What Makes Education Partnerships Effective?
This manual helps practitioners evaluate education partnerships.
TECH/NA! by Niamh Brannigan
Programme and Partnership Objective
Produce ICT literate citizens
Produce people capable of working and participating in the new economies and societies arising from ICTs and related developments
Leverage ICTs to assist and facilitate learning for the benefit of all learners and teachers across the curriculum
Improve the efficiency of educational administration and management across all levels
Broaden access to quality educational services for learners at all levels of the education system
Set specific criteria and targets to help classify and categorise the different Development Levels for using ICTs in education
Partners
Namibian Ministry of Education, Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, CECS Namibia, USAID, Microsoft, Nampower, OpenLab, Peace Corps, Polytechnic, UNAM, USAID, Schoolnet Namibia, Telecom Namibia, World Teach, Xnet
Partnership Background and Justification
Connecting Namibia's Youth to the Information Society
Implementation Steps
The effective deployment of ICTs in educational institutions and indeed in any setting is a complex affair which goes beyond purchasing hardware and software. The ICTs in Education Steering Committee has identified ten key elements for the implementation of ICTs. These components must all co-exist; together they form an “end-to-end” solution. The end-to-end solution presents a holistic, comprehensive, demand driven, and well-coordinated approach.
At the centre of the entire process are the Educational Objectives, which must drive the whole initiative. These are then followed by Leadership, to be provided by the Ministry of Education, and the development of a Project Management Office that oversees the day-to-day management of the initiative. Next are the actual components of the ICTs in education initiative (Infrastructure Readiness and Platform Deployment, Curriculum Development, Content Availability, Training and Usage Support, Educational Management, and Maintenance and Technical Support). These are the activities that must be implemented at the educational institution level. Finally, enveloping the entire process must be a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation process.
Partnership Outcomes
1. Establishment of the web portal Tech/Na!
2. The NETSS Centre has been created as a public/private partnership between the MoE and various private sector and civil society partners acts as a distribution hub for ICTs in education and a National helpdesk for technical support.
3. In conjunction with the National Training Authority, the MoE has developed a National ICT literacy certification certified by the Namibian Qualification.
4. The Namibian Open Learning Centre, a multi-stakeholder partnership including all educational institutions has developed a National e-Learning Centre to coordinate that e-Learning activities of all its partners.
5. The Namibian Communications Commission has recently granted the MoE a VSAT License, affording the education community in Namibia access to cheaper international connectivity bandwidth rather than relying solely on connectivity provided by the state owned telecommunications company.
6. Multi-country Teacher Professional Development workshop (TPD): To coincide with the Tech/Na! launch, GeSCI conducted a Multi-country TPD workshop in Namibia in September 2006, bringing together participants from Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia. The strategic objective of the workshop was to identify and define GeSCI’s role in supporting knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration for TPD in Sub Sahara Africa.
Replicability and Sustainability
The use of ICTs in all educational institutions will be conducted in a holistic manner which includes: deployment of hardware and software, availability of curricula, development of suitable content, delivery of adequate training and user support, the provision of adequate maintenance and technical support, and the development of a robust monitoring and evaluation process. To benefit from economies of scale, some of these components (such as the development of curricula and content as well as the provision of maintenance and technical support and monitoring and evaluation) will be accounted for from a national perspective. Deployment of hardware and software as well as the delivery of user training and support will be accounted for at the educational institution.
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