Open Learning ExchangeUniversal Basic Education 2015

The Government of Rwanda has mandated English as the official language for schools beginning with the earliest grades.  They seem to feel that command of English is one of the requirements for Rwanda to become a major economic force not only for Africa but for the world as a whole.

One problem with this decision is that the majority of their teachers do not speak English.  The Ministry of Education has, therefore, established the Rwanda English Action Program (REAP) charged with enabling some 40,000 or more elementary school teachers to become fluent in English and the teaching of English as a Second Language quickly.

Jacques Murinda, Executive Director of OLE Rwanda is working with the Ministry to adapt the TeacherMate learning system for use by teachers for learning English.   Working in cooperation with Innovations for Learning OLE Rwanda and the Ministry is developing a proposal for a two-phase REAP program.  The first phase will pilot the use of the TeacherMate device and software as an ESL learning system and the second will scale this effort to all elementary school students in Rwanda.  It is hoped that his effort can be underway before the end of 2009 with a full scale deployment sometime in 2010.

For more information on this effort to to OLE Rwanda.

The second round of the UNESCO debate on eBooks and other technologies in the developing countries is underway.  Dick in his second blog argues that the only way Quality Universal Basic Education (QUBE) can be achieved is through a coordinated strategy engaging high quality content, affordable technology and effective teachers.  He argues that no two of these is sufficient.

One discussant has suggested that we should add an “A” for Affordable, making it AQUBE.  That works.  Although we need to be careful that we don’t assume current levels of investment in basic education.  Current levels will not do the job and governments need to understand the need to increase substantially their investment in basic education in order to achieve QUBE.

Here is the link to the full post and the interesting comments it has generated.

The Three-Legged Stool

Richard Rowe has submitted a requested article “Balancing Content, Technology and People for Quality Basic Education” in an online debate sponsored by InfoDev and UNESCO on the role of eBooks and other information and communications technologies as a way to increase universal access to quality basic education in the developing world.

Rowe warns against an over-reliance upon technology as a simple solution to improving education in developing countries and argues for a balanced strategy emphasizing the development and sharing of content, preparation of teachers and communities for innovations in learning and the introduction of scalable technologies appropriate for different age levels and settings.  He predicts that paper-based learning resources will be needed throughout the world for many years and that technologies shuold be used to facilitate their development and distribution.

Here is the link to the article and the debate on this topic that is underway.

http://edutechdebate.org/creating-electronic-educational-content/balancing-content-technology-and-people/

This debate will be ongoing through the month of August.  Please read and participate.  Share your reactions to the points being made and your thoughts on this important subject.