This policy brief from IT for Change is based on our study of two large scale \u2018ICTs in School Education\u2019 programs for high school students (classes VIII-X) of two neighboring states of India, Karnataka and Kerala. The study specifically addresses the key question of whether to outsource major activities or to invest in developing necessary processes and competencies within the school system. <\/p>\n
The Outsourcing Model<\/b> <\/p>\n
The state of Karnataka, like a few other states in India, has tried the outsourcing model for its ICTs in schools program, called Mahiti Sindhu. This model relied on private vendors who are primarily in the business of selling computer hardware\/software or into computer training to run the entire program. <\/p>\n
Typically, students learnt directly on the computers, facilitated by support staff provided by the vendors, with teachers playing a minimal role. One consequence of this was that the teachers themselves had limited opportunities to learn and hence were not able to guide the learning processes of the students in any meaningful manner. <\/p>\n
Some methods typically followed in such models, and their outcomes, are discussed below. <\/p>\n
Computer learning seen as a stand-alone activity<\/u><\/p>\n
Computer learning is not integrated into the regular learning processes of the school student. The teachers of the school are not sufficiently involved with the computer learning processes and largely treat the entire program as something external to the school system. Teachers themselves mostly do not acquire basic computer literacy, though there are computers in their own schools. They are therefore neither motivated nor able to integrate possibilities of computer aided education in their teaching. <\/p>\n
ICT Curriculum not linked to regular curriculum<\/u> <\/p>\n
With private vendors (who are mostly attuned to business contexts and uses of computers) driving the content and the processes, students learn applications that are often of limited use to them in their own contexts (office applications are themselves undoubtedly useful, but they require little time to learn, whereby it may not be justified to make these the major component of the ICT curriculum). <\/p>\n
Limited competencies of staff provided by the vendor<\/u> <\/p>\n
The outsourced staff is also typically poorly paid3, which affects the profile of people who apply for these positions. They are treated as outsiders by the school, which can demotivate them greatly. As a result, in most schools, the real possibilities of learning and experimenting with ICTs are quite limited, both for the students and the teachers. <\/p>\n
Dependencies on external vendors for core educational processes<\/u><\/p>\n
A long term dependency gets built on private vendors for software, educational processes, content etc which, as ICTs become more and more central to the educational system, can cripple the latter\u2019s independence as well as its broad public and community orientations. It should be remembered that in India, there are a number of high-level public institutions that meticulously work on every aspect of content\/ curriculum, processes etc of the public education system. <\/p>\n
Their role may largely get superseded by largescale private sector dependencies that will get built through the outsourcing model. Many eminent educationists in India have been highly critical of this process of privatising core educational processes of curriculum\/content design and teacher professional development. <\/p>\n
An Integrated Model of ICTs in School Education<\/b><\/p>\n
The Kerala state\u2019s IT@Schools model which integrates the ICT component from the start into the mainstream teaching-learning processes, appears to have been successful in building a good platform for leveraging the best opportunities that ICTs may have to offer in furthering various educational objectives. Some key elements of the IT@Schools model that are seen as responsible for its relative success are briefly described below.<\/p>\n
Complete integration with existing structures and processes<\/u> <\/p>\n
The IT@Schools program is fully integrated into the existing educational processes. It relies on the elaborate teacher training structures within the public education system in India to train the school teachers on using ICTs, both in terms of computer learning and computer aided learning. There are a set of master trainers who first acquire sufficient expertise in using computers. <\/p>\n
Since these trainers are themselves teacher educators, who have also taught in schools, they are much more likely to bring up the best possibilities of using computers for learning different subjects. Some examples include using specific educational software that is available for different topics, say electrical circuits (physics), or circles (geometry), or simply through access to the Internet for information on different areas etc. <\/p>\n
The procurement of hardware, and its installation and maintenance, is also managed within the system. This allows significant cost advantages arising due to great quantities of hardware purchased. The program has created \u2018mobile hardware clinic\u2019 teams, which regularly visit schools for inspection, checking hardware and doing most of the required maintenance and repair work. <\/p>\n
A policy of cannibalising computers that cannot be repaired has two benefits; it substantially lowers costs of maintenance while ensuring higher uptime. Teachers are trained to install software and also do routine software upgrades. The program disproves a commonly held belief that school teachers in India\u2019s public education system are not capable of, and\/or are unlikely to be interested in, engaging with ICTs beyond being simple users. <\/p>\n
High investment in teacher capacity building<\/u> <\/p>\n
The trainers provide intensive training to teachers as a part of the regular teacher training, planned every year. The training is comprehensive in its coverage; every teacher receives an initial ten day training in the first year, and 2-5 days every following year, which refreshes and builds on the learnings of the previous years. <\/p>\n
While the initial foundational training covers basic operating system and applications relating to the Internet, email, image editing etc, as well as \u2018office automation\u2019 applications, later programs focus on specific areas such as hardware troubleshooting, software installation and upgrading, content management systems for publishing and sharing content created by schools, as well as specific educational software\/ applications for different subjects. <\/p>\n
Such high investment in teacher training is reflected in the high levels of confidence and self-esteem that teachers display. This confidence is reflected in their interactions with students and it has considerable positive impact on student learning. <\/p>\n
Focus on computer aided learning and not just computer literacy<\/u> <\/p>\n
The IT@Schools program team is quite clear that computer literacy though foundational is really a relatively trivial issue and the real benefit of ICTs in education come from learning to apply ICTs in the regular learning processes. <\/p>\n
The program focuses on access to the Internet for supporting regular learning activities, and also special projects that students work on. The program has ensured availability of broadband Internet to all schools, which allows the schools to connect to the web6. Many teachers also spend time on the Internet to identify learning materials that they can use in their own lessons. <\/p>\n
Several educational software and applications are provided by the program. The idea is to have a large set of such applications, from which teachers can choose what they find relevant and useful to their teaching. Computer aided learning also focuses on the teachers, many of who are now learning how to setup and manage \u2018content management systems\u2019 that can provide spaces for teacher collaboration in curriculum and content development, as well as for teachers\u2019 own writings and reflections. These spaces are intended to provide meaningful opportunities of engagement and exploration for teachers\u2019 professional development. <\/p>\n
Constructivist educational approaches through use of free and open source software<\/u><\/p>\n
The IT@Schools program initially began with proprietary software platforms but soon realized that for ICTs programs to be really effective in school education, moving to free and open source software (FOSS) platforms was necessary. The following advantages were found in using FOSS: <\/p>\n
The success of this program with such a large numbers of computers and users can address the misgiving among some policy makers that using FOSS may present difficulties like poor stability, difficulty in training or lack of support. Our interviews with teachers and students using FOSS showed that they found FOSS very user-friendly and training on it was like training on any other platform. <\/p>\n
The issue of support got sorted out due to creation of a sufficiently large ecology of FOSS use, as happens with a system-wide implementation in public schools. This enabled sufficient in-house capacities, as it also encouraged local enterprises for FOSS support activities. <\/p>\n
Directions for Policy on ICTs in School Education<\/b> <\/p>\n
ICTs have enormous potential for providing new educational experiences and in the organizing of these experiences9. Our research on ICT programs in schools in two states of India confirms what should be obvious; that the actual attainment of educational objectives largely depend on the guiding principles and design used in employing ICTs for creating these new experiences (curriculum or content) and for organizing the processes around these experiences (pedagogy). <\/p>\n
Our research on the Mahiti Sindhu and IT@Schools programs respectively of the states of Karnataka and Kerala in India provides crucial insights regarding the important policy issue of what kind of models should be used for incorporating ICTs into public education systems. <\/p>\n
The combination of the features of the integrated model, (1) integrating ICTs with regular school processes, (2) investing in teacher capacity building, (3) moving beyond computer literacy to computer aided learning and (4) use of FOSS platforms, has resulted in educational outcomes that appear superior to those of outsourced models. <\/p>\n
In the latter model, on the other hand, the large resource outlays do not appear to cause similar systemic benefits and in fact weaken the system by making it dependent for its core pedagogical processes on actors, whose core competencies are not in school education. <\/p>\n