ICT Supported Distance Teacher Education in Bhutan: International Development Research Centre

Project Leader: Dr. Yangka, Sangay Jamtsho

Institution: The National Institute of Education

Region: Bhutan

Start Date: 03/2003

Project Details

WSIS Action Lines: 2, 3, 4, 7

Bhutanese teacher communicates with his students online

“My students don't need to be with me at the same time and place anymore for us to discuss their studies.”

- Bhutanese teacher participating in the project

In Bhutan, the critical shortage of teachers is further exacerbated by a rapidly growing student population. The teacher-student ratio of 1 to 150 needs to be addressed in order to achieve better quality of education. Recent progress in information technology adoption and improvements in the telecommunication system has opened the doors to the possibility of using ICTs in a distance teacher education program, which could improve cost effectiveness and allow the National Institute of Education (NIE) to offer higher quality learning support to a greater number of teachers. ICT use in the education sector is low, but the government has recently drawn up an ICT Master Plan for Education that includes computerizing all schools by 2010.

The Project: How does this initiative address the development problem?

Phase I of the project assessed the current distance teacher education program in terms of its quality, determined by student satisfaction rates, and accessibility, determined by the size and geographic scope of the student body and public awareness about the program. Building on the findings of the first phase, Phase II developed and pilot-tested an ICT-supported learning system and operational network to facilitate wider access and improved quality of learning support. Phase III evaluates whether the use of ICT improves quality and access of distance teacher education and examines access and learning satisfaction from a gender perspective. Based on the research findings, a set of recommendations will be devised to inform policy-makers.

Combined with the government’s plans to integrate ICTs into the education system, the distance education services will allow more efficient and accessible teacher education in Bhutan. With more qualified teachers, education will no longer be a novelty, but a right more widely enjoyed by all.

Objectives:

To improve the quality and access to distance teacher education through the use of web-based technologies in Bhutan. More specifically, this project aims to:

Assess the current Distance Teacher Education Program in terms of its quality and accessibility of learning support
Develop and pilot test an appropriate ICT-based learning support system
Assess whether the use of ICTs improves the quality and access of learning support
Formulate recommendations from the research findings for a national teacher education policy
Examine learning satisfaction and access to the ICT-supported distance teacher education from gender perspectives

Development Impact

The project has already helped upgrade the National Institute of Education’s (NIE) internal networking system, created a website to allow students to access academic information online, and installed new software including supplementary learning materials, tutorials, and academic counselling. In addition, the learning and experiences from this project have fed into the development of PAN’s larger Distance Learning Technology (DLT) project (PAN-dora), which consists of nine sub-projects researching DLTs in 11 countries across Asia.