Overview

Countries in the region can be roughly categorized into three types: those which are already integrating the use of ICT into the education systems; those which are starting to apply and test various strategies; and those which have just begun and are more concerned with ICT infrastructure and connectivity installation, or countries which have not started at all.

1. Countries already integrating ICT into the education system

These countries include Australia, South Korea and Singapore. The characteristics of these countries as far as ICT use is concerned are as follows:

• ICT policy: their ministries of education have formulated a national ICT  in Education policy, as well as a master plan to implement policies, with provision of adequate budgets to ensure effectiveness.
• Connectivity and ICT penetration: almost all classrooms have been equipped with computers and other ICTs; have a high student/computer ratio; and have a high level of Internet access to all schools - South Korean schools, for example, have universal access to Internet.
• Integration of ICT use in teaching/learning: all of these countries have revised their curriculum to ensure that ICT becomes integral nationwide. Furthermore, the delivery of education is increasingly online, with e-Learning greatly facilitated by wide access to the Internet and connectivity.
• Professional development and teacher training: This is a major part of the ICT programme in these countries, with incentives offered for regular activities training educators, administrators, headmasters and teachers, both in-service and pre-service. Like e-Learning, the delivery of teacher training is rapidly going online, going beyond training on computer literacy to aid genuine integration of ICT in the curriculum and in the teaching of various subjects. Training courses also develop the teachers’ skills in putting their classroom online; developing websites, participating in SchoolNet; in communicating and participating in professional electronic discussions, teleconferencing, and telecollaboration. The main concern of teacher training is to develop criteria, standards and benchmarks for beginning and existing teachers to underpin effective use of ICT in curriculum practice.
• Evaluation, monitoring and development of indicators to measure the impact of ICT use in education: these countries are implementing activities and programmes in all of these areas.

With the basic concerns of ICT penetration and connectivity out of the way, fresh challenges arise, including:

• Improving and strengthening online learning
• Making Internet access and hardware/software replacement more affordable
• Upgrading connectivity and Internet connection by making broadband more widely available; making ICT more affordable, available nationwide, and better managed
• Further improving and enhancing the skills of teachers in integrating the use of ICT in various subjects
• More training on the use of the Internet (South Korea)
• Development of local software
• Digital rights management and copyright issues
• Promoting equity (while the ratio of students-to-computers in Australia is extremely good, inequalities exist, particularly with respect to indigenous Australians and those in rural and isolated areas)
• Solving technical support problems;
• Developing and refining indicators and conducting more evaluative studies and research.

The database in the ICT for Education website includes 17 countries in the region which have started to use ICT in education. It can be seen that in Australia, ICT has become fully integrated within the primary school teaching of English, Mathematics, Science, the Arts, Health and Physical Education, Languages, Society and the Environment. In secondary schools, ICT is either taught as a separate subject or is also integrated into the different subjects. Teacher training is ongoing and each teacher is provided with a notebook for ease of use. Various government budgets have been allocated for different projects to provide computers to remote areas; to make e-learning more accessible in secondary schools; to provide grants to government schools supporting ICT; or to provide free or reasonable access to the Internet, videoconferencing and satellite television.

In South Korea, as of April 2001, all schools have access to the Internet, with free access to the Internet until 2005. Furthermore, the computer/student ratio is high, with an average of 10 students per PC at primary school; 7 students per computer in middle school and 5 students per computer in high schools. All classrooms are fully equipped, most with multimedia. ICT is integrated into the curriculum, with 10-20% usage of ICT in every subject aimed at enhancing higher order thinking skills. Training of educators is an ongoing and regular activity where 33% of teachers are trained annually with teacher ICT literacy certification.

2. Countries with national ICT policies and master plans, applying and testing various strategies but not fully integrating ICT within education

These countries include China, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and India. Even among these countries, there remain variations. Common features are:

• ICT policy: All have developed national ICT policies in education and established goals and objectives regarding the introduction of ICT in various aspects of education, from teacher training to teaching/learning. Most policy goals are linked with overall national ICT policies – that is, to introduce ICT in order to contribute to the knowledge society for economic development; fostering creative industrial manpower; construction of total performance support systems, bridging the digital divide and promoting equity in access, etc. The more micro-oriented goals deal with the improvement of the teaching and learning process; to produce students who are confident, creative and productive users of new technologies; to learn how to use ICTs as enabling tools to access information and gain knowledge; to link all educational institutions to the wealth of resources that are online; and to use ICT for distance education for all citizens, regardless of age, profession, distance or geography.
• Connectivity and ICT penetration: These are growing, but not yet to the level of the more advanced countries. In Thailand, only 22.5% of secondary schools and 1.19% of the primary schools are connected to the Internet; while the ratio of PCs per school at the secondary level is 24, and at the primary level it is only 2. Out of 358,781 primary school teachers, 71,442 have been trained and out of 125,983 secondary school teachers, 25,000: in short, only around 21% of the teachers have received training to date. In the Philippines, 81% of schools have no access to the Internet.
• Integration of ICT use in the curriculum and in teaching/learning: These vary between countries. While there have been efforts to integrate the use of ICT in the teaching of certain subjects (as in the case of Malaysia, China and Japan), efforts are isolated and have not yet reached systematic nationwide proportions. Generally, teachers are using ICT mostly for word processing, for presentations and for spreadsheets. It is also usually introduced as one component or as a class period within a subject area, rather than becoming actually infused within lessons. In the Philippines, a report pointed out that currently, ICT is not integrated at all into textbooks. In India, ICT is usually taught as a separate subject, with ICT education currently being introduced through a multi-layered approach. First, ICT is integrated in textbooks for computer subjects such as Introduction to Computer Science, Informatics Practices, and ICT Systems. Similarly, ICT is used in face-to-face learning, but is not yet integrated into textbooks of specific subjects. In Thailand, ICT is used for many purposes, such as for word processing, to write and present students’ work; using a spreadsheet to enter data collected in investigations, creating charts and interpreting the results; creating databases as part of investigations; using hypermedia to write, lay out and present work for publication on the Internet; and using the Internet and CD-ROMs in research and investigation. But to what extent and how widespread these functions are practiced is another issue.
• Professional development and teacher training: The majority of teachers being trained on ICT are being trained in computer literacy. Training on the use of ICT for teaching specific subjects has begun, but is not yet fully systematic. Most of these countries offer pre-service and in-service training. In the Philippines, most teacher training institutions offer computer education as a required course. Usually, public schools send a few teachers to computer literacy training, who would then pass on their learning through peer teaching. Private schools usually hire ICT service providers to give training to their teachers. Very often also, only selected teachers are given priority attention – those teaching English, Science, and Mathematics. Most of these countries are also being helped by the private sector in the training of teachers. Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Coca Cola have all funded massive teacher training in India, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, among others.
• Online learning: In this regard, these countries are still in their infancy. Only Malaysia has started to launch numerous projects promoting online learning, both in-school and out-of-school. However, SchoolNets are becoming popular in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and to a lesser extent, the Philippines. Needless to say, indicators and performance benchmarks are almost non-existent in these countries. Though some have undertaken surveys of the use of ICT in education, they focused mostly on quantitive, rather than qualitative aspects.

Many problems still plague countries in this phase of development, including:

• Accessibility and affordability (high cost of Internet connection, etc.)
• Integration of ICTs in the curriculum
• Shortages of trained manpower
• Teachers’ fear of the technology and lack of motivation
• School principals’ closed mindset to and lack of appreciation of ICT in education
• Budget constraints - most investment being for hardware, rather than for improving teacher’s skills and content production
• Maintenance of ICT resources and lack of technical staff
• Sustainability
• Limited availability of educational software and courseware

3. Beginning countries, either with national policies, but not enough resources to implement their policies and work plans, or without policies, but running pilot ICT projects

These countries include Myanmar, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan and the Pacific Islands, among others. Their common characteristics are as follows:

• ICT policy: While some have already developed their national policies, they do not have effective work plans, while others may not have a national policy, but ICT projects are already ongoing on a small scale. In Lao PDR, a current project has begun with wiring some four or five schools. In Cambodia, the introduction of computers in a rural school is being helped through solar energy-run panels in order to reach an area without electricity. Whatever the case may be, all lack the budget to implement their policies and work plans, with infrastructure and ICT penetration as the main concern. 
• Connectivity and ICT penetration: Many schools have received donated computers, often which are not functioning properly. In Viet Nam, the World Computers Exchange and SIEMENS have introduced a project that will equip many schools with second hand computers, while in the Solomon Islands and other Pacific islands, the main concern is to connect with e-mail and the Internet and to install telecommunications. Bangladesh has also announced that it has acquired 10,000 computers to equip schools, many of which are girls’ schools. An indicative example of ICT penetration in these countries is from Viet Nam, where statistics from studies reveal that only 2.59% of lower secondary school students and 11.52% of upper secondary school students are trained in ICT.
• Integration of ICT use in the curriculum and in teaching/learning: ICT use in schools and out-of-school is also in its infancy. ICT courses are often introduced as a separate offering, such as those in Indonesia and Viet Nam, rather than as an integral part of subject teaching. Sometimes, ICT is an extra-curricular or optional subject, while many have not really developed an adequate and satisfactory ICT curriculum even as a separate offering. Teacher training has just begun, mostly focusing on computer literacy in basic software such as Winword and Excel, PowerPoint and basic programming. The private sector has also begun to facilitate or spur the use of ICT in education in these countries. Intel, IBM, Siemens and Coca Cola have made efforts in this area.

Clearly, these countries require intensive help in:

• Policy and master plan development;
• Strengthening their infrastructure and connectivity;
• Teacher training and use of ICT in the classrooms.

While the most common problems still relate to infrastructure and telecommunications development, further challenges include:

• Language difficulties (most ICT-related software and contents are in English);
• Disparity in the accessibility of ICT between urban and rural areas;
• Lack of motivation and technophobia among teachers;
• Shortage of trained teachers.