General information

WITFOR Education Commission programme

( version 17^th June 2009)

Prof Alain Senteni, Dr Ngoc Quach Tuan, Prof Asha Kanwar, Dr Paul Nleya

I. About WITFOR

The World IT Forum (WITFOR) is organized every second year by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) in co-operation with its member societies and local governments in developing countries. The work of WITFOR is conducted in eight thematic commissions: Agriculture, Building the Infrastructure, Economic Opportunities, Education, Empowerment & Participation, Environment, Health, Social, Ethical & Legal Aspects.

WITFOR contributes to taking the World Summit on the Information Society's (WSIS) Plan of Action a step forward and to helping developing countries to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For this purpose, WITFOR investigates successful, sustainable ICT strategies in developing countries and examines different initiatives and projects on effective, context sensitive development and use of ICT applications. The result of this preparatory work is presented as policies, initiatives and best practices.

WITFOR 2009 http://www.witfor.org/ will take place in Hanoï (Vietnam) 26^th-28^th August 2009.

Previous WITFORs were successfully held in Lithuania (2003), Botswana (2005) and Ethiopia (2007) where it attracted some 1250 representatives from 82 countries in Addis-Ababa.

II. Education Commission Programme, in progress

II.1. Objectives

·        To establish the centrality of education as a key driver of development.

·        To look at education as a continuum, from primary to secondary to tertiary.

·        To examine how ICTs can be used to promote access, equity, quality and to cut costs in education.

·        To highlight important trends and developments in the use of technology that have had a direct impact on educational provision.

II.2. Expected Outcomes

·     Advocacy for more investment in ICTs for education at all levels.

·      Examples of how low-technology options can be used in resource-poor settings.

·     Agenda for future action.

·     Recommendations to feed into the WSIS action plan.

II.3. Education Commission Parallel sessions (EC//)

Each commission is given four slots of 1.30 hours to present its work (eight parallel sessions). That is 6 hours per commission, altogether. As we did in Ethiopia for WITFOR 2007, each education commission’s thematic sessions will start with a 30 minutes keynote talk, followed by short presentations (10 minutes) by 3 to 5 panelists, thus leaving 20 to 30 minutes for open discussion.

II.4. Commission’s Themes

To achieve its objectives, the Education Commission (EC) has organized its 2008-2009

work around four themes, linked to the MDGs. Each theme will be addressed in a specific parallel session (EC//1-4) :

EC//1 • Education for All (EFA),

EC//2 • Open & Distance Learning (ODL),

EC//3 • Open Educational Resources (OER)

EC//4 • ICT-enhanced Education in Vietnam and South-East Asia

A new version of the Education Commission programme has been produced, following the ISC preparatory meeting in Hanoï (28-31 October 2008). This meeting was the first opportunity to meet the commission’s co-chair from Vietnam, Dr Quach Tuan Ngoc, Director General of IT, Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.

We are pleased and honoured to welcome Dr Ngoc Quach Tuan, who has been invited to chair the EC//4 entitled ‘ICT-enhanced Education in Vietnam and South-East Asia’. Dr Ngoc Quach Tuan will identify panelists and speakers from Vietnam and South-East Asia, involved in ICT-enhanced education projects of interest for the commission.

Following this meetings, it was decided that each parallel sessions EC//1-3 will include a panelist from Vietnam or a country in South-East Asia, reporting on regional case studies deemed relevant for the theme of the session.

The fourth session (EC//4) has been re-oriented accordingly, to start with a keynote talk by a speaker from the region, followed by a panel whose objectives will be: to wrap-up and state of art of ICT in Education in Vietnam; to outline the way forward and agenda for future action in the region; to produce recommendations to feed into the WSIS action plan.