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MANILA, PHILIPPINES (14 July 2004) - ADB is using information and communications technology (ICT) to help boost access to high-quality education for disadvantaged and remote populations in Mongolia, through a grant assistance approved for US$1 million.

The ICT for Innovating Rural Education in Mongolia project, from the Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology, financed by the Government of Japan, will establish a model that uses ICT to bring modern education methods and content to poor rural schools and communities.

Under the project, CD-ROMs and an e-mail based bulletin board system will be used as part of a broader approach to

• Help rural teachers, especially in basic education grades, to provide a more innovative and pupil-centered learning environment and improve teaching skills
• Enhance school management and system equity, efficiency, and transparency
• Boost opportunities for high-quality, locally relevant nonformal education, and build new linkages between schools and the surrounding community.

"At present, ICT in Mongolian education tends to be largely confined to wealthy urban areas and to informatics classes in upper grades. The project will help address the growing internal digital divide and poverty of information in rural areas," says Christopher Spohr, an ADB Project Economist.

Staff in poor rural schools have cited isolation from information, teaching materials, and support mechanisms, such as communications with peers and official guidance, as a key hardship. It is also linked to the "brain drain" of talented teachers to urban areas.

In-school trainings, content development, peer network building, and careful monitoring and evaluation will ensure that ICT tools promote the adoption of modern pedagogy and creative classroom techniques.

In selected boarding schools, the project will also give poor children living in dormitories the opportunity to communicate regularly with children in other localities through e-mail.

At the end of the project, about 10,000 students in 36 target schools will benefit from improved teaching and school management.

"The project will demonstrate that a new model can promote specific national education objectives more cost-effectively than existing approaches, particularly in meeting the needs of hard-to-reach groups," adds Mr. Spohr.

The project, to be executed by Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, supports the $63.8 million Second Education Development Project in Mongolia, approved in 2002. That project will improve access to, quality and sustainability of pre-school, primary, and secondary education in poorer rural and urban communities.

The total project cost is estimated at $1,226,000, of which the Government, local communities, and other partners will contribute $226,000.

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