Educational technology in sub-Saharan Africa refers to the promotion, development and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), m-learning, media, and other technological tools to improve aspects of education in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960s, various information and communication technologies have aroused strong interest in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of increasing access to education, and enhancing its quality and fairness.
History: Radio and television The first initiatives to introduce technologies into education were carried out by States directly, as they were at the time embarking on wide-ranging education reforms. During that period – from decolonization through to the 1980s – the dominant paradigm in education, common to African States and international organizations, was that of the interventionist State. Against that background, major large- scale programmes were developed, which were to some extent successful. In this way, the Bouaké schools radio in Côte d'Ivoire allowed more than 2,000 teachers per year to be trained in the 1970s.
Radio was one of the first technologies to be put to work in the service of education in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1986, in Guinea, an experimental schools radio project was started at the national educational research and documentation institute (l'Institut national de documentation, de recherche et d'action pédagogique, the present-day Indrap), with the assistance of the cultural and technical cooperation agency that is now the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). The radio broadcasts were therefore mainly focused on primary teachers' needs so as to improve their teaching techniques, and on subjects that were considered as priorities for the pupils: French, arithmetic and science. In the early 1990s, radio was given a broader role in the promotion of basic education, with the support of UNICEF, especially with respect to girls' access to education. While the results in terms of scholastic performance are still not properly understood, these programmes helped to train a large number of teachers.
Throughout the 1960s, the concept of educational television took hold in Africa. One of the most iconic examples of the development of these programmes can be found in Côte d'Ivoire. After initial trials in Senegal and Niger (where educational television existed before national television) in 1965 and 1966, Côte d'Ivoire was chosen in 1971 as the testing ground, then for the large-scale roll-out, of a massive project for schooling via television. The Programme for Education by Television (PETV) was made the responsibility of UNESCO, assisted by cooperation from Belgium, France and the Ford Foundation. The PETV gave an illustration of how, from the 1970s, innovative programmes could be launched with the aid of the "new" ICT.
In the first five years, the rate of school enrolment in that country went from 20% to over 60%. While 300,000 pupils were receiving the programmes in 1975–1976, this had increased to 700,000 by 1980 (out of a total of one million pupils). Some evaluation reports indicate that the proportion of pupils who had had the benefit of television courses entering the sixth year of study was significantly higher than for the others, that the percentage having to retake a year had fallen from 30% to 10% during the lifetime of the project, and that pupils had acquired a better mastery of spoken French. The programme ran for 14 years and finally ended in 1982.
Introduction of computer technology Between 1990 and 2000, multiple actions were started to turn technologies into a lever for improving education in sub-Saharan Africa. Many initiatives focused on equipping schools with computer hardware. A number of NGOs contributed, on varying scales, to bringing computer hardware into Africa, such as groups like Computer Aid International, Digital Links, SchoolNet Africa and World Computer Exchange. Sometimes with backing from cooperation agencies or development agencies like USAID, the African Bank Limited or the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these individual initiatives grew without adequate coordination.
Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI) A large part of the backbone of ICT4D was the action framework called the Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI). Seeking to install the ICT infrastructure in Africa, its goals were to were connect every single African village with the global information network by 2010 and spur growth of smaller ICT initiatives in different sectors. A decade after its enactment, there are still hundreds of villages without electricity and connectivity between disparate ICTs is lacking.
One Laptop per Child (OLPC)
In the 2000s, various projects were begun, mainly aimed at giving each school child access to IT tools, individually or shared among a small group. Personalizing the practice of computer technology multiplies the potential uses of ICT in education, not just by familiarization with the technology tools themselves (learning technology), but also by the acquisition of cognitive skills (learning through technology). The American One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, launched in several African countries in 2005, aimed to equip schools with laptop computers at low cost. While the average price of an inexpensive personal computer was between US$200 and US$500, OLPC offered its ultraportable XO-1 computer at the price of US$100. This technological breakthrough marked an important step in potential access to ICT. OLPC became an institutional system: the programme was "bought" by governments, which then took responsibility for distribution to the schools. The underlying logic of the initiative was one of centralization, thus enabling the large-scale distribution of the equipment. Almost 2 million teachers and pupils are now involved in the programme worldwide and more than 2.4 million computers have been delivered. Sugar is the free teaching platform installed on the XO computers from the OLPC Foundation. Sugar is both a graphic interface at the same time as containing applications, and was designed specifically for children, to support them in their learning with a variety of available content: reading courses, drawing tools, e-books, interactive applications and so on.
Criticisms of One Laptop per Child in Sub-Saharan Africa Unlike more large scale efforts to integrate and enhance education, the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program faces criticism on the premise that targeting the poorest areas in Africa that may not have the financial viability to afford laptop computers and maintenance costs for the children. Despite its objectives of distributing 100 to 150 million laptops by the year 2008 to the developing countries with the most need, it is measured that as of August 2010, more than 80 percent of the 1.5 million laptops have been sent to high or upper middle income countries according to the World Bank's classifications.
Implementation Challenges There have been a lot of challenges with regards to the implementation of this initiative. Here are a few of those challenges:
Infrastructure Issues One of the primary criticisms of OLPC in Sub-Saharan Africa has been the lack of infrastructure to support the program. Many schools in the region lack reliable electricity, internet connectivity, and safe storage facilities for the laptops, which hinder the effective use of the devices.
Maintenance and Technical Support The durability and self-repair design of the XO laptops were meant to address the harsh conditions in developing regions. However, ongoing technical support and maintenance were often lacking, as local technicians frequently did not have the necessary training or resources to repair the laptops, resulting in many devices becoming unusable over time.
Alternatives to One Laptop Per Child In comparing the distribution of money of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program with other channels of education betterment, there are many low-cost programs that have more definitive impact than OPLC's distribution laptops to "low-income" countries. Some other proposed cost-benefit ratios for other aid programs seeking to improve educational and socioeconomic conditions include: Spending $8 per individual per year over a span of 5 years could potentially save 11 million lives. Spending $0.50 per student (this was implemented in Kenya), which was successful in increasing school participation by 14 percent. Building schools. Hiring additional instructors. Focusing on minimizing and mitigating costs of attention school and getting textbooks.
Many of these low-cost programs have sought to specifically increase the access to education for women in hopes of increase literacy, equality in pay, economic viability, better productivity, more democratic and responsive political institutions, and better overall public health.
Classmate PC
Following on from OLPC, the Intel group launched Classmate PC, a similar programme also intended for pupils in developing countries. Though it has a smaller presence in sub-Saharan Africa than the OLPC project, Classmate PC has enabled laptop computers to be delivered to primary schools in the Seychelles and Kenya, particularly in rural areas.
Computer for School in Kenya (CFSK) The CFSK (Computer for School in Kenya) project was started in 2002 with the aim of distributing computers to almost 9,000 schools.
Open Educational Resources (OER) According to UNESCO in 2002, open educational resources (OERs) are open provisions of educational resources that are enabled by ICTs for use and adaptation by users for non-commercial users. In the context of teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa, the most notable OER project is TESSA, Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, which constitutes 13 African institutions and five international organizations working to equip teachers with practical activities for classrooms and language specific modules.
There are three different modes of use for OERs across the 200,000 teachers in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia: very structured modules, loosely structured modules, and guided modules.
Specifically in Nigeria and Sudan, large-scale distance education is primarily used for teacher education and thus highly structured guides with TESSA study units are given to trainee teachers, who are often in rural areas with limited Internet access.
Some criticisms of TESSA OERs cited by teachers include lack of relevance of curriculum materials and existing satisfaction with current resources.
Sustainable ICT for development in Sub-Saharan Africa One of the most prominent paradigms for technological change and innovation in Sub-Saharan African has been the information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) initiative. Positioned as an avenue to move millions of individuals out of poverty in developing regions, few reports on experiments of such practices have demonstrated success of ICT4D on the standard of living in Africa. Regardless, ICT4D is still rendered as one of the most prominent technological interventions in the region. Every year, proposals for more sustainable ICT4D initiatives are suggested by researchers from around the world at the AFRICOMM Conference.
Motivations for Sustainable ICT
Landscape
With the advent of new technologies and communication as a means for organization and development between public and private sectors in developing countries, in addition to the growing penetration of mobile devices due to their increasing affordability, the poor in Sub-Saharan African have largely been seen as both producers and consumers of information and communication technologies.