Education

This summary is part of a research project carried out between March and October 2006 in support of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), one of The Communication Initiative (The CI)'s partners.

Yemen faces a number of developmental issues that stem from decades of isolation from the rest of the world. In regards to information and communication technology (ICT), there is a lack of access to information, platforms for the exchange of information, and connectivity to the outside world. Girls’ education and literacy is another development issue that Yemen is faced with addressing. Enrolment and retention rates for girls are extremely low; only 33 percent of girls finish primary school; only 45 percent of rural girls are enrolled in public schools; and, the illiteracy rate for females is 76 percent in Yemen.

In order to improve this situation, the Education Development Center, in collaboration with World Links, iEARN and SOUL, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Yemen, implemented a project entitled “Internet for Yemeni High Schools”. The idea was to create a learning network between high schools throughout Yemen and connect them with high schools in the United States. The project began in June 2003 and was scheduled to run through the summer of 2006.

The primary objectives for the project are to:

• Improve teachers’ ability to facilitate student-centred lessons through ICT;
• Improve students’ learning, especially girls, by helping them to access information through the use of the internet for research;
• Assess the potential of the internet to serve as a teaching and learning tool at the high school level in Yemen;
• Create professional development networks for Yemeni educators, especially female teachers and students with limited mobility.

The project was designed to have a strict application process to determine which schools from Sana’a, Aden, Al Mukalla, and Taiz would be suitable project locations. The schools had to demonstrate a commitment to providing and securing a room for a lab, to ensure the lab was utilised by teachers and students for courses, and to having a general interest in ICT and teacher training. Additionally, girls’ schools were selected in equal or greater numbers than boys’ schools and school staff was evaluated to determine if they were genuinely committed to ensuring the project’s success.

There are three phases to the project. The first phase involved installing computer laboratories, with internet connectivity, in the selected Yemeni High schools in Sana’a and Aden. The second phase of the project developed school level capacity in the basic principles and practices of student-centred computer and internet-based instruction in the classroom through providing training to teachers and school directors. Five teachers from each school were chosen through a competitive application process to become master trainers in their respective schools, which enabled them to train others. This ICT training was delivered by World Links Arab Region and iEARN. Finally, the third phase involved master trainers, with the support of their school directors, offering the same training they had received to the teachers in their schools.

The following outcomes have been observed:

• The project has trained 51 master trainers from 10 schools (18 female and 8 male in Sana'a, and 13 females and 12 males in Aden);
• In Sana’a, the 26 master trainers have trained 547 teachers (438 female) on student-centred learning and 199 teachers (159 female) on how to use computers and the internet as instructional and learning resources;
• In Aden, the 25 master trainers have trained 246 teachers (153 female) on the same topics; and
• Utilising the computer labs during summer break, master trainers and teachers offered computer courses to members of the community, especially women and girls who had dropped out of school for various reasons.

Key factors leading to the success of the project include:

• The open and transparent application process for the master trainer component of the project was well received by both the ministry and the schools;
• Requiring that both school directors and a number of teachers in each school take the master training programme lessened the individual burden that responsibility for the lab and the professional development of colleagues posed;
• Opening the computer labs to the community expanded the reach of the project and increased the cost effectiveness of the initial project investment; and
• The strict application process for site selection and master teacher selection contributed to the school’s commitment to utilise the labs for learning purposes and to provide access to ICT for those unable to access it in the past.

During the 2005/2006 academic year, the project was expected to begin master training in an additional four high schools in Taiz and three in Al Mukalla.