www.infoDev.org

Information for Development Program

www.infoDev.org

A DRAFT infoDEV PUBLICATION PREPARED BY:

Glen FarrellThe Commonwealth of Learning

Shafika IsaacsMindset Network

ICT AND EDUCATION SERIES

SERIES EDITOR:Michael Trucano

SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA

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+ MAINSTREAMING ICT and Education Series

SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICAA Summary Report, Based on 53 Country Surveys

This project seeks to gather together in a single resource the most relevant and useful information on ICT in education activities in Africa.

Key questions: HowareICTscurrentlybeingusedintheeducationsectorinAfrica,andwhatarethe

strategies and policies related to this use? WhatarethecommonchallengesandconstraintsfacedbyAfricancountriesinthisarea? Whatisactuallyhappeningontheground,andtowhatextentaredonorsinvolved?

Contents: ICTPoliciesforEducationinAfrica ICTActivitiesandInitiativesinHigherEducationinAfrica ICTActivitiesandInitiativesinPrimaryandSecondarySchools ICTActivitiesandInitiativesinNon-formalEducationinAfrica GenderEquityandICTinEducationinAfrica FactorsEnablingandConstrainingICTUseinEducationinAfrica ICTinEducationinAfrica:AWayForward

+ Regional ICT/Education Initiatives in Africa

ThisSummaryReportiscomplementedby53separateCountryReports.

About infoDevinfoDevisapartnershipofinternationaldevelopmentagencies,coordinatedandservedbyanexpertSecretariathousedintheGlobalICTDepartment(GICT)oftheWorldBank,oneofitskeydonorsandfounders.Itactsasaneutralconvenerofdialogue,andasacoordinatorofjointactionamongbilateralandmultilateraldonorssupportingglobalsharingofinformationonICTfordevelopment(ICT4D),andhelpingtoreduceduplicationofeffortsandinvestments.Tothisend,infoDevsponsorscutting-edgeresearchandanalysistohelpidentifyglobalbestpracticeintheuseofICT4D.

A Summary Report Based on 53 Country Surveys

Algeria Angola Benin BotswanaBurkina Faso Burundi CameroonCape Verde Central African RepublicChad Comoros Congo Cte dIvoireDjibouti Democratic Republic of the CongoEgypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea EthiopiaGabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius MoroccoMozambique Namibia Niger NigeriaRwanda Sao Tome and Principe SenegalSeychelles Sierra Leone SomaliaSouth Africa Sudan SwazilandTanzania Togo Tunisia UgandaZambia Zimbabwe

SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA

www.infoDev.org

A DRAFT infoDEV PUBLICATION PREPARED BY:

Glen Farrell

The Commonwealth of Learning

Shafika IsaacsMindset Network

ICT AND EDUCATION SERIES

SERIES EDITOR:Michael Trucano

Information for Development Program

A Summary Report Based on 53 Country Surveys

Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Cte dIvoire Djibouti Democratic Republic of the Congo Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe

Tocitethispublication:Farrell, Glen and Shafika Isaacs. 2007. Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary Report, Based on 53 Country Surveys. Washington, DC: infoDev / World Bank. Available at http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.353.html

2007The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank1818 H Street, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20433U.S.A.All rights reserved

The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are entirely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of infoDev, the Donors of infoDev, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank and its affiliated organizations, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply on the part of the World Bank any judgment of the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.

www.infodev.org Table of Contents iii

Preface v

ReportLimitations vii

ProjectBackground ix Overview ix SurveyProcess ix ProjectTeam x Acknowledgements x

SurveyHighlights 1 ANewPhase:FromProjectstoPolicies 1 DifferentialImplementationProgress 1 MacroTrends 1 Donors 3 EnablingandLimitingFactors 3 EnlightenedLeadership 3

ICTPoliciesforEducationinAfrica 5 GeneralObservations 5 NationalICTPolicies 5 EducationSectorICTPoliciesandImplementationPlan 6 PolicyManagement 7

ICTInfrastructureforEducationinAfrica 9 GeneralObservations 9 InfrastructureinHigherEducation 10

TaBlE of ConTEnTs

Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary Report Based on 53 Country Surveysiv

InfrastructureinSchools 11 InfrastructureforNon-formalEducationandtheGeneralPublic 11

ICTActivitiesandInitiativesinHigherEducationinAfrica 13 Technical/VocationalEducationandTraining 13 Universities 13 DistanceEducationande-LearninginHigherEducation 14 ContentDevelopment 15

ICTActivitiesandInitiativesinPrimaryandSecondarySchools 17 GeneralObservations 17 EquipmentandConnectivity 17 TeacherProfessionalDevelopmentandTrainingProgrammes 20 ContentDevelopment 21 CostModels 22

ICTActivitiesandInitiativesinNon-formalEducationinAfrica 23 GeneralObservations 23

GenderEquityandICTinEducationinAfrica 25 GeneralObservations 25 PolicyEnvironment 25 GenderMainstreamingandTargetedApproaches 26

FactorsEnablingandConstrainingICTUseinEducationinAfrica 27

ICTinEducationinAfrica:AWayForward 29 MovingForwardonImplementationofICTinEducation 29 ContinuingtoBuildanInformationBaseforICTin

EducationinAfrica 30

Notes 31

Annexes 33 1.RegionalICT/EducationInitiativesinAfrica 35 2.SelectedBibliography 43

www.infodev.org Preface v

Thisstudyaimstobridgeacrucialgapinourknowledgeoftheuseofinformationandcommunicationtechnologies(ICTs)inAfrica.

Despite

widespreadbeliefsthatICTscanbeimportantpotentialleverstointroduceandsustaineducationreformeffortsinAfrica;anecdotalevidenceofincreasinglywidespreaddemandforanduseofICTsineducationinitiativesinAfricancountries;demonstratedinterestfromAfricanpolicymakersinusingICTstohelpmeetEducationForAll(EFA)objectives;scatteredandoftenuncoordinatedinitiativesutilizingICTstobenefiteducationthroughoutthecontinent;andmuchrhetoricrelatedtothedigitaldivide;therehasbeennoconsolidateddocumentationofwhatisactuallyhappeninginAfricainthisarea,norcomprehensivebaselinedataonthestateofICTuseineducationinAfricaagainstwhichfuturedevelop-mentscanbecompared.

A lack of information impacts planningAnecdotalevidencesuggeststhatmanyAfricancountriesanddonoragenciesarestrugglingtokeeptrackofICT/educationprojectsoverwhichtheyhavenocontrolandaboutwhichtheyoftenhavelittleknowl-edge,makingitunlikelythatlessonslearnedfromtheseprojectscaninformstrategyandplanningrelatedtoICTuseineducationgoingforward.ManyprivatesectorfirmsandcivilsocietyorganizationswithaninterestinsupportingeducationprogrammesandtechnologyinitiativesinAfrica(especiallywheresuchprojectsmayintersect)haveexpressedsimilarfrustrations.

A need for coordinationConversationswithcolleaguesatanumberoforganizationsdonors,governments,civilsociety,universi-ties,andtheprivatesectorinterestedinICTandeducationissuesinAfricasuggestthatmanyhavebeencontemplatingsimilarorrelatedtypesofdatacollectioneffortsinthisareaforsometime.Inordertoacceleratesuchactivities,infoDevhascoordinatedwithawidevarietyofgroupstohelpsupportandconsolidatetheresultsfromon-goingdatacollectioneffortsandthensharetheresultingdataaswidelyaspossible.Ataminimum,wehopethatthissurveyprocessshouldhelppreventduplicationofefforts,aswellassurveyfatigueonthepartofpotentialinformationsources.

No consolidated information resourceMuchrelevantdatacollectionhasalreadyoccurred,buttheresultsarescatteredacrossanumberofpublica-tionsanddatabases(manyofwhicharenotwidelyknown),heldwithinindividualorganizations,noteasilyaccessibletotheeducationcommunity,and/or,wherepublic,notwidelydisseminated.

ThisSurvey of ICT and Education in AfricaseekstogathertogetherinasingleresourcethemostrelevantandusefulinformationonICTineducationactivitiesinAfrica.Wehopethatthispublicationisafirststepina

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PREFACE

Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary Report Based on 53 Country Surveysvi

larger,on-going,systematic,coordinatedinitiativetotrackdevelopmentsintechnologyuseintheeducationsectortohelpinformawidevarietyofstakeholdersinterestedinthetopicastheyseeksolutionstolarger,morefundamentaleducationalanddevelopmentchallengesintheyearsahead.

MichaelTrucanoinfoDev

www.infodev.org Report Limitations vii

Thefollowinglimitationsshouldbenoted:

TheSummary Report Based on 53 Country Surveysattemptstosummarizekeyfindingsfromtheindi-vidualcountryreportsproducedduringthisproject.Assuch,itisnotanattempttosynthesizeallthatisknownaboutICTuseineducationinAfrica,andshouldbeseenasaguidetokeyfindingsandasser-tionsthatemergedduringthecountrysurveyprocesses.ThedatapresentedintheindividualCountry Reportsshouldberegardedasillustrativeratherthanexhaustive.Thissurveywasnotanexerciseinprimarydatacollection.Theguidelinesgiventocountryresearchersregardingreportlengthweredeliberateinordertoensureafocusonthemoresalien