School Information and Communication Technology in Developing Countries: Essential Considerations for Improvement

Abstract

In developing nations, such as many in Africa, providing teachers, students and other school personnel with ade­quate access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) remains a daunting task for schools and education supervising/controlling agencies, such as school boards, school districts, Ministries of Education, etc. Although a relatively small portion of total school funding, ICT money is difficult to find and prevailing budget practices in developing countries make necessary changes even more difficult to accomplish. Finding innovative ways to plan, budget, and fund new and existing ICT infrastructure or redirect existing funds into new endeavors remain a daunting challenge to school personnel, especially at a time when new resources for schools appear to be limited. This article discusses considerations teachers and other school personnel, especially in developing nations such as those in Africa, should make regarding planning, budgeting and funding ICT in order to improve teaching and learning in the 21st century environment.

Keywords

• school
• information
• communication
• technology
• budgeting
• planning
• funding.