UNESCO-Republic of Korea Joint Initiative on ICT Transforming Education in Africa

ICT Transforming Education in Africa is a 3-year project launched in 2015 to foster human and social development in Mozambique, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, through the use of information and communication technology (ICT), in particular mobile learning. Beneficiaries are teachers and students, primary and secondary public schools, higher education institutions, policy-makers, educational administrators and leaders. It is part of the UNESCO-Korea Funds-in-Trust cooperation and has a budget of USD6 million.

The project aims to:

• Increase access and quality of basic education through innovative ICT solutions
• Strengthen higher education systems through Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
• Facilitate the development of national ICT in education policies and master plans and knowledge-sharing, including supporting the Information for All Programme (IFAP)
• Build a collaborative network of key education institutions, including relevant Korean institutions such as KNOU and KERIS.

There are two key factors to success:

• Aligning the project with Education 2030 and national education development priorities to secure convergence and maximize synergies with other key stakeholders in the education systems.
• Ensuring country ownership by establishing project teams led by education ministries and formed with key implementing agencies; engaging the teams in developing country project documents; decentralizing funds and responsibility for day-to-day implementation to UNESCO Field Offices.

The specific aims for the three target countries are:

Mozambique

• Establish an e-school model to align learners’ competencies with the new curriculum for primary and secondary schools
• Make information on management administration available on-line and enhance communication between local community and schools, through strengthening of the ICT-enhanced EMIS.
• Transform the provision of ODL from paper based methodology to blended learning models
• Create an ecosystem that enables knowledge societies and alignment with SDGs, also through improvement of the ICT in Education policy.

Rwanda

• Enhance the capacity of pre- and in-service primary and secondary teachers to provide quality education, by improving their skills to integrate ICT in education, and using electronic assessments.
• Strengthen the capacity of the University of Rwanda by expanding higher education through courses delivered via ODL.
• Facilitate policy development and share best practices to build knowledge societies.

Zimbabwe

• Strengthen e-education and ICTs in primary and secondary education, through an ICT-enhanced school model aligned with the new curriculum (including the e-School strategy, teachers’ support, learning management systems, and e-Learning environment).
• Capacitate higher and tertiary education using diverse methodologies for lifelong and open and distance learning, including digitalization of materials, introduction of blended learning and innovative ICT solutions for ODL, etc.
• Create an enabling policy environment for the effective use of ICTs in primary, secondary, higher, and tertiary education.

The project was launched at the 2015 World Education Forum, in Incheon, Republic of Korea and is aligned with the Education 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 4 on Education, the Global Education First Initiative and the Qingdao Declaration on ICT and Education.