UNESCO IITE participated in the regional project “Supporting Competency-Based Teacher Training Reforms to Facilitate ICT-Pedagogy Integration” in Uzbekistan

On 21-23 January 2015, the Workshop on the development of national teachers ICT competency standards was organized by UNESCO Tashkent (TAS) and Bangkok (BKG) offices in the framework of the Regional Project of the Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau of UNESCO for Education on "Supporting Competency-Based Training Reforms to Facilitate ICT-Pedagogy Integration". The Workshop was supported by the Korean Funds-in-Trust.

The Workshop was aimed to support the two Uzbek ministries of education (General Education and Higher and Professional Education) in defining and developing the required ICT competencies for teachers in accordance with the national policy vision and goals for ICT in education.These national standards would guide the development of a comprehensive roadmap that promotes competency-based teacher ICT training programs where teachers’ development is systematically guided, monitored, assessed, and tracked at policy and institutional levels.

At the Workshop, 26 policy-makers, including Vice-Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, other officials from two Uzbek Ministries of education and leading universities, teacher training institutions and other educational establishments had participated. The seminar-workshop was facilitated by the representative of the Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok and UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE).

Keynote speakers at the conference were Ms. Krista Pikkat (TAS Director), Mr. Botir Usmonov (Vice-Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education), Ms. Jonghwi Park (Programme Specialist, BKG), Prof. Alexander Khoroshilov (Officer-in-Charge, UNESCO IITE), Mr. Abdurashid Khundibaev (Head of the ICT in Education Department of the Ministry of Public Education), Mr. Dmitriy Li (Head of the ICT in Education Department of the Centre for Secondary Specialized and Professional Education), Mr. Alexander Uvarov (Consultant, UNESCO IITE).

The participants from two Ministries of education were trained and consulted by UNESCO Bangkok Office and IITE representatives to draft national ICT-competency standards for teachers based on UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT), BGK Draft Guidelines on Standards development and IITE Guidelines on ICT-CFT adaptation.

Prof. Alexander Khoroshilov delivered the keynote presentation on the key issues of ICT-competency standards development based on UNESCO ICT-CFT, IITE methodology of ICT-CFT localization and adaptation; consulted participants on the appropriate issues and moderated their practical work on assignments and exercises on standard development. IITE expert Prof. Alexander Uvarov also delivered the keynote presentation and facilitated the group work of the participants.During the Workshop, a set of relevant IITE publications was distributed among workshop participants.

Several meetings and negotiations with participants of the Workshop as well as staff of the UNESCO Tashkent office and representative of UNESCO Bangkok office were held. The main topic of discussions was cooperation with IITE both in the framework of the current Regional Project and beyond it. As a result of negotiations, the list of possible joint activities in Uzbekistan was created including translation and publication of the IITE Guidelines on ICT-CFT adaptation in the Uzbek language. New points of cooperation with Bangkok offices were defined as well.