ICT FOR EDUCATION IN THE CARIBBEAN

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important aspect of the global effort to eradicate poverty and increase sustainable development. ICT involves the capturing, processing, storing and communication of information. The development of ICT provides a foundation for building and applying knowledge by offering the potential to generate, access, disseminate and share knowledge at all levels of society and promote a networked economy. Furthermore, the deployment of ICT can be a major tool in widening access to learning and in transforming the prospects for the social and economic development of nations and peoples worldwide.

ICT was originally adopted in the Caribbean as a tool for data processing and for streamlining cumbersome manual processes in larger government and private sector institutions. With rapid ICT developments in the 70’s came better price / performance, and wider adoption of new systems for office applications. The PC revolution in the 80’s heralded the almost ubiquitous use of computers by small enterprises, departments and individuals. More recently, with the advent of the Internet and an even cheaper and wider range of applications, ICT now makes universal access to information and better decision-making possible for the entire society. As services become ever increasingly important to the earnings of OECS economies, and as the ‘information component’ of manufactured goods begins to represent a significant part of their ‘added value’, so has come the realisation of the foundational importance or ICT. The importance of ICT will continue to grow as these shifts in economic production takes place, and as traditional ways of information sharing are replaced by more technology-intensive ways. The price to be paid for this technology advance is a society that fully embraces a technology ethic and which has the capability of maintaining the required level of high-tech skills.

In all OECS nations, the traditional mainstay industries of the mid-century have declined. The Sugar cane, banana, citrus fruit, and cotton industries have all but disappeared. The fishery, forestry and mining industries based on traditional modes of production have similarly suffered.

In their place the hospitality industry and financial service sectors have emerged. The manufacturing and processing industries have fallen victim to foreign economies with more competitive production sectors. At the same time the pressure of competition on surviving industries requires them to improve their productive efficiency and to exploit new markets by the use of new methods of advertising and new models for their supply chains.  Underlying all of these changes is the need for the greater application of ICT.  The example set by advanced economies and some of the emerging economies is that ICT is not only an enabling capability, but can also be revenue-producing. The result of these trends is the recognition of ICT in the OECS region as an economic productive sector in its own right. As such there is increasing attention to its economic contribution and its costs as well as to its positive and negative impact on society. 

Educational Technology operates within an environment in which a number of other interrelated factors exist. These factors include socio-economic conditions, student ability, teacher competence, as well as educational policy. Technology therefore has a tremendous capacity to change the entire culture of a school and hence the teaching-learning process.

In response to the above, several Caribbean countries have been undertaking education reform exercises geared at preparing their citizens for the 21st century and competition in the global workplace. The main characteristics of the process have included curriculum reform, changes to the teaching methodology and assessment processes, with technology serving as a catalyst for change.

The table below provides preliminary information on the level of access of Caribbean territories to computers and the Internet.  In most territories less than 10% of the population has access to computers and a fraction of these have access to the Internet.

Technology and Internet Penetration in the Caribbean

Sources:
http://www.caribank.org
http://www.ictjamaica.com
John Berry, Deo Poonwassie and Dean B. Berry. 1999.  Improving Learning Outcomes In The Caribbean: Challenges And Lessons.  A Regional Study Prepared for the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank and presented at a workshop Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago April 21-23, 1999