Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects

Abstract

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been adopted by the United Nations as the key development targets for the fi rst part of the 21st century. Among the most prominent of these goals are those related to education—namely, to achieve universal primary education and promote gender equality, and empower women by eliminating gender disparity at all education levels. Th ese build upon the Education For All (EFA) initiative begun in Jomtien (Th ailand) in 1990, and reaffi rmed at a second EFA meeting in Dakar in 2000.2 Th e MDGs also set as a target to, “in cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefi ts of new technologies, especially information and communications.” Th is item is a reference to a growing and increasingly important area that has seen huge growth over the past decade, namely Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for education. MDG-relevant ICT investments have grown signifi cantly in recent years.3 As noted by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, ICT has the power to “unlock” doors in education. Th e irony, however, is that ICT may also lead, literally, to “locked” doors, as school directors try to ensure the security of equipment from one day to the next. While there is clearly much promise in the use of ICT for education, there is, at the same time, a widespread ignorance of the specifi c impact of ICT on education goals and targets. WHAT IS ICT? ICT … consists of hardware, software, networks, and media for collection, storage, processing, transmission, and presentation of information (voice, data, text, images). —Defi ned in the Information & Communication Technology Sector Strategy Paper of the World Bank Group, April 2002. KEY POINTS Improvements in education and increased access to ICT are two prominent objectives of the internationally supported Millennium Development Goals. Much hope has been invested in the expanded use of ICTs for education (ICT4E), but there is also a wellknown ignorance of the consequences or impact of ICTs on education goals and targets. A relevant and credible knowledge base is essential to helping policy makers make effective decisions about ICT4E. This handbook presents a conceptual framework that takes into account not only a variety of broad development concerns, but also the many contextsensitive issues related to ICT4E. A stronger knowledge base through improved monitoring and evaluation is likely to lead to increased support for ICT4E innovations and investments. In the Dakar meeting, item 69 explicitly states: “Information and communication technologies (ICT) must be harnessed to support EFA goals at an affordable cost. These technologies have great potential for knowledge dissemination, effective learning and the development of more effi cient education services. This potential will not be realized unless the new technologies serve rather than drive the implementation of education strategies. To be effective, especially in developing countries, ICTs should be combined with more traditional technologies such as books and radios, and be more extensively applied to the training of teachers.” 6 Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects Th e issue is not whether ICT is “good” or “bad”, rather it is how to choose wisely from the large menu of ICT4E options. Th is is, simply put, a cost-benefi t analysis. Creating a relevant and actionable knowledge base is a fi rst step in trying to help policy makers make eff ective decisions. Th is is essential in the case of ICT4E for which—unlike, say, improved literacy primers—there are high entry costs (such as investments in new infrastructure), signifi cant recurrent costs (maintenance and training), and opportunities for knowledge distortions due to the high profi le (and political) aspects of large ICT interventions."(pg 5-6)