Educational Computer Centres in Yapacaní - Bolivia

The project enhances competences of 144 teachers and 3,040 students in 26 secondary schools through the installation, management and use of 15 computer labs and extensive training in technical and pedagogic competencies and developing content with the use of computers and the internet.

The Municipal government of Yapacaní has a population of 32,000 people, with 71% living in poor circumstances, and with a majority of young people. Most people are farmers with poor access to technology and other resources. The project serves to strengthen the competencies of students, providing a better preparation for the labour market by means of the integration of Information and Communication Technologie (ICT) at secondary school level.

Read more about IICD's Bolivia Country Programme.

The project has hitherto achieved the following results:

• Secured funding of US$ 250,000 of Spanish non-governmental organisations (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 15 computer labs serving 26 urban and rural schools
• Installation of an ADSL linked mesh network between the participating schools in the town of Yapacani
• Start with implementation of a wireless network linking semi-urban and rural schools up to 50 kilometers
• Training of 100 teachers in basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT), pedagogy and ICT-based content development for languages and mathematics
• Development of ICT-based learning games by teachers
• Participation of 1,800 students in basic ICT training and in the use of teaching materials developed by the teachers
• Setting up a consortium with NGO Fundacion Ayni and company COGNOS to participate in training courses for the national educational telecentre programme of the Ministry of Education

• Installation of computer labs serving secondary schools
• Installation of an affordable and reliable Internet access network between the schools
• Setting up of administrative committees by teachers and partners to administrate the ICT facilities
• Enhancing of technical and pedagogic competencies of teachers by means of ICT applications
• Training of teachers in ICT-based learning materials
• Training in basic ICT skills and usage of learning materials by students
• Development of ICT-based interactive and localised games for mathematics and languages

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.

Read more about IICD's approach towards Education.

• Lacking experience in the particular area of ICT for education, project partner Centro de Promoción Agropecuarios Campesino (CEPAC) has set up a collaboration agreement with the Fundacion Ayni in Oruro. AYNI has succesfully 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. Here the vast experience of innovation partner Sherman Chavez is used to implemented the networks
• In 2007, a start is made to extent the network to rural schools participating by a innovative WIMAX solution, implemented ealry 2008. IICD will advice on this issue on the basis of earlier experiences in Burkina Faso.

The project is managed by the Centro de Promoción Agropecuarios Campesino (CEPAC), the centre for promotion of farmers' products. Since 2002, 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.