Towards a well learned society through ICT

For years now, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a common thing in all aspects of life so much that it has changed how we perform our activities in business, governance and education sectors.

The quality of education has traditionally been associated with high skilled teachers, but with the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the role of ICT in education is becoming important every day.

Like many countries in Africa and the rest of the world, Tanzania is among countries that recognise the importance of using ICT in the education sector.

This recognition has seen various initiatives and strategies being implemented by government through the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) .

These initiatives are said to have brought positive results which include the improvement in ICT infrastructure in schools and colleges, an increase in ICT awareness among teachers and learners and also an increase in the use of ICT to facilitate administrative functions in schools.

However, despite all the awareness and improvement in the use of ICT brought by initiatives mentioned above, the country has so far not enjoyed the full potential of the use of ICT in education specifically ICT integration in teaching and learning in Tanzanian schools.

Outdated ICT infrastructure used in teaching and the learning environment together with the insufficient competency among teachers and tutors in ICT and the lack of comprehensive ICT training are said to be some of the major reasons why we don’t enjoy the use of ICT in education.

As a way of recognising these challenges, the government of Tanzania launched a new education and training policy in 2014. The policy largely covers all educational levels and replaces several existing policies which covered different education aspects including the ICT policy for Basic Education 2007.

However, with the presence of the policy statement, ICT integration in teaching and learning seems to be limited in schools and colleges due to the existence of small digital contests and non existence of specific use of the same in the curriculum.

Understanding that teachers are vital in leveraging ICT integration in education as model learners and facilitators, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and UNESCO through the China Funds-In-Trust(CFIT) project agreed to review the draft ICT-competency standard of teachers in Tanzania.

Commenting recently during the handing over of the ICT competency standard, in the presence of key Tanzania education sector decision and policy makers, the Commissioner for Education, Prof Eustella Bhalalusesa, noted how government has been prioritising the role of teachers’ work.

“It is evident that to achieve exemplary teachers education programmes, there should be close integration of courses that create a coherent experience throughout the programme, well-defined standards of practices and performance, a core curriculum with emphasis on students’ learning outcomes, use of learner-based teaching methods and competence-based assessment,” said the commissioner, adding that with the support given by the China Funds-in-Trust Project in Enhancing Teacher Education through ICTs innovation, the government envisions the future of its people in terms of knowledge, expertise and innovation and hence recognises the importance of a good education system to achieve a well-learned society.

“Additionally, to be relevant and adaptable to future changes, our teachers must be equipped to meet the challenges and opportunities of an evolving and yet dynamic globalised economy.”

“These include growing advancements in the sector of ICT, the use of which can effectively enhance both teaching and learning processes, and thus simplify and make learning more interesting and enjoyable,” She said.

She also pointed out the need to continually train our teacher educators and student teachers to acquire greater competency in the use of ICT in teaching and learning.

“ICT mastery can enable teachers to transform their teaching practices, given a set of enabling conditions. Others include improving teachers’ academic practices and reasoning influence their use of ICT, and the nature of teacher ICT use influences student achievements. Importantly also, exposure to ICTs can be an important motivation tool to promote and enable teachers’ professional development.

She went further by saying ICT holds a promise in providing not only anywhere and anytime access to knowledge, but also equal opportunities for networking and communications that allow knowledge sharing, participation and lifelong learning.

For her part, Ms Rodrigues said teaching is one of the most challenging and crucial professions the world over.

She said teachers have been and remain critical in facilitating students’ learning by making it more efficient and effective, and will continue to be so in the future.

However, with knowledge expanding so rapidly, it makes it an unavoidable burden for teachers to continue updating their knowledge and exposing themselves to modern channels of information.

“Modern technological developments have therefore eased some teaching burdens, but they have certainly not made life easier for teachers.

In particular, ICTs have brought new possibilities into the education sector, contributing significantly to diverse opportunities in teachers’ professional development.”

She said the effort which is being made by the government through the ministry of Education to foster advancement of the education sector as a whole is indeed encouraging.

She, however, pointed out that the government should continue acknowledging and addressing the many facets that ICT in Education policies have to tackle to achieve education development goals by 2030.

“These include teacher competencies, learning materials, ICT equipment, student and teacher motivation, as well as linkages to other areas of national policy and socio-economic development. Specifically for advancement in teacher education, adopting a cross-sectoral approach for integration of ICTs in teaching and learning can help the nation to successfully address all relevant dimensions,” she explained.

She said UNESCO in partnership with industry leaders and global subject experts elaborated the ICT Competency Framework for Teachers which sets out the competencies required to teach effectively.

“The framework emphasises that it is not enough for teachers to have ICT competencies to be able to teach their students.

Teachers need to be able to help students become collaborative, problem solving creative learners and effective global citizens. The framework therefore addresses all aspects of a teacher’s work.”

“In this context, the ICT Competency Framework for Teachers is aimed at developing a comprehensive national teacher ICT competency policies and standards. The comprehensive framework encompasses a learning pathway for teacher educators, teachers, student teachers, and administrators to become competent in using ICT to support high-quality teaching and learning,” she explained

The framework also identifies three sets of ICT competencies,with each set growing in sophistication. The competencies, when assimilated into teacher practice, enhance their ability to perform in education policy, curriculum and assessment, pedagogy, ICT, school organisation and administration and teacher professional development.

“I recognise that although we have lots of work to do before we can truly claim that we have used ICT effectively to transform education, Tanzania as a nation is surely gaining momentum towards that end. I believe that collectively, over time, we will be able to develop and implement ICT competencies standards to ensure that no teacher will be left behind in the knowledge and skills they will need in order to thrive in the 21st century’s knowledge-based economy and society,” she stated.

Dr Said Jafari from the Institute of Finance Management said there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed so as to make the project work effectively.

He stated that findings showed that availability of computer labs is still a challenge and that more initiatives are needed to ensure the establishment of computer labs is given enough consideration so as to make it work.

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