Optimizing ICT for Education
Opening Speech by
Ursula Schäfer-Preuss
Vice President, Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank
At the International Conference
16 October 2007
ADB Headquarters, Mandaluyong City
Distinguished Guests and Colleagues, it is a pleasure to welcome you to ADB Headquarters for the conference on Optimizing ICT for Education.
We at ADB have a vision for education in our work with our developing member countries. All children, boys and girls alike, and adults should have equitable access to education. They should have education of sufficient quality, to empower them to break the poverty cycle, to improve their quality of life, and to enable them to participate and contribute effectively in economic and social development in the society.
As a key priority to attain that vision, we aim to increase the access of the poor - especially girls - to affordable basic education, and to assist governments to ensure equitable allocation of resources to disadvantaged groups. This means reaching the "unreached" - including children in remote and poor regions, ethnic minority children, working children, street children, and disabled children who are often excluded from schooling or assigned to specialized institutions that isolate them from the mainstream. ICT has tremendous potential to close education gaps and give all children in the Asia and Pacific region hope for a brighter future.
Given the rapid evolution of ICT for education, it is a challenge to keep up with the latest technology. However, the promise and opportunities arising from the most recent developments compel us to think out of the box for new ways to capture its potential. Computing power is increasing. Wireless and satellite technology have improved cost-efficiency and increased possibilities to narrow the digital divide and reach all groups of society. As a result, it is increasingly feasible to employ ICT for education even in the less advanced countries and most remote regions.
To effectively implement these technologies, we need to not only understand their potential, but also create appropriate policies, strategies, and practical arrangements. In particular, we need to ensure that the specific circumstances and development needs of countries are met, keeping in mind the financial and economic impacts associated with various policy alternatives.
Against this backdrop, we gather here today to increase understanding of the factors relevant for optimizing ICT for education. In the other words, getting the right policies and strategies, and designs for ICT for education, and making sure that they are cost-efficient. While these are important areas of common interest for developing countries, experiences among them in these aspects can differ in many ways.
ADB's current education sector policy, which was approved in 2002, encourages investment in ICT for education, and the use of ICT in an innovative way to improve access to and quality of education in remote areas and among disadvantaged communities. Since 2003, ADB and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) have collaborated to deliver a series of international conferences and workshops in the Asia Pacific region to facilitate sharing of lessons in this field.
Concurrently, the focus on ICT for education has increased in our education sector projects in response to the demand from our developing member countries. Most of ADB's education projects approved in recent years have an ICT for education component, and some stand-alone ICT for education projects have been approved. For example, we are financing projects in Secondary Education Modernization and Distance Education Modernization in Sri Lanka, and one in ICT for Basic Education in Uzbekistan. Preparations are underway to assist Samoa in expanding its SchoolNet and Community Access Project to cover the entire island. In addition, we have funded a series of specific studies and technical assistance projects to assist our client countries in keeping up with the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field.
The conference this week will benefit particularly from two studies, funded by ADB. These studies provide insights as to how to optimize ICT for education. The study "Innovative ICT in Education and Its Potential in Reducing Poverty in the Asia & Pacific Region," focuses on policy and strategy development across the region and includes also country specific case studies focusing on school level e-resources in Mongolia and Samoa, and on e-teacher training in Bangladesh, and Nepal. The study "ICT in Basic Education in Central Asia" includes analysis of comprehensive range of ICT issues in basic education and comprehensive country specific studies in Central Asia. We are looking forward to the study teams' presentation and sharing their experiences during this conference.
Of course, ICT programs cannot be successful without strong Partnerships. In 2006 ADB established an E-Asian and Knowledge Partnership Fund, with initial contribution of $20 million from the Government of Korea. The fund is being utilized for ICT development related studies and projects in ADB's developing member countries in various sectors, including the education sector.
At the same time, the importance of public & private partnerships is increasingly recognized in developing member countries, and the private sector is keen to provide cost-efficient and innovative ICT solutions to improve education and assist educational institutions to use them efficiently. ADB is committed to raising awareness in the Region about the potential of public & private partnerships in ICT for education and to supporting the development and implementation of such partnerships. Thus public & private partnerships are high in the agenda of the conference this week. Linking with the conference theme and objective, we are looking forward to your concrete proposals on how to more clearly define responsibilities of governments, private sector stakeholders, and ADB, to best support development and implementation of public & private partnerships in ICT for education in the future.
As I have mentioned already ADB is currently conducting a comprehensive strategic study on the education sector. Therefore, the conference this week will be important in providing valuable and timely inputs to finalize these studies and to include their main findings into the ongoing strategic work in that sector at ADB, last but not least aiming at valuable inputs for our actual discussion related to ADB's long term vision of most effectively cooperating with our DMCs.
We are very grateful for the very positive response from our developing member countries to our conference invitation, and for the high interest from private sector participants. We very much appreciate the significant contribution of the ADB Institute as a co-financier of this conference. I am confident that the conference will have insightful presentations and lively discussions.
Thank you
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