MEHRD reviews its Information Communication Technology in Education Master Plan

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The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) has made significant progress in integrating Information Communication Technology (ICT) into education.

This was highlighted during a one-day reflection workshop on ICT in Education on Monday, 17th March, at the MEHRD conference room.

Organized by MEHRD in partnership with UNICEF and facilitated by Technical Advisor Andrew Erbs, the workshop was to review achievements under the 2019-2023 ICT in Education Master Plan.

Manager ICT at MEHRD Peter Suiramo, in his address, highlights that there has been progress made in bringing ICT into education over the past five years.

“Technology has become a bigger part of how our teachers teach, how our students learn, and how our schools operate,” Mr. Suiramo said.

He said numbers of schools have already connected to SIG Connect and other services.

Beside that there are few projects that the ministry has implemented, and one of them is the Solar Computers for 10 schools from each province. They now benefited in bringing internet access to their schools.

He adds that the ministry has supported ten national secondary schools that offered Year 13 and they have already connected to internet access. This will be rolled over to other schools in the provinces.

He said the ministry has also held discussions with Tower Projects Solomons to provide affordable internet service to remote schools.

The interesting reflections on the achievements and progress made over the past five years include:

• Numbers of schools connected to SIG Connect and other services

• Progress of Litehaus computer labs rollout

• Infrastructure modernization at ICTSU for iResource and OpenEmis

• Expansion of the Tower Project to provide internet access to remote areas

• Teacher digital literacy programs were introduced in select schools.

• PeP upskilling teachers and school leaders in digital teaching, integration of ICT competency standards into some training

• Use of Moodle at SINU for pre-service teacher training.

The ICT in Education Master Plan was developed in 2019 to enhance ICT infrastructure and connectivity to facilitate equitable access to learning, create and effective teaching and learning environment supported by quality digital resources and pedagogy, and enhance EMIS to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of education management resources.