ICT in education in five Arab states: Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Qatar
Great strides have been made in the last decade to harness the power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to help meet many development challenges, including those related to education. However, evidence shows that some countries in the Arab States continue to lag behind in fully implementing ICT in their education systems.
According to a UIS data analysis, which was based on a data collection process sponsored and conducted by the UNESCO Communication and Information Sector and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org), policies for the implementation and use of ICT in primary and secondary education systems have not necessarily translated into practice. This is revealed in the newly released data from five participating countries.
Two critical measures of the gap in ICT integration are: i) learner-to-computer ratio; and ii) learner-to-computer connected to the Internet ratio. Data show that in Egypt and Palestine, 120 and 38 students on average, respectively, share a single computer in primary education. Meanwhile computer resources connected to the Internet are more overstretched in primary education as the learner-to-computer connected to the Internet ratio increases to 441:1 and 93:1, in Egypt and Palestine, respectively.
The results of this report can be used to monitor national progress as part of the follow-up to the World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS), which were held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005. The WSIS statistical framework includes two education-related targets, measured by eight different indicators. This report provides comparative analysis for a small sample group of each of these measures, which cover different aspects of ICT in education such as institutional infrastructure, provision of ICT-assisted instruction, and teacher training related to ICTs.
The UIS is tasked with producing internationally comparable and policy-relevant indicators to help benchmark and monitor the use of ICT in education. The results of this survey lay the foundation for conducting a region-wide data collection.
Access the report
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education in Five Arab States: A comparative analysis of ICT integration and e-readiness in schools in Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Qatar (PDF). Available in English.
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