Namibia’s ICT Integration for Equity and Excellence in Education
March 1995
Strategies and Action Plans
Namibia’s ‘ICT Integration for Equity and Excellence in Education’ policy underscores the nation’s commitment to leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance educational outcomes and promote equitable access to quality education. The policy’s primary objective is to prepare Namibia’s learners, students, teachers, and communities for active participation in the global economy by integrating ICT into the education system.
Vision and mission
The policy envisions the integration of ICT to achieve excellence and equity in education. Its mission is to articulate the relevance, responsibility, and effectiveness of integrating ICT in education to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Purpose
The overarching purpose of this policy is to prepare all of Namibia’s learners, students, teachers, and communities for the world economy of tomorrow.
Background
Recognising the pivotal role of ICT in national development, Namibia acknowledges its significance both as a subject and as a tool to enhance educational delivery and management. Appropriate use of ICT in classrooms can bring numerous benefits, including:
- Offering opportunities for more student-centered teaching.
- Providing at-risk students with greater opportunities, as they may perceive computers as neutral.
- Enhancing exposure to vocational and workforce skills for students.
- Preparing learners and students for the real world.
- Providing distance learners country-wide with online educational material.
- Providing learners with additional resources to assist resource-based learning.
Policy Goals
The policy outlines several specific educational goals:
- Produce ICT literate citizens: Ensuring that all learners acquire basic ICT literacy before completing their secondary education.
- Develop a workforce for the new economy: Equipping individuals with the skills necessary to work and participate in emerging digital economies and societies.
- Leverage ICT for learning: Utilising ICT to assist and facilitate learning for the benefit of all learners and teachers across the curriculum.
- Enhance educational management: Improving the efficiency of educational administration and management at every level, from classrooms to the broader educational sector.
- Broaden access to quality education: Expanding access to quality educational services for learners at all levels of the education system.
- Establish development levels: Setting specific criteria and targets to classify and categorise the different development levels of ICT usage in education.
Implementation framework
The policy emphasises a structured approach to ICT integration, including:
- Framework and management: Establishing an Executive Committee comprising members from both Ministries of Education to manage the policy. A Steering Committee coordinates the implementation of the policy.
- Development levels: Defining progressive levels of ICT integration within educational institutions, ranging from basic computer availability to comprehensive integration across curricula and administration.
- Prioritisation: Setting criteria to determine the order in which educational sites receive equipment and training, considering factors such as the imminence of students entering the workforce.
- ICT services: Implementing services to address key areas effectively, including the identification or development of appropriate ICT for education, distribution and delivery of ICT, maintenance and support of ICT, ICT literacy, and ICT integration.
Teacher training and curriculum development
A critical component of the policy is the emphasis on teacher training and curriculum development:
- Staff training: Ensuring that teaching and administrative staff have reasonable access to computers and are proficient in using the Internet, email, and word processing.
- Curriculum integration: Maintaining guidelines for ICT literacy skills by the level of learning, ensuring all learners achieve basic ICT literacy before completing secondary education.
- Cross-curricular ICT: Adjusting individual subject curricula to reflect the role of ICT in teaching the subject, promoting the use of ICT across various subjects.
- Pre- and In-service training: Providing training for teachers to develop confidence in using computers and other ICT tools, enabling them to search for, retrieve, prepare, and present educational materials.