goals

The ICT Policy for Education sets out clear goals and priorities for the use of ICTs across the education sector. Within these goals, institutional Development Levels are articulated and targets for each institution are established. The Implementation Plan sets out a detailed set of interventions for each institution type based on these goals, priorities, and Development Levels.

Bearing in mind the demanding educational norms in this global information society, at the broadest level, TECH/NA! aims to:

» Produce ICT literate citizens;
» Produce people capable of working and participating in the new economies and societies arising from ICTs and related developments;
» Leverage ICTs to assist and facilitate learning for the benefit of all learners and teachers across the curriculum;
» Improve the efficiency of educational administration and management across all levels;
» Broaden access to quality educational services for learners at all levels of the education system; and
» Set specific criteria and targets to help classify and categorise the different Development Levels for using ICTs in education.

priorities

With roughly 1,700 schools and educational institutions across Namibia, the realisation of such goals will undoubtedly take time given existing resources constraints. It has thus been important to develop a prioritisation list of educational institutions for the roll-out of ICTs.

The ICT Policy for Education and Implementation Plan prioritise educational institutions according to how close their learners and students are to entering the workforce. In addition, teacher training institutions are accorded the highest priority given their impact on the entire education system. Using these guidelines, the deployment of ICTs in the education sector is based on the following priorities:

Priority 1:	Pre-service and In-service teacher education institutions
Priority 2:	Schools with secondary grades (combined schools, junior and senior secondary schools)
Priority 3:	Vocational Training Centres and Community Skills Development Centres
Priority 4:	National, Regional, and Community Libraries and Community and Adult Education
Priority 5:	Primary Schools

Development Levels

Development levels have also been established for each priority area to provide institutions with targets for implementing ICTs. These Development Levels describe the ways in which ICTs should be utilised at schools and institutions. Five levels are set out, where level 1 describes schools and institutions with very basic ICTs usage and level 5 describes schools and institutions at exceptionally advanced stages of ICT usage. These levels ensure that ICTs are introduced in a holistic manner by making certain that access and usage of ICTs are clearly linked. Access ratios in particular have been updated from the ICT Policy for Education to reflect actual “computer time” rather than the more general “computer to learner” ratios initially envisioned. By using the “time on task” approach rather than simplified computer to learner access ratios, the Implementation Plan strengthens efficiency by clearly indicating to schools and institutions that ICTs must be timetabled (and thus used). This, coupled with dramatic cost-savings across the education sector for ICT deployments, provides the basis for the updated Development Levels presented below.

	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5
Classroom facilities	1 room with ICTs	At least 1 room with ICTs	2 or more rooms with ICTs	Many rooms with ICTs	Significant number of rooms with ICTs
Display facilities	Audiovisual and/or broadcast facilities	Projector and/or ability to display audiovisual materials	Projector and/or abilitiy to display audiovisual materials	Projector and/or abilitiy to display audiovisual materials	Projector and/or abilitiy to display audiovisual materials
Internet access	Not necessarily	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Teacher skills; all teachers	Foundation Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Foundation Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Intermediate Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Intermediate Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Advanced Level ICT Literacy Certificate
Teacher skills; specialised staff	1-2 staff with Intermediate Level ICT Literacy Certificate	At least 2 staff with Intermediate Level ICT Literacy Certificate	At least 30% with Advanced Level ICT Literacy Certificate or higher ICT qualification	At least 50% with Advanced Level ICT Literacy Certificate or higher ICT qualification	At least 50% with ICT diploma/ Degree or equivalent
Learner or student skills	Introduction to ICTs	Foundation Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Intermediate Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Intermediate Level ICT Literacy Certificate	Advnaced Level ICT Literacy Certificate
Student access	1 class period per month	1 class period per week	At least 3 class periods per week	At least 1 class period per day	At least 4 class periods per day
Timetabling of ICTs	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Communication with parent Ministry via ICT	None	Over 20% done via email	Over 33% done via email	Over 50% done via email	Over 75% done via email and web

Development Level Targets

Development Level targets for educational institutions are linked to employability and sector-wide impacts. The ICT Policy for Education includes the following target levels for educational institutions and schools.

All Pre-service and In-service teacher education facilities should be at least level 4.
All schools with secondary grades shoudl be at least level 2.
All Vocational Training Centres should be at least level 2.
All Libraries and Community Centres should be at least level 2, progressing to appropriate levels in the case of libraries used in secondary schools and tertiary education institutions.
All Adult Education Centres should be at least level 3.
All Primary Schools should be at least level 2.
Any major section of an institute dedicated to computer studies should be level 5. E.g. ICT Departments in Higher Education.
All Tertiary Education establishments (University, Polytechnic, etc.) should be at least level 3 (4 for certain faculties).

Last modified on: 14-Sep-2007