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How Can ICTs Help to Overcome the Lack of Laboratories and Enhance Learning in Schools in Mozambique?

By Vasco Camundimo and Carlos Chaguala

1 - Introduction

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been gradually filling their space in the development of African countries. Data from Panaf observatory gives us some evidence of how countries have adopted ICTs in their day to day lives. According to 2007 Panaf statistics, Africa had 48.877.340 Internet users in the period of 2000 to 2007.

Mozambiqueis not an exception in the integration of ICT. Much has been said about the importance and use of ICTs in the socio-economic and technological development of the country. ICTs are largely used in planning and management in various sectors. However, ICT pedagogical integration still has not reached the ideal level. ‘Up today, there has been a limited use of ICTs as an instrument to complement and reinforce the learning process in the teaching institutions and in some secondary schools’ PPE: 79.

In this paper, we will discuss and suggest possible ways through which Mozambique as well as any other developing country can integrate ICTs in education to overcome the lack of laboratories and consequent lack of experiments in the teaching-learning process. We will work with Grade 10 teachers of Physics at MatolaSecondary School to do some simulations in Cynetics and ….. using ICT.

2 - Research questions

  • Are ICTs being used appropriately in schools in Mozambique?
  • What should be the role of ICTs in schools inMozambique?
  • How can Mozambican educational institutions take advantages of having ICTs?
  • How can Educational Policy in Mozambiqueincorporate ICTs to minimize the lack of Laboratories and experiments in schools?

3 - Research Objectives

The objective of this study is to:

•Find what ICTs are currently used for in schools.

•Find ways of using ICTs to fill in the gaps schools have to bring the real world into the classroom.

•Identify ways through which ICTs can enhance learning and teaching in developing countries schools.

4 - Theoretical Framework

  • Common idea of what people use ICTs for;
  • Common use ICT in learning-teaching process in developing countries schools;
  • Discussion on what should be the approach to ICT use in schools with lack of laboratories;
  • Educational policy to meet the effective use of ICTs to enhance learning in developing countries schools.

5 - Methodology

Quantitative and qualitative are the methods we used in this study.

  1. Context (country) where data was collected

The data for this study was collected from the ten schools selected for the project in Maputo, namely, Pedagogic University, Josina Machel Secondary School, Francisco Manyanga Secondary School, Kitabo College, D. Bosco Secondary School, QuisseMavotaSecondary School, MatolaSecondary School, Machava-SedeSecondary School, NelsonMandelaSecondary School and MoambaSecondary School.

The study of how ICT can be effectively used was based on simulations on physics experiments at MatolaSecondary school, one of the selected schools for the project. The simulations were elaborated by ICT experts Manuel Chau in collaboration with CarlosRosento Chaguala, Meteorologist and Private Physics Teacher in Maputo.

  1. Participants

Directors and their Deputy Directors, the Administrative staff, teachers, students from ten institutions selected for this project were involved in data collection for this paper.

  1. Instruments

Questionnaires, interviews and debates withthe Managerial staff, teachers and studentswere the instruments used.

  1. Data analysis, methodology used

Qualitative and quantitative methods were usedand we based on the information from the target groups from the ten selected educational institutions mentioned above.

6 - Presentation of findings and results of data analysis

The findings and results of the data of this study were presented in form of graphs and tables.

7 - Conclusions and recommendations

8 - Bibliography