Tanzania cannot escape from the fact that the world is becoming an increasingly digital world, where only those who will participate early in this development will benefit early. It is no longer the question of whether or not to prioritize for the use of digital opportunities rather on how the country will utilize available opportunities for the use of digitized information in enabling acquisition of knowledge.
As technology continued to evolve and grow over the past decades, through a number of initiatives, Tanzania continues to explore choices for enabling the country to move forward with the use of ICT for socio-economic development.
In education, while there have been issues around whether or not to allow children easy access and play with electronic gadgets, the country is now urgently capitalizing on children’s attraction to electronics as a venue for promoting e-learning and fast tracking the attainment of basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Tanzania has also had to deal with the multiplicity of offered technological solutions, struggling between how to best decide on what solution would fit what purpose the best and analyzing sustainable issues mostly brought about by the lack of conducive environment and cost efficiency.
In Tanzania, as in any other country, ICT enabling environment is a critical factor in successful implementation of any e-learning programme.
The piloting of various e-learning initiatives in schools has been challenged by inadequate financial resources to equip schools with ICT facilities and inadequate availability of electricity and internet connectivity with most schools not connected to any national grids.
Effective utilization of e-learning in schools has further been hindered by readiness of teachers to incorporate e-learning methodology into the traditional methodology. Use of e-learning requires teachers to not only have basic user knowledge but also change their attitudes to accept that their traditional routine can be enhanced by the incorporation of e-learning in their schemes of work.
In addition to being able to confidently engage with availed electronics and possess the required competency to operate the electronics, teachers’ pre-requisite knowledge of the subject matter remains to be the most crucial issue.
In Tanzania several providers continue to try best solutions for the provision of e-learning to schools. Various organizations have contributed to trying out of equipment, e-content, internet connectivity and improving the general environment at which e-learning could take place.
What has not been achieved however is large scale rollout of e-learning in schools with all that is evidenced are solutions that have been tried out at pilot level.
Relevant e-content that aligns with the curricular for different education cycles is also a major challenge. While the World Wide Web (www) provides free open source e-learning content that’s mostly in the English language, customization is required to deliver content in Kiswahili and one that aligns with the Tanzanian Primary Education curricular.
Further to the challenge of customizing free e-content, there is need to develop content locally so as to grow the expertise around e-content development and broaden the base of e-learning experts in general.
The recently organized ICT in education exhibition was essential in providing for a venue at which some of the solutions that have been tried out so far in Tanzania and elsewhere can be showcased and evaluated in the hope that some of those would eventually be implemented in Tanzanian schools.
Moreover, the ICT in Education Exhibition aimed at exploring solutions for e-learning in Primary Schools that will help fast track attainment of Early Grade Reading and Math skills.
The MoEVT believes that organizations and companies already providing solutions in this area are best placed to provide support on successful implementation of e-learning in schools.
During the exhibition about 40 exhibitors showcased their practical solutions and ideas on how to best introduce and use information and communication technologies in and outside the classroom.
The exhibition was coupled with evaluations of exhibited innovations that was carried out by a technical committee, out of which the best selected solutions will be piloted by MoEVT during the URT Fiscal Year 2015/16 for roll out in FY2016/17.
Preferable solutions were those that suggested delivery models which do not undermine the importance of the presence of the teacher/guardian but suggest how e-learning will be blended with the traditional teaching and learning methodologies to enrich classroom interaction.
Solutions which were exhibited ranged from: affordable e-content for use in Primary Schools; affordable internet connectivity to Primary schools; solutions for affordable power/electricity to Primary schools; affordable Software and hardware which consider the uptake of e-content in different formats; to programmatic solutions for enabling teachers and pupils to engage with e-learning. Including cost effective teacher training and capacity development.
Implementation of selected solutions will be supported by the Global Partnership for Education through a programme called Literacy and Numeracy Education Support (LANES) coordinated by the MOEVT and implemented by over 20 Government Departments and Agencies.
Despite the e-content enabled primary education being attractive, there are a number of challenges which we need to take into account before we go further such as:
(a) Lack of power in most primary schools may hinder roll out of this programme;
(b) Lack of local financial resources especially at local government levels to ensure sustainability of such programmes, when foreign funding agencies pull out;
(c) Urban schools tend to have more advantages than rural areas in terms to access to facilities, readiness of sponsors to invest in these schools, deemed easy accessible by sponsors and sometimes bias of decision makers;
(d) Parents belief in traditional teaching may hinder progress of this programme;
(e) Teacher readiness to integrate ICT in their classroom practice;
(f) Need for attitudinal change and paradigm shift on the role of teachers in mediated learning environments;
(g) Intensive teacher training needed with continuous support and mentoring;
(h) Time allocation for e-learning and good Timetabling at school level;
(i) Teacher needs more lesson preparation time; and
(j) Institutional management is not always supportive and, sometimes, lacks the expertise to properly manage e-learning Professional Development programmes for teachers as a results most Professional Development are conventional.
For all presentations which were made during the ICT exhibition, we can conclude that ‘e-content enabled primary education’ is possible, but first and foremost we need to ensure that we prepare the environment of our primary schools including teacher training, connection to power, infrastructure, close involvement of parents and community members, so that reception of such innovations may be easily accepted by the whole school community and obtain support beyond the school community.
A study report titled ‘Barriers to the Successful Integration of ICT in Teaching and Learning Environments’ done by Khalid Abdullah Bingimlas of RMIT University, in Bandoora, Australia, reveals that teachers under this study had a strong desire to integrate ICT into education; but that, they encountered many barriers.
The major barriers were lack of confidence, lack of competence, and lack of access to resources. Some of other barriers, which are mentioned in the literature are lack of classroom management skills, poor administrative support, poor school funding, and poor fit with the curriculum.
Since confidence, competence and accessibility have been found to be the critical components of technology integration in schools, ICT resources including software and hardware, effective professional development, sufficient time, and technical support need to be provided to teachers.
No one component in itself is sufficient to provide good teaching. However, the presence of all components increases the possibility of excellent integration of ICT in learning and teaching opportunities.
Funding for ICT in Schools will influence the direction and the speed of innovation over the next four years. It is our recommendation that resources are targeted to areas that will drive the priorities and strategies to make transforming the way we learn into a reality.
The writer is a specialist in educational planning, economics and finance. He can be reached at: +255754304181 or masozi.nyirenda@gmail.com.
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