Information and Communication Technologies for Education - Burkina Faso

This project for the education sector targets twelve secondary schools in the capital and in the provincesn (five in the capital, seven in the provinces). Sixty principals and teachers learn how to better integrate ICT’s in their education cycle. Computers with internet are provided for the teachers and they get technical assistance for learning to use specific computer programs that can aid them in their lessons. Once in full implementation, the project should provide lessons and experiences to be fed into the development of the Education policy of Burkina Faso.  Often for this project the acronym TICE is used, this stands for ' Technologies de l'Information et de la communication pour l'enseignement au Burkina Faso' the French title of this project. 

Teaching material in schools in Burkina Faso is lacking. There is a need for information on all teaching subjects. Teachers taking part in the project are now using the internet and multimedia tools to find and to create education material in their subject. Through the website www.tice-burkina.bf these materials are available for other teachers. Both teachers and students benefit from newly acquired ICT skills.

Read more about IICD's Burkina Faso Country Programme.

Teachers involved in the project developed the website themselves to create a pool of teaching materials available online. Several of these websites were awarded during the National Internet Week of Burkina in 2007. The website of  website was already awarded in 2006.

TIC-EDUC, the knowledge sharing network on ICT for Education, produced a poster on the TICE project and a CD-rom with teaching materials developed by teachers in the TICE project. The poster and CD-rom are being distributed to secondary schools throughout the whole country.

Thanks to the project, more than hundred teachers and pupils have attended workshops on website development. Local Area networks (LANs) have been installed in schools in Dedougou, Po, Ouahigouya, Fada n’Gourma, Banfora and Ougadougou. Furthermore computers have been donated and installed in schools in Ouahigouya, Dori and Ougadougou and basic computer training has been provided to teachers and pupils in all twelve schools.

The TICE project leader has become a resource person for the Ministry of Secondary Education and assisted with the formulation of policy recommendations in 2007.

Two teachers of the TICE-group have started a knowledge sharing network on ICT for education, called TIC-EDUC, in June 2006. The network has an active Dgroup with more than 160 members. TIC-EDUC also organises awareness raising sessions in secondary schools throughout the country, disseminates digital teaching material developed by TICE, and advises the Ministry of Education on ICT matters.

Video by TIC-Educ to raise awareness on the use of ICT for education (in French)

The project objectives include better integration of ICT's within the education cycle. This is achieved by raising awareness on the potential of ICT in education, by providing capacity development and technical assistance in IT skills and maintenance, and through development of (digital) teaching materials.

Whilst the end users of this project are the teachers, the beneficiaries are both teachers and students. The teachers acquire IT-skills, including the technical skills to manage a computer lab in school, and the multimedia skills to widen teaching methods.

Using these skills, they now have access to teaching material online and can create their own teaching material. Students acquire IT-skills and benefit from improved access to learning materials.

Read more about IICD's approach towards Education.

The project team has started to address the gender issue, which came up in a focus group in 2006, by organizing a special training workshop for female teachers.

During a focus group meeting in 2007, teachers mentioned that they are tempted to leave the education sector, and switch to the ICT sector, where salaries are higher and they can continue to develop their ICT skills. They would like the government to come up with an ICT policy for education, offering better salaries and more technical support. Teachers also stated that they wanted ICT to be officially integrated in the curriculum.