USAID’s Primary Education Project (2006-2011)

ByPetar Nikoloski, ICT in Education Coordinator

components:components:

Buildings & Buildings & ClassroomsClassrooms

Use of ICTUse of ICT

Math & Math & ScienceScience AssessmentAssessment

Improving schools to Improving schools to develop 21develop 21stst century skills century skills

Workforce Workforce DevelopmentDevelopment

MOU Signing, April 2007

KEY POINTS FROM THE MOU REGARDING THE ICTIN EDUCATION

• Increase student benefits from computers

by introducing innovative uses of ICT • Developing educational software and on-line learning

environments • Design a teacher training program …

that trains teachers in effective use of computers in all curriculum areas therefore helping students develop 21st century workforce skills

• Improve computer maintenance and deployment …

by establishing Student Support Technician Clubs (SSTC) and School-based Technology Committees (SBTC)

We introduce innovative use of ICT by…

• …donating equipment and trialing innovative uses of ICT equipment

We introduce innovative use of ICT by…

• …giving challenges to the schools which are solved using the technologies provided by the project

We introduce innovative use of ICT by…

• …collaborating with local organizations – e.g. the Faculty for Electro technical and Information Technologies (FEIT) which created a local PCL (Programmable Logic Control) kit for introducing control technology to more schools

We introduce innovative use of ICT by…

• …Bringing portable computing solutions to Macedonia such as Intel’s Classmate PC

We introduce innovative use of ICT by…

• …setting up PPP with a local organization, and for the first time introduced robotics to primary school children

We are developing educational content and online learning software by…

• …localizing open source applications to be used for educational purposes (at least 43 this year)

• …identifying additional digital content e.g. for Biology for primary school.

• ...providing support to the www.schools.edu.mk portal

In order to ensure that we design the best training programs we…

• …always test something before launching on a mass scale

• …bring in international expertise• …propose study tours, e.g. for the BDE to the UK

We are working to improve the computer maintenance in the schools by…

• …Setting up SSTC Clubs in 102 out of 164 central primary schools in Macedonia that have enrolled in the SSTC program and are currently working with another 200 schools.

• …planning to expand SSTC’s to include Linux training

WHAT’S NEXT?

• Organize professional development activities for the teachers from the primary schools in using edubuntu in the classroom

• Work on identifying additional digital content for the primary curriculum

THANK YOU FOR YOU ATTENTION