Multidimensional design‐reality gaps in ICT in education projects in the Samoan aidscape

Masami Tsujita

Development Policy Review, 2023, vol. 41, issue S2

Abstract: Motivation During the last decades, Samoa has received much aid to improve the use of information, communication, and technology (ICT) in education. However, the inequality gap in digital education between the global North and South remains wide, including in Samoa. This warrants further study of ICT in education projects in recipient countries. Purpose This study examines the gap between ICT project design and the reality lived by schoolteachers in Samoa. Methods and approach Empirical data were collected primarily through informal conversations with current and former teachers and ICT service providers. Their stories supported direct observation of ICT in schools garnered through working as a lecturer at an academic institution in Samoa. I use the concept of aidscape, which reflects the multidimensional nature of aid landscape, to explore the reality gaps across dimensions of the daily life of teachers and examines how these gaps are interrelated at multiple levels. Findings The reality of teachers shows interlinking challenges to the use of ICT in schools; challenges of accessing equipment, school culture, user perception, high staff turnover, and labour emigration. Enhancing the use of ICT by teachers requires material, technical, financial, sociocultural, and emotional support simultaneously from various aid actors who operate on different scales. Other challenges, including the high cost of technology and devices, the lack of funding for long‐term projects, the lack of ICT experts in the country and poor connectivity, also contribute to the less than satisfactory results of some ICT in education. Policy implications The way forward lies in better co‐ordination among donors and more effective collaboration between different ministries of the recipient government to develop a combined project team dedicated to ICT in education. This team could work to unravel interconnected issues and tackle challenges one by one to find feasible solutions at the grassroots level, which could then be incorporated into viable national policies.

Date: 2023
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