|
Hundreds of teachers and teacher trainees from different
provinces and cities throughout Cambodia
have received Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) training. The courses
concentrated on the use of Khmer Unicode and
free and open source applications written in
Khmer. The schedule also included work on
computer maintenance and networking.
According to 1m Koch, Director of the National Institute of
Education (N.I.E.), a total of 1274 teachers
and trainees have received ICT training with
607 teachers trained at N.I.E.
Im Koch said all teachers and trainees who received ICT
training at the NIB could be confident that
they had received a relevant and practical
introduction to the topic, especially as it
related to promoting the use of Khmer in
electronic communications.
Sok Tha, Co-Project Manager of the Open Schools Program and
chief of ICT in the Education Unit at MoEYS
(the Ministry of Education, Youth and
Sports), said teachers who received training
included those from upper secondary schools
that were equipped with computers as well as
teacher trainees at NIE. Today, about 25
percent of the 252 upper secondary schools
throughout Cambodia had computers, he said.
Im Sethy, Secretary of State at MoEYS, said knowledge of ICT
was hugely important in education.
"The use of information and communication technology in the
field of education is very important, with
the promise of swift returns for the
investment. For no country can develop
without using information and communication
technologies.
However, now people do not need to study foreign languages
before they learn how to use computers,"
Sethy said. "They simply need the textbook
already printed in Khmer and this textbook
is the key to understanding these machines."
He added that students and the people of Cambodia as a whole
would become increasingly familiar with
computers, given the adoption of Khmer
Unicode. Finally, Mr. Sethy stated that his
ministry planned for each school throughout
Cambodia to have at least had one computer
using Khmer Unicode to manage school data.
Sam Sitha from Tram Kak District, 25, a teacher trainee in
French and Khmer languages at NIB, said he
found it easy to learn how to use
computers.
"All computer programming is in Khmer now, it makes me easy
to learn," said Sitha.
"Before, I used to learn how to operate computers, but I
could not use them to their fullest
potential as the programming was all in
English. Even though not all schools in my
district have computers, it is well to know
how to use them in advance," he said.
Am Bunhim, 30, Sam Sitha's classmate from Chbar Mom district,
said most of the schools in his district
had computers and it was a good chance for
him now to learn about them.
Besides teaching Khmer and French, Bunhim said he planned to
teach computing at schools in his district
when he finishes his two years teacher
training next year.
On January 22, MoEYS and the Open Institute hold the
launching ceremony for the ICT textbook in
Khmer. That date will also see the
inauguration of the Low Cost Computing
Research Laboratory for Education.
Nath Bunroeun, Under Secretary of State at MoEYS, said in his
statement of January 15 that the new ICT
Textbook was published as part of the Open
School Program. It would serve as the
reference text for all schooling levels,
teacher training institutions and the
administration of MoEYS.
Bunroeun said the Open Schools Program, a joint initiative of
the MoEYS and the Open Institute will use
ICT to improve the quality of education.
This is to be a three phase project that
will develop and implement the master plan
for ICT in education.
The first stage of the program aims to deploy the teaching of
software in the Khmer language in schools,
teacher training centers and other training
institutions. The second phase is to
complete the necessary research and
planning that would lead to the drafting of
the master plan. The final stage concerns
the implementation of the master plan, Bunroeun explained.
The distribution of the textbook to all schools marks the end
of the first stage of the Open Schools
Program.
Turning to the Low Cost Computing Research Laboratory for
Education, Bunroeun explained that it would
conduct global research into the issue of
sustainability of school facilities in
developing countries.
"It will analyze the costs of software, hardware,
electricity, maintenance, connectivity and
training of teachers," Bunroeun said. "It
will conduct the necessary research
required to ensure that the technologies
deployed in the master plan are adequate
and sustainable."
He added that for testing purposes, the Laboratory had
installed the first low-power consumption
computer room at the National Institute of
Education which, while being used during the
coming year to train new high school
teachers, would be carefully monitored to
calculate power consumption and study other
sustainability issues.
Javier Solá, co-manager of the Open Schools Program, said the
research could result in costs between 80
to 90 percent lower compared to normal
computer use. (CW) |
