IICD supported project: Educational Computer Centres in Yapacani - Bolivia

Countries: Bolivia [BO]
Sectors: education

Summary

The project aims to facilitate access of the education sector in Yapacaní to the information and knowledge society through the set-up and operation of four pilot computer centres and the development of competences in ICT of local secondary school teachers. The computer centres will boost the economic and social development of the region, and foster the development and exchange of meaningful local content.

Update

Updated: 2008-04-07

Started in January 2007, the project has more than achieved its objectives in the first year, being:

• Secured funding of US$ 250,000 of Spanish NGOs and local governments for a 3-year period
• Set up of administrative committees with participation of parents, head masters and teachers to manage the computer labs
• Training of the committees in financial management
• Installation of 4 computer labs representing the 12 participating schools. The labs are managed by partner/teacher committees and are functioning in a sustainable way with small contributions of the parents
• Installation of an ADSL linked mesh network between the participating schools in the town of Yapacaní. To link up more schools in 2008, a study is finalised to set up a WIMAX based radio network for Internet access linking the participating rural schools up to 50 kilometres away
• Undertaken a feasibility study to link the rural schools to the network with WIMAX solutions
• Training of 96 teachers in basic ICT, pedagogy and ICT-based content development for languages and mathematics. This has resulted in the development of localised teaching modules for these subjects. For the younger pupils, educational games are being developed. 1,800 students are currently using the materials
• Development of ICT-based learning games by teachers
• Training of 2,680 students in basic ICT and as users of the materials developed
• Setting up a consortium with NGO Fundación Ayni and company COGNOS to participate in training courses for the national educational telecentre programme of the Ministry of Education

Introduction

The Municipal government of Yapacaní in the province of Santa Cruz has a population of 32,000 people, with 71% living in poor circumstances, and with a majority of young people. There is a high level of analphabetism and a low level of school attendance. Most people are farmers with poor access to technology and other resources. The project is to strengthen the competencies of students, providing a better preparation for the labour market by means of the integration of ICT at secondary school level.

Objectives

• Installation of  12 computer labs serving 26 schools
• Installation of an affordable and reliable Internet access network between the schools
• Setting up of 12 administrative committees by teachers and partners to administrate the ICT facilities
• Enhancing of technical and pedagogic competencies of 97 teachers by means of ICT applications
• Training of 144 teachers in ICT-based learning materials 
• Training in basic ICT skills and usage of learning materials by 3,040 students

Development Impacts

The evaluation of satisfaction and impact of the project in 2007, based on the IICD monitoring and evaluation system has confirmed positive results:

• Satisfaction levels are high and close to 90% of the participating teachers and students indicate to be satisfied with the technical support, training and content provided through the project. 
• Impact levels have increased again, to 80% for empowerment and economic impact. 70% of both teachers and students indicate a considerable direct impact on the quality of learning and teaching processes. This is positive, as the participants have been critical about the quality of materials earlier years.
• The following testimonies of teachers address this: ‘School directors, teachers and students are satisfied with the access to digital technology, they feel that the use of the computer connects them to the world and provides access to better work opportunities thereby improving living standards’, and ‘The learning process and the socialization of content has become nice and sympathetic especially with the introduction of interactive didactive games which result very novel to the students.’
• Still, participant do request that they are assisted in the development of more teaching modules for other subjects
• Participants also request additional training and expansion in the number of computers.

Lessons learned

• Since 2002, project partner CEPAC has worked with IICD on the implementation of an agriculture project. This project is integrated in the overall activities of CEPAC and now operating independently. Having learned from the agriculture project, CEPAC found it important to extent the tool to its education activities.
• Lacking experience in the particular area of ICT for education, CEPAC has set up a collaboration agreement with the Fundación Ayni in Oruro. AYNI has successfully implemented ICT for teachers and students in 100 schools in Bolivia with support of IICD. Project staff, school directors and teachers from Oruro have directly introduced and trained teachers of the CEPAC related schools. This way, CEPAC rapidly used experiences already gained in Bolivia.
• CEPAC also used experiences gained in shared connectivity solutions using ADSL combined with Mesh technology to set up a network and share costs between participating schools.
• In 2007, a start was made to extent the network to rural schools participating by an innovative WIMAX solution, implemented early 2008. IICD will advice on this issue on the basis of earlier IICD experiences in Burkina Faso.

Budget

US$ 250,000, funded by a number of Spanish NGOs. To secure co-funding requirements, IICD provides Euro 20,000 in 2007.

Project Owner :

Centro de Promoción Agropecuarios Campesino (CEPAC).

Project Partners :

Spanish NGOs and local Spanish governments are co-funding the programme. CEPAC collaborates and exchanges experiences with Fundación Ayni.