ICT, Education and Digital Divide – national and global issues

Innlegg ved statssekretær Lisbet Rugtvedt, Moving Young Minds Ministerial Seminar, London, 10.1.06.

1. Introduction

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!

On behalf of the Norwegian Government, I am pleasured and privileged to be here among you today. Let me congratulate the British Minister for Education and Skills, Ms Ruth Kelly, on the remarkable achievement it is to gather a large number of Education Ministers from all over the world for the third consecutive time. Let me also convey the greetings and apologies from the Norwegian Minister of Education and Research, Mr Øystein Djupedal, who is not able to be here today.

In the first part of my presentation, I will elaborate on the role ICT plays in our educational system and the strategies we implement in order to take advantage of ICT as a tool for teaching and learning. In the second part I will turn to global digital divide issues.

2. Education and nation-building

Throughout the 20 ^th> century, Norway has evolved into a modern welfare state with a high level of education in the population. Education for all has been an important part of our strategy for economic growth and fight against poverty and has contributed to level out social differences. It is a fact that 80% of our national assets consists of human resources and knowledge in our population. This gives reason for optimism in respect to global development, as human resources are more equally distributed than natural resources. Information, knowledge and ideas are increasingly the main sources of productivity, growth and development.

SLIDE 2

I would like to highlight the role of public education in three points:

3. In the first part of the 20 ^th> century, the provision of public education for all played an important role in raising the general level of knowledge in the Norwegian society and thereby facilitating important changes in society. Public education has proved to be an important pillar in our society.
4. Norwegian higher education from the 1960s on made a shift from being a good enjoyed by the few to being a good for the entire population.
5. The Norwegian society has made the transition to the current oil and gas era, and our future challenge is to prepare the transition to the post-oil era which will inevitably come. Public education will be an important tool in the change processes our society will go through in the decades to come.
6. Education for All – National Reforms

It is a demanding task to change the educational system in order to prepare our children to be able and active citizens of the global knowledge society. As policymakers and politicians we must bear this in mind. Educational reform and change takes time. In most countries, the educational system comprises a substantial part of the country’s population.

The Norwegian national curriculum is now undergoing a major revision. A new national curriculum comprising the stages 1 through 13 will take effect from the School Year 2006-2007.

The present Government, which came into office after parliamentary elections in September 2005, has put education high on the agenda.

The new national curriculum is based on a set of basic skills. These skills are fundamental for enabling students to acquire and develop knowledge in various subjects. In order to ensure that the pupils continuously develop their basic skills throughout their school years, these skills will be integrated in the syllabi for all subjects at all levels.

SLIDE 3

The basic skills are – as you can see – listed on this slide (IKKE LES OPP)

• to be able to express oneself orally
• to be able to read
• to be able to express oneself in writing
• to be able to do arithmetic
• to be able to use information and communication technology

The new government has put forward the idea of expanding and supplementing these competencies in order to create a broader framework for equal education for all.

Our focus on basic skills and the integration of ICT in the teaching-learning process is well aligned with international research and international collaboration through Unesco, the European Union and OECD.

With regard to the ability to use ICT, we emphasise that the integration of digital skills into the curriculum should cover a range of ways to use ICT such as.

• ICT as a tool
• ICT as a facilitator for student’s production and documentation of their own work
• Critical understanding and use of of ICT
• The use of digital sources of knowledge

The new national curriculum will be the key driver to educational change in Norway in the years to come. In parallel, we are running our national programme for ICT in education, Programme for Digital Literacy covering the period 2004-2008.

The programme’s vision – “Digital literacy for all” – aims to make digital literacy accessible to everyone. Digital literacy is the literacy that bridges the gap between skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic, and the competence that is required to put new digital tools and media into use in a creative and critical manner. The programme is addressing the entire education sector from. primary education to adult learning

SLIDE 4

The programme has a set of ambitious goals as you can see from the slide: [Her kan det henvises til sliden. Trenger ikke å leses opp!]

• By 2008, the Norwegian educational system should be among the foremost countries in the world to use ICT in teaching and learning
• By 2008, Digital Literacy shall be integrated at all levels in education and training.
• By 2008, ICT shall be an integrated tool for innovation and quality at all levels in Norwegian education
• By 2008, Norwegian schools shall be equipped with high quality infrastructure. Classrooms and other arenas for learning shall be connected with adequate bandwidth. The use of ICT in teaching and learning shall be supported by secure and cost-effective solutions for infrastructure maintenance.

SLIDE 5

As the models shows, all the areas of priority must be regarded as a whole, each component being of equal importance. The attainment of goals will take place through measures connected to the four areas of priority.

SLIDE 6

The design of the programme reflects the development of ICT policies through different phases or generations. Most countries evolve along the same route by

• securing basic infrastructure
• developing ICT competencies and
• facilitating the innovative use of ICT. Key national ICT policy challenges

SLIDE 7

It is vital for us to have a high degree of consciousness regarding different forms of digital divides.

Our national political agenda addresses a number of issues related to combating and/or reducing barriers for access to infrastructure, resources and services relevant for teaching and learning.

Recent studies and reports show that there are barriers for an effective ICT diffusion within our educational system:

• Computer access in primary and secondary education has improved steadily. However, our data indicate that there are large differences within and between regions, and between primary/lower secondary education on the one hand and upper secondary education on the other hand.
• The situation regarding Internet access shows the same pattern. About 30 % of our primary schools do not have broadband connection.
• The availability of digital learning resources and digital services is not satisfactory.
• The students use computers and the internet in a more sophisticated way at home than they do at school.

The present situation contains some worrying features, and our government is considering a number of ways to deal with this situation.

The most important challenges our government has identified are:

• The government will ensure broadband access to all parts of Norway, especially in those regions of the country where commercial deployment of broadband is not feasible.
• We will ensure access to PCs and Internet for all teachers and students
• We will ensure free learning resources for all students in upper secondary education.
• Teacher competencies will be strengthened

7. Education as a means to reduce poverty

SLIDE 8

In the second part of my presentation, I would like to focus international perspectives.

Combating poverty and improving social cohesion are high on the political agenda of many of the countries present here today, and so is education for all. Many countries have a long way to go to meet the minimum standards defined by the Dakar goals formulated by the World Education Forum in 2000.

To meet this challenge, we must all contribute to education for all, as implied in the Dakar declaration, but we must also see to it that everyone can benefit from the opportunities that new information and communication technologies can offer.

The Norwegian government supports the international efforts to rise money to education for all, but also to strengthen the international cooperation on developing good education policies and strategies, and we want to reinforce the role of international institutions for education such as UNESCO.

8. ICT and the global digital divide – the road ahead

The different forms of digital divides is a global challenge and a joint responsibility. Today, we know that technology can reinforce existing differences and/or create new divides. We can not allow that to happen.

SLIDE 9

Every country must pay constant attention to the emergence of potential digital divides:

• Boys and girls should be secured equal access to and exploitation of ICT.
• Adults and senior citizens must enjoy the benefits of ICT in education and society at large.
• Regional differences must be avoided.
• All ethnic groups should be allowed to take advantage of the opportunities ICT offers.
• Public education should offer access to ICT for all teachers and pupils. Social status and family income can not decide whether a child is secured access to ICT.

In the years to come we must commit ourselves to ongoing processes and goals that have been set. The World Summit on Information Society in Tunis last November stated that governments, as well as private sector, civil society and the United Nations and other international organisations, should work together for an inclusive Information Society.

What can we say about the road ahead? I will not make any prophesies today, but it is my firm belief that we need to mobilize vision, creativity, collaboration and maybe even take an occasional leap of faith in order to facilitate cheap and technologically feasible solutions for all.

SLIDE 10

Let me emphasise the following.

• Our policy on ICT and development is that ICT issues should be embedded in development policy. ICT can not and should not be regarded as a separate policy area, because ICT is embedded in all domains of our professional and social practices.
• We still need to focus on basic issues such as electricity, water supply, communication and access.
• Governments, industry and NGOs must work together to reduce any form of digital divide. We must support a culture of sharing and collaboration for the benefit of mutual development. This includes the exchange of experiences and good practices, and many countries seek to exploit how to benefit from open standards and open source software.
• The global ICT industry is involved in many poor countries. We see this as an expression of their determination to foster the further development of these countries and as an expression of civic responsibility. We encourage them to continue this work.
• Technology does not have to be expensive. The 100 Dollar laptop initiative from the MIT Media Lab and the “Hole in the Wall”-project in India are exciting examples of innovative approaches avoiding the trap of investing in expensive technology for ICT access.
• Each country must choose its own way. New and mobile technologies as well as alternative forms of energy offer interesting possibilities that should be exploited to the benefit of pupils and students in our educational systems.

SLIDE 11

The road ahead may be long and winding, but we will continue to commit ourselves to the global fight against poverty and to bridge the global digital divide.

Thank you for your attention.