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Anthony Jongwe
In continuing with the discussion on the major issues to mediate the business environment in 2012, I highlighted in my seminal article that Zimbabwe continues to make inroads in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) as part of a national agenda of narrowing the digital divide and noted its (ICT) potential use in education and business.
This instalment seeks to extend discussion on the matter by setting an agenda for a technological revolution in the provision of education and training in the country. The instalment draws on key research findings from a major working paper focusing on bringing technology to the classroom by the influential Brookings Institute.
ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is generally used to describe most technology uses and can cover anything from radios, to mobile phones, to laptops.
A recent Brooke Shearer Working Paper Series by Winthrop and Smith (2012) entitled "A New Face of Education: Bringing Technology into the classroom in the Developing world" has noted that modern ICT has great promise in helping bring quality learning to some of the world's poorest and hardest-to reach communities, "if smartly and strategically deployed".
As a developing country, Zimbabwe faces a number of challenges in its education system, chief of which is the need to meet and maintain quality against the backdrop of meagre resources (Idasa, 2009). The issue of quality in education has become a policy priority in most developing countries because quality education plays an important role in promoting economic development, improving health and nutrition and reducing maternal and infant mortality rates.
The relationship between quality education and economic growth is demonstrated in studies by Hanushek and Woessman (2009) show a positive correlation over time between cognitive development, measured by student performance on international assessments, and individual earnings, income distribution and overall economic gro-wth.
A study by the International Monetary Fund (2000) found out that Asia's increased economic performance over Africa and Latin America could be directly attributed to its higher investment in physical and human capital, such as education.
Quality education has also been a factor in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates. Over half of the reduction in child mortality worldwide since 1970 is linked to "increased educational attainment in women of reproductive age." Educated women are also more likely to seek out healthcare for themselves and their families. Studies on maternal health show that 90 percent of women with a secondary education in South and West Asia seek neonatal care, compared with only 50 percent of women with no education (Gakidu, 2010).
Here in Zimbabwe, there are renewed efforts aimed at improving quality outcomes in education at all levels: early childhood; primary and secondary; and higher and tertiary education. For instance, the formation of the Zimbabwe Council on Higher Education is an illustration of this emergent thinking.
As with other developing countries, the policy thrust of the Zimbabwe government has been on focus on access but there is convergence in thinking that this should change to a focus on learning for both those in and outside school (Pearlman Robinson, 2011).
The renewed focus on learning for all has been necessitated by three policy considerations namely: 1) deepening the relevance of learning content to full participation in the economies and governing structures of today's world; 2) enhancing mastery of foundational skills, including learning how to learn and analytic skills; and 3) improving access to learning opportunities. These are areas which can benefit from the use of technology for educational improvement.
While for many years policymakers in both the developed and developing countries have been unconvinced about the usefulness of technology in education, today there is a new focus on its possibilities in unleashing quality outcomes (Winthrop and Smith, 2012)
Before explaining the role of technology in this discourse, it is imperative to first identify the main constraints to quality outcomes at the various levels of education.
According to the Brooke Shearer Working Paper (ibid), there is a common set of persistent barriers that frequently hold back learning for all children and youth in a number of countries including Zimbabwe.
There are demand-side and supply-side constraints to quality outcomes which need to be addressed by policy-makers.
On the supply side, the research notes that the existence of barriers such as distance and cost, particularly at primary level impinge negatively on quality outcomes.
Governments are failing to provide adequate school seats for students and also the teachers needed. On the aspect of cost, the research notes that the higher costs for teaching materials and classrooms while the ability of children to learn well once they are in school is often greatly affected by the teaching, materials, language of instruction, and management of the education system.
Reducing these barriers would have a powerful effect on attendance in public schools, as evidenced by the startling growth of numerous private schools and colleges in Zimbabwe, a growth fuelled by the great demand for learning for all.
The emergent policy thrust on learning for all predicated on quality outcomes can benefit a lot from ICT and this thinking informs the remainder of this article. For a start, it is important to point out that the role of ICT in education in Zimbabwe has been championed by President Robert Mugabe through the Presidential Computerisation Scheme which has seen several rural schools receive laptops and desktop computers.
These efforts have been amplified by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology which has come up with policies which nurture the use of ICT in all sectors of the economy. However, there remains a whole world of possibilities in this regard.
Outside traditional technologies like the blackboard and textbooks the education sector is poised to benefit from development of new technologies such as mobile phones, tablets and e-readers, multi-media projectors, open educational resources, and cloud computing to name but a few.
The potential for technological innovation in education through the use of these applications is buttressed by the reality that in the developing world, their cost and access to them has decreased over the past several years, especially in urban regions while connectivity and the availability of reliable power sources have also expanded. This has ensured that access to the technology applications is growing rapidly (Winthrop and Smith, 2012).
Technology can be used in distance learning, to digitised teaching and learning materials, and in information management and teacher support. In particular, cloud computing, which acts as an off-site, online server, offers a range of possibilities for educational purposes. Cloud computing allows organisations to increase computing capacity or add computing capabilities without needing to invest in infrastructure or train additional personnel.
Going forward, it is critical that policy-makers and stakeholders in education and training interrogate fully the issue of technology in the sector. This article merely set an agenda for that discourse.
-Anthony Jongwe is the Principal Consultant at Global Workforce Solutions (Pvt) Ltd. For feedback, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call/sms: +263 776 375 637
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