Teachers' ICT Skills for Pedagogical Integration in a Developing Country: Discripancy between Policy and Practice

Text sample: Chapter 2.1, Initiatives for Equipping Teachers with ICT for Pedagogical Integration in Uganda: According to Wamakote (2010), the Ugandan government's most significant ICT investment in the educational sector is the Education Management Information System (EMIS) which aims at providing quality education statistics in a timely, cost-effective and sustainable manner (p.19). However, he notes that the MoES has also supported other ICT initiatives in partnership with other agencies (p.19). According to an annex in the draft policy for ICT in education on the status of ICT in education in Uganda, several of these initiatives aim, among other things at equipping teachers with relevant ICTs for integration in the teaching-learning process (Uganda MoES, 2005). They included: (i)The Connectivity for Educator Development (Connect-ED) project initiated in May 2000. The Connect-ED project is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in close cooperation with Uganda's MoES and within the framework of the U.S. Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) (p.29). Connect-ED is using technology to enable and enhance learning and teaching for primary school educators through the creation of multifaceted approaches to integrating media and computers in the Primary Teacher Colleges (PTC's) classrooms (p.29). Connect-ED is accomplishing this by setting up education technology centres thereby increasing access, availability, and provision of relevant and quality learning materials and support for teacher professional development (p.29). (ii)IICD-MoES. There are four projects going on between the Institute for Information and Communication Development (IICD) in conjunction with the MoES (p.29). These projects are, among others: (a) ICT Based Educational Content. (b) ICT Training. (iii)British Council has a program in some private secondary schools that aims at introducing ICT to be used in teaching and learning (p.29). (iv)The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) worked with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to come up with the CurriculumNet project to develop, test and implement a mechanism for curriculum integration and delivery for primary and secondary schools in Uganda via communication networks using computer related tools. In relation to the mandate of NCDC and its functions, the CurriculumNet project was conceived to influence both the practice and policy of Education (p.30). CurriculumNet was intended to enable students, educators and educational administrators to develop appropriate competencies to effectively use ICTs in the teaching and learning process (p.30). (v)Creating learning networks for Africa is also a project in progress. It is meant to assist teachers in secondary schools to appreciate ICT in their works and is supported by UNESCO (p.30). (vi)The e-Schools initiative under the auspices of New Partnership for Africa in Development (NEPAD) seeks to ensure that the majority of the people on the continent have the skills required to function in the information society and knowledge-based economy. Among other objectives it aims to provide teachers with ICT skills to enable them use ICTs as tools to enhance teaching and learning (p.31). (vii)SchoolNet Uganda supports educators and learners by providing pedagogical and technical expertise and advice, infrastructure and human resources, coordination, training and capacity-building and developing local and international partnerships (Farrell, 2007, p.11). Therefore from the above literature it is evident that there are initiatives that have been undertaken to equip teachers with ICT skills. However, Harrison (2010) notes that while there have been many schemes over the last decade to introduce ICT into schools in Africa, many have failed to live up to their aspirations because they have been top-down and supply led with insufficient attention being paid to the involvement and training of teachers. Could this also be true for Uganda in particular? He however notes that among the most successful ICT projects in Africa was Connect-ED in Uganda (p.80). Unfortunately he does not provide evidence in support of the supposed success. In contrast, Wamakote (2010) contends that information on the actual impact of ICT initiatives in the country is scanty. A research commissioned by SchoolNet Africa (2004) highlighted the fact that although there was evidence of a number of teacher training initiatives in Africa at both pre-service and in-service levels, these were mainly small scale, regional and fragmented with little sharing of experience among nations. So if this is true for Uganda, do such projects reach all teachers? According to Schroeder (2001), the reality of public sector program implementation today is that any implementation that is attempted in the name of 'enhancing the public good' will necessarily involve stakeholders from the community, the private sector, and other quasi-public entities (p.1). Thus, while the afore mentioned initiatives are perhaps not direct reactions to ensure the implementation of Uganda's policy for ICT in education (indeed some of these started long before the inauguration of the policy e.g. Connect-ED) and while they may not purely be government initiatives, it is important to appreciate that they can be instrumental in achieving the aims of the policy in regard to teacher education. It is also encouraging to note that there is seemingly a lot being done to equip teachers with knowledge and skills for the pedagogical integration of ICT. However, as already noted, there is hardly any well documented evidence to reveal whether the implementation of such projects has had any impact on the teachers' ICT knowledge and skills.