developed. The meeting also deliberated on the UIS questionnaire on ICT in Education, the consultative questionnaire of proposed themes on statistics for ICT in education in Africa and the results of previous ICT in education data collection process. ADEA WGEMPS shared the role of the Association in Africa’s ICT in Education and Training. Four countries (Kenya, The Gambia, Seychelles and Zimbabwe) presented their ICT in education initiatives. Interesting innovations came out from the country presentations, including The Gambia with its mobile data collection system and Kenya’s laptop project to all learners in the first two grades of primary education.

Mr. Shem Bodo and Mr. Brighton Mutasa from WGEMPS co-presented the role of ADEA in ICT in Education and Training with a specific focus on Africa. Mr . Bodo informed the meeting of one of the current Strategic Objectives in ADEA’s Medium Term Strategic Plan (MTSP) whose main theme is fostering of ICT integration in education and training. Mr . Mutasa presented the Association’s support for the Second Decade of Education for Africa, informing the meeting that ADEA is the lead agency in the EMIS priority area in which ICT is an integral part, highlighting the ADEA EMIS initiative for the African Union. He also presented the draft WGEMPS-developed AU national data collection questionnaires A and B, including the table on ICTs in education. Participants observed that ADEA should consider incorporating UNESCO’s Open EMIS software in its work.

Regarding the UIS ICT questionnaire, it was observed that some of the questions embraced more of developed countries’ context as opposed to that for developing countries, which is the case for Africa. The issue of harmonisation of data collection instruments repeatedly came up in the meeting, given that there is need to minimise member states’ fatigue  due to the multiple  and  related questionnaires that can be merged. There was also a call to focus on ICT in a holistic sense and avoid, for example, only counting computers and leaving equipment such as radios and TVs.

For more information contact: Angela Arnott, a.arnott@afdb.org, Interim Coordinator, ADEA Working Group on Education Management and Policy Support (WGEMPS) or Tarek Chehidi, Coordinator ADEA ICT Task Force,  t.chehidi@afdb.org