Unesco. Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 0
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Rapid global technological and economic developments have placed greater demands on the education system, particularly on the need to inculcate among students the importance of lifelong learning, that is, to constantly seek new information, to think critically and to take initiatives and cope with the challenges of our fast-changing world. Countries in Asia and the Pacific have responded to these challenges in different forms and at varying levels. They have formulated policies and developed strategies to integrate information and communications technologies (ICT) in education. This collective case study aims to: i. describe lessons learned in integrating ICT in education programs, based on the experiences of six Asian countries namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, and ii. synthesize and analyze their ICT integration experiences in connection with specific lessons learned and highlight best practices and the need for further improvements. In these six countries, ICT use in education is at different stages of development. In its review of 90 ICT projects in Asia, the UNESCO (2003) comprehensive report groups the countries into three categories: 1. Advanced countries with integrated ICT in the education system. These include Australia, South Korea and Singapore. 2. Countries where national ICT policies and master plans have been formulated and various ICT integration strategies are being applied and tested (although ICT is not fully integrated in the education system). These include China, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and India. 3. Some countries where efforts towards ICT integration efforts and formulation of national policies have just begun. There are also countries that have no relevant policies but are running pilot ICT projects. In both instances, however, there is insufficient budget to implement policies and work plans and ICT infrastructure and penetration are poor. This third category includes Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bangladesh, among others. [Executive summary, ed].