Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

According to the project website, GeSCI focuses on providing advice to Ministries of Education on what ICT in education can and cannot do; on how to develop a sustainable framework for integrating ICTs into educational systems; on how to conceptualise structures, procedures, and processes for ICT deployment and use in education initiatives; and on how to bring together stakeholder partnerships for implementation and support. GeSCI's 5 work areas are:

1. Policy Development
2. Strategic Implementation and Planning
3. ICTs in Teaching and Learning
4. Infrastructure and Connectivity
5. Monitoring and Evaluation




GeSCI's strategies include the following, by country:

• Bolivia: GeSCI worked with the Ministry of Education (NTICS) as it implemented a telecentre initiative focused on rural areas and indigenous populations, scaling up from 8 pilot centres to 100, while the Ministry’s coordinating committee began outreach to telecom providers and regulatory authorities, as well as bilateral donor agencies. A complementary initiative established a national education portal providing content, training materials curricula, and administrative information to the telecentres.
• India: Here the GeSCI supported the Ministry as it mobilised "the influence and resource base of the governments at the state and national level, as well as companies and [non-governmental organisations] NGOs working in India, to plan for and implement large scale e-schools initiatives". This involves a partnership with the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), with which it implemented the Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI) to develop a baseline study of ICT in education initiatives and a monitoring and evaluation framework to measure the impact of the REI as it develops.
• Ghana: Following research on the education system in 2003 that showed a lack of trained teachers, materials, and tools contributing to high drop-out rates low literacy levels, GeSCI held a 2-day workshop in 2004 for stakeholders to formulate a detailed national Ghanaian e-schools plan with a timeline for a final version of an implementation framework in which all ICT in Education initiatives in Ghana will be planned. Follow-up includes capacitating staff at the ministry level; surveying to determine current practices, capabilities and needs; facilitating global partnerships for infrastructure building; and developing a framework for integrating ICT in curriculum development and teacher education, including a peer collaboration of the Ghanian curriculum design team with the Namibian team.
• Namibia: GeSCI collaborated with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to implement Namibia's ICT for Education (ICT4E) plan. A partnership agreement of 47 organisations and stakeholders was established to implement the plan, called "Tech/NA!", jointly created for going forward. Among what is already implemented are:
  1. A public/private partnership between the Ministry of Education and various private sector and civil society partners, such as Microsoft and SchoolNet Namibia, to provide the sourcing, refurbishment, installation, and support of ICTs in all educational institutions in Namibia.
  2. A national ICT literacy certification.
  3. A VSAT License for the MOE, affording the education community in Namibia access to cheaper international connectivity bandwidth, rather than relying solely on connectivity provided by the state-owned telecommunications company.
  4. A multi-country Teacher Professional Development (TPD) workshop in September of 2006, bringing together participants from Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique, and Namibia.
  5. A national e-learning centre including all educational institutions in Namibia.

Education, Technology.

In order to implement sustainable and integrated ICT programmes into nation-wide school systems, GeSCI works to support governments and ministries of education to develop implementation plans based on what technology can realistically and reliably do to further education, unite stakeholders who can support the plan in a framework for moving ahead, increase infrastructure and teacher training, and develop solid national curriculum integration planning.