Expanding Opportunities and Building Coimpetencies for Young People – A New Agenda for Secondary Education
This report prepared by a team led by Ernesto Cuadra and Juan Manuel Moreno including other contributors under the general direction of Jean-  Lovis Sarbib, Senior Vice President of the World Bank’s Human  Development Network. Expanding Opportunities and Building Competencies for Young  People report aims at guiding developing countries and transition economies, in policy options and decision-making for reforming their  secondary education systems to meet the challenges presented by globalisation and the knowledge  based economy. This report highlights that ICTs are crucial for  addressing the twin challenges of expanding access, and improving the quality and relevance of secondary
In a globalised world, the demand for quality secondary education which enthuses values, attitudes and skills in the young people is higher than ever before. The economies of today’s world increasingly need a more sophisticated work force equipped with competencies,  knowledge and workplace skills which is the most crucial factor for growth and development of economy  and society.
Assessing this emerging scenario,  there is worldwide policy debate focusing on strategies on providing  quality education to the young generation. It is being realized by policy makers that there is urgent  need to increase students’ access to secondary education and at the same  time improve its quality and relevance.  This book delivers very important messages on attaining the level of
quality secondary Education.  uality secondary education is a mission on its own. The report  argues that The United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) for education can only be  achieved through systematic policies for post compulsory secondary  education. It also mentions thatsecondary education has a  special role to play in HIV/AIDS  prevention in affected countries(chapter1 and2). Secondary education faces twin challenges that is expansion of its  equitable access and improving quality to ensure relevance. It has to be kept in observation  that the quality of secondary education is not compromised  while expanding its access (chapter 3 and 4). Advanced work patterns are being  adopted which are leading to radically new approaches in the way curricular  knowledge is selected, organized and sequenced. This is important  development in the context of knowledge society. Information and
Communication Technologies(ICTs)  offers new avenues for expanding access to quality secondary  education and can be used as levers  for curriculum reform and innovation  (chapter 5).  here is a focus on response from the perspective of the teaching  profession. It also discusses the potential perils and promises linked  to the use of ICTs in education in secondary schools (chapter 6).  It is also important to develop multiple sources of funding enhancing measures which is  significant for to expand access and improve the quality of secondary  education. Public-Private partnership can make very important contribution  in making mass secondary education affordable. But this effort need to be  complemented by substantial  contributions from bilateral and multilateral partners(chapter 7).  To produce good educational  outcomes it is required to reform the traditional of state Intervention and  public management strategies in order  to promote delivery of high-quality secondary education services  (chapter 8). The epilogue titled Rethinking Secondary Education suggests that  there is a need for redical transformation of policies and of  institutional practices to the task of expanding access and improving the
quality of secondary education.  This book sets forth evidence based policy options for decision  makers. Data collection and use of quantitative method is impressive  and enhances the value of the work.

Omar Dengo Foundation,  over the past two decades, has made partnership constitution, growth and sustainability as its fundamental goal, engaging the government, corporate,
academic and international agencies, to bring about strategic change in the  learning schemes and the appropriation of ICTs in education.

The widespread integration of technology-enhanced learning environments into Costa Rican public elementary schools began in 1987 with the creation of the National Program of Educational Informatics.  The project was conceived in a moment of growing concern for  the technological, educational and socio-economic gap that the country experienced both at the  international level  —with relation to industrialized countries—, and at the national level —among different population groups, areas and sectors within the country. As a result, the government and other leading political, social and  economic actors jointly envisioned a Program oriented to introduce  technology to schools, as a tool to
bring about strategic change in learning schemes and appropriation  of digital technologies in order to prepare the country for the knowledge and   echnology- based emerging economy.

The Costa Rican national program of educational informatics 
The Program was conceived as a key national effort, designed to impact  the education system and the Costa Rican society. From the beginning,  the computer was considered a tool to stimulate the cognitive and creative potential of children, youth and teachers.  The National Program of Educational  Informatics, Costa Rica, chose computer programming and projectbased,  curriculum-related learning strategies as decisive resources for the new student-centred learning  environment. It has also had a strong focus on improving learner’s  problem-solving and thinking skills and strengthening the interest and understanding of math  and science.

Partners involved in the program
Partnerships have made it possible to reach and even exceed the initial objectives of the Program.  At the core of these partnerships, is the collaboration established between  the Omar Dengo Foundation (www.fod.ac.cr), a private non-profit entity, and the Ministry of Public  Education (www.mep.go.cr). Other  organizations from the corporate, academic and international  cooperation sectors have made critical contributions at different moments  throughout the two decades of project existence. From the beginning, the Omar Dengo Foundation has played a fundamental  role in partnership constitution  growth and sustainability. As is evident from the  description and  nalysis of the first members involved in the initial phases (1987-1990), there has been a  ide representation of sectors  and organizations:
• The Ministry of Public Education defines education policy issues.  It also provides a linkage to  educational institutions participating in the Program and
supplies the educational  informatics tutors who lead the activities within the computer  labs, as well as the specialized personnel assigned for its implementation with students and teachers. Since this is an official  national program, the Ministry also supports the program  financially. The relationships
between the Omar Dengo Foundation and the Ministry are  framed by agreements and laws  that define the roles and responsibilities of each partner.
• The Omar Dengo  Foundation (ODF) leads the Program and is in charge of its academic, logistic and financial management. It  also conducts the training  of teachers and specialized personnel as well as the  pedagogical and technological support  actions. It provides the evaluation, research and  development components too. Likewise, it is  accountable to the Ministry and the National Controller.  ODF also facilitates  funding for the project and conducts fund raising activities to support different Program initiatives.
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID) granted the necessary funds for the launching of the program. It  also provided ODF with an endowment that was critical to guarantee program sustainability, particularly in the initial phases.
• IBM was the IT company from  which the initial computers were purchased. As part of the tender granting requirements, it also  facilitated the participation of Seymour Papert and a group of  Media Lab specialist as educational and technical advisors and collaborators.
• The Media Lab of the Massachussets Institute of Technology contributed to the pedagogical and strategic design of the Program, which was  developed jointly with other Costa Rican experts. This contribution extended far beyond the initial limits of the IBM-related consultancy period. Their major  collaboration has always been associated to epistemological and learning  issues, particularly in relation to teacher training in computer programming (Logo during the first phase and  Microworlds and robotics more recently).
• The University of Costa Rica assigned six  professors who, together with other Ministry of Education teachers, formed part of  a core leadership group that was trained at the  Media Lab and that contributed  significantly to Program design, policy, training  orientation and follow up procedures.
• Local communities are a key stakeholder. They provide the classroom, furniture, security  measures and other elements necessary for the computer labs to function. Each school’s education board and  groups of participating parents do fundraising activities and organize to comply with  these infrastructural requirements.

The partnering process
The Costa Rican government set up a technical commission integrated by experts in education, technology and finances in order to establish the  basic guidelines of the project. One of their first decisions was to create an  independent and private foundation to oversee the project. This would allow the project have greater  technical, administrative and  financial autonomy and to reduce the  risks frequently associated to  changes in  government administration. The  Omar Dengo Foundation was  thus conformed and  soon acquired its distinct and   own personality. It has played a  crucial role as the lead partner  together with the Ministry of  Public Education. ODF launched an international  tender in order to search for a  company that could supply the computers required for the Program.  It was explicitly required that participating companies suggest   edagogical frameworks and  accompanying software within  which the technology would be used.  They were also required to present  research and evaluation information as to how these educational approaches had been used in  other contexts and to document their results.It was due to the  quality of the  educational proposal that IBM  won the bid. Its proposal integrated  Seymour Papert and  a group of  specialists from the Media Lab at MIT  as consultants. In parallel, the  technical  commission set out  to raise funds for the  initial phase of the  project and obtained financial support from USAID.  The key success factors that  are at the base of this partnership  are clearly related to the vision,  leadership and commitment of  the lead partners and their  representatives. The capacity to  make technical decisions,  mplement  efficient processes and respect  strict accountability and  ransparency  measures have been critical to the  excellent partnership outcomes  and to the recognition of mutual need. Among all members, there is
a clear consensus about the  importance and effectiveness of the multi-stakeholder approach.  Multi-stakeholder partnerships  have made it possible for over 1.5benefit. This is quite an  accomplishment in a country of 4.1 million inhabitants. These  collaborations and others that have developed over time, have made it  possible to have the Program grow and evolve over two decades of  uninterrupted work. Today, the Program reaches 53.0% of students in public elementary schools  (including a large number of kindergarten children) and 72.4%  of public high school students nationwide.  Likewise tens of thousands of
teachers have been trained and have  undergone important professional development experiences. Students,  teachers, educational authorities and even parents and community  members have been empowered by a Program that stresses the  cognitive and creative potential of digital technologies within
development efforts.   

The Hole-in-the Wall Beyond Computer Literacy
NIIT’s Hole-in-the-Wall initiatives have essentially made a significant difference in the learning outcomes of children, promoting     selflearning, providing opportunities for  articulation and expression and even improved social  cohesion. With an  established model, NIIT extents these initiatives through colloboration   ith state governments in India

hardware and software innovations made to ensure computers work in harsh, unsupervised conditions. Most people tend to think of the Hole-inthe- Wall as an interesting method for children to learn to use a computer.  But is that all there is to it?

Extending the model
Once the viability of the model was proven in terms of acquisition of functional computer literacy, we started exploring applications of the model in other domains of learning. The most obvious extension was elementary education because the age group of children we were studying was 6-14 years. Several studies measuring the learning achievement of children in curricular subjects showed that the Hole-in-the-Wall was making a significant difference to learning outcomes. From what we understand   of the Hole-in-the-Wall pedagogy, the outcomes are not merely a matter of the children accessing educational content on the computer. There are two critical factors that influence outcomes. First, the outdoor playground setting changes the mindset of the children. They don’t think of it as a structured educational intervention, but interact in a playful exploratory way. And second, children always work in groups at a learning station. The constant conversation, challenging of assumptions and teaching each other creates an extremely rich learning environment. One of the biggest gaps in current teaching practices in rural schools is  the lack of opportunities for articulation and expression. Children do not have a voice. Articulation is a critical aspect of any form or level of learning and especially important in  early schooling. At Hole-in-the-Wall learning stations, children are engaged in projects such as creating photodocumentaries on the computer. ot only does this provide opportunities to use interesting new  equipment and software, but also changes the  perceptions of the children. Looking at their lives through a camera lens, and attempting to write  commentary on what they see, raises questions in their minds that would  otherwise never  surface. If the  Hole-in-the-  Wall does indeed improve learning outcomes at the elementary level, is it a viable solution  within the framework of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (India’s ‘Education for All’ program)? Two States have decided to  find an answer to this question with  pilot projects in rural schools. Rajasthan was the first early adopter  of this innovation. The first project in four upper-primary schools in Jhalawar district is currently  being implemented. Soon after, Jammu
& Kashmir decided  to implement a pilot  project in four districts, including in the Kashmir  valley. The educational  establishment, and especially the government  bureaucracy, is often criticized for  its lack of motivation and its unwillingness to make real  contributions. The willingness of the  governments of Rajasthan and  Jammu & Kashmir  to try a new and unusual pedagogy shows that this criticism is not  entirely justified.  Another recent project we are really
excited about is in the tribal areas of  Andhra Pradesh (AP). The Department of Tribal Welfare of AP  wanted to test the idea of Hole-in-the- Wall in a few tribal schools, and we were all too happy to accept the  challenge. These will be the first  implementations of Hole-in-the-Wall  in tribal areas and our learning from
this project will certainly lead to  further innovations and strengthening of the model.  Beyond Basic Literacy  When the Delhi Government did a survey of the community in Madangir,  New Delhi, which is home to our longest-running project, two very  interesting ideas emerged. 85% of the respondents said that the Hole-in-the-  Wall helps develop confidence and pride in children. Also, 79% of the  respondents agreed that these learning stations improve social cohesion. In our informal interactions with the community, we heard that  petty crime in the area had reduced. Are we onto something much larger  than just computer literacy and elementary education?  This is exactly the question we are attempting to answer in a research  project recently started in Chharanagar, Ahmedabad, in the state  of Gujarat. This project is being done in collaboration with Sneh Prayas, a reputed local NGO. But first, a little bit  about the Chharas. Formerly nomads, the Chharas were  included in the list of criminal tribes by the British and virtually imprisoned  in labor camps. In 1952, the Criminal Tribes Act of 1911 was finally  repealed, and the Chharas were resettled in the outskirts of  Ahmedabad. However, even today the Chharas continue to be  discriminated against in education and employment. And the reputation  of Chharanagar as the brewing center of illicit liquor in an otherwise dry  state doesn’t help either. The Hole-in-the-Wall project in Chharanagar is an attempt to study  the relationship between  collaborative, informal learning and
the perceptions and achievement motivation of children. We hope

Cisco Network Academy Program
Cisco Systems runs theCisco Networking  Academy Program through a highly successful alliance between Cisco System, education, business, government and communities to create a pool of trained manpower  that can addressed the growing  need of  networking professionals in a globalised world.

over 41,000 networking professionals during 2005-10,  driven by regulatory compliance. Telecom sector, which currently  accounts for around 16% of the total demand of networking professionals, is  expected to witness an additional demand of over 75,000  professionals during 2005-10. BPO/ITES is the segment will witness the highest growth in the demand with a CAGR of  35% during the period 2005-10. Due to an increase in technology adoption, the  demand for networking professionals in the governance and  the retail sector is also expected to increase considerably.

Cisco Networking Academy Program- a response to global needs
Cisco Systems, Inc. is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Today, networks are an essential part of business, education, government and home communications, and Cisco Internet Protocol-based (IP)  networking solutions are the foundation of these networks.  Cisco Systems runs the Cisco Networking Academy Program  (CNAP), a timely response to such challenges in India and around the  world. It is a highly successful alliance between Cisco Systems,  education, business, government, and communities. Through an innovative partnership with educational  institutions across the world, the CNAP is a world wide philanthropic  rogram (part of Cisco’s corporate  social responsibility initiative) aimed at creating a pool of trained manpower  that can address the growing need of networking  professionals. The CNAP offers a solution to address  he need for greater  technology literacy. In developing and emerging markets,  the content and learning  methodologies  provide a significant step forward in  education and opportunity for  participating students. The key  promise: a way to spur growth in a  global economy that places high value on technology  leaders.  Since its launch in 1997, the program
has grown to more than 10,000  worldwide academies in over  160 countries, with curriculum taught  in nine different  languages. Over 1.6 million students participate in academies operating  in high schools, colleges and universities, technical schools, community-based organizations, and other educational  programs around the world.  The program objectives and modules

The program empowers people
through e-Learning environments that enable them to learn anytime, anywhere, at their own pace, and with  more targeted assessments and accountability than traditional  classroom settings. It is an e-Learning model that delivers web-based  educational content developed by networking and education experts,  online assessment, student performance tracking, instructor  training and support, as well as preparation for industry standard certification. It provides educational  institutions with leading-edge IT  curricula and hands-on lab exercises  to train a workforce that may attract highly desirable  technology employers. One of the most popular courses, Cisco Certified Networking Associate  (CCNA) is a complete, four-module program on the principles and practice  of designing, building, and maintaining networks capable of  supporting national and global organizations. The Cisco Networking
Academy Program is in line with  needs of colleges, and features hands-on, project-driven training in  high-demand job skills. It incorporates an e-Learning system that includes  multimedia curricula, online testing, performance-based skills assessment,  and classroom management through a Web interface. The Networking Academy program  also offers courses sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and Panduit Corp. as  a part of the overall basket of course offerings. The sponsored curriculum  enhances IT competencies throughout the the program and, by  broadening its scope, offer more students the opportunity to take advantage of the program.

Cisco partnering for education
There are several successful examples of the positive impact of the Cisco Networking Academy Program on arious countries/economies. One of them is the Jordan Education  Initiative for which Cisco Systems  was awarded last year’s US Award for Corporate  Excellence.  The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI), an ambitious e-Learning project, is  helping improve Jordan’s educational foundation and establish an Internetenabled  learning model that can be replicated around the globe. CiscoSystems President and CEO John T.  Chambers proposed the idea of creating the JEI at the January 2003  World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland,  as a way for companies to join forces with government and nonprofit organizations to create a technologybased  education program. Cisco and the WEF, along with World Links (a Washington, D.C.-  based organization devoted to using the Internet to improve education), and several Jordanian ministries, launched the JEI five months later.  The Jordan Education Initiativesupports the Jordanian government’s vision of building a knowledge-based  economy by providing lifelong   earning opportunities for all citizens. The JEI’s broad application of elearning, hardware, curricula, and  training is already transforming education in public schools  throughout the country. The Jordan Education Initiative has set the stage for similar initiatives to be replicated in  other parts of the  world. One such initiative is Cisco Systems’ partnership with the Indonesian Government. Indonesia’s  efforts to produce a whole new generation of IT professionals with a  strong foundation in networking and the Internet received a  major boost in 2004. Cisco Systems and  the Indonesian Ministry of Education  signed an agreement to extend the Cisco  Networking Academy Program to 400  vocational schools across the country, in  an initiative  spearheaded by the Directorate of  Technical and  Vocational Education to support Indonesia’s economic  growth and public and private sector requirements.  Another example is the Rajasthan Education Initiative  (REI) that was aunched in November 2005. A  Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) was signed between Government of Rajasthan, India and  Cisco Systems, to introduce the Networking Academy Program to 32  district computer education centers. Cisco will initially provide training  to 100 teachers, who in turn will train 3200 students with fundamental  IT skills in the first year of the project. As part of the initiative, Cisco will  also provide consulting services on networking and security aspects for  connectivity within the Education Department Computerization Program  and its data center to link locationswithin the state.  The key demographic groups that the REI will focus include: girl children,  rural children, urban underprivileged children, children with special needs.  Outside of REI, Cisco has setup more than 130 Networking Academies  across 20 States and Union Territories, with more than 6000 active
students. These academies look to bridge the digital and gender divide in  the country by providing career opportunities to aspiring students in  the networked digital economy. The networking academies include  institutes like IIIT Bangalore, Anna  University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Guru Gobind
Indraprastha University, IMT  Ghaziabad, PNB Institute of Information Technology and several government polytechnics. There are  also six  academies that impart networking and basic IT essentials  education to women. The academies  are in Jaipur, New Delhi, Pune, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. Other countries where the Cisco  Networking Academy Program is running successfully in the Asia  Pacific region include China with 219 Academies and 12,445 students,  Australia with 212 academies and 8,732 students and Philippines with  136 academies and 26,990 students  among others.

Looking ahead
The Cisco Networking Academy  Program is playing a key role in building technical human capacity across the world, especially  developing nations. It is  roviding  new opportunities to countries and individuals to participate in the digitally networked economy. Cisco will continue to work with  governments  round the world to  expand the reach of the program.  It will also keep evolving the curriculum to keep pace with  technological advancements and extend it to new areas/technologies such as IP telephony and wireless among others. ?

Blueprint for a Knowledge Society Dr A P J Abdul Kalam presents his  vision
The President of India, Dr A PJ Abdul Kalam, in his inaugural address at the recent Partnership Summit 2006, in Kolkata, presented his vision for India to become a knowledge society. Digital Learning shares extracts from his speech and more.

Knowledge society, role of education
“The whole purpose of education in a country is to develop and enhance the potential of our human resource and progressively transform it into a knowledge society.” Addressing the Partnership Summit in Kolkata, India, in January this year, the president of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, presented his vision for India to become a knowledge society.  The president envisioned the knowledge society to be a society producing products and services  that are rich in both explicit and tacit knowledge, thus creating value added products. The president emphasized – “Our education system should realign itself at the earliest to meet the needs of the present day challenges and be fully geared to participate in the societal transformation through innovation, which is the key to competitiveness. It should also  develop a global outlook.” The real capital of this knowledge society will be its knowledge  components. Education in this respect has the most crucial role to play in the country’s progression to a  knowledge society.

Building a networked society  on the foundation of connectivity and partnerships
The president proposed two systems  of national development that will lead to rural development, the PURA  (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) system and the national  electronic GRID connectivity.   PURA facilitates creation of employment in the rural areas itself. PURA achieves this by providing physical, electronic and knowledge connectivities to a cluster of villages thereby leading to their economic  connectivity and prosperity. Knowledge creation and knowledge  utilization is the key to the success of a PURA programme.  The president further pointed out that integrated Village Knowledge Centres  will act as an inter-connected delivery mechanism for tele-education, telemedicine and e-Governance services apart from individual access by the people, within and between the  Village Knowledge Centres. This GRID will weave the people together in to a strong social fabric. Apart from economic prosperity it will bring  societal transformation. The president’s vision entails this society to be highly  networked to be able to create knowledge intensive nvironment along with enabling process to efficiently create, share, use and protect knowledge. The networking should happen through an electronic connectivity, partnership between governmental and multiple institutions in the public and private domains and a synergy between various components of education, healthcare, e-Governance and rural development. With respect to connectivity, the president envisioned the importance of physical connectivity through quality roads and transport and electronic connectivity through telecommunication  with high bandwidth fiber optic cables reaching the rural  areas from urban cities and through Internet kiosks.  With respect to education, the president emphasised knowledge connectivity through education,   vocational training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes. These three connectivities (physical, electronic and education) will lead to  economic connectivity through starting of enterprises with the  help of banks, micro credits and marketing of the products. In this respect, the president emphased a public-privatecivil society partnerships in development efforts. The strength of this partnership for collaborative growth and economic prosperity should be facilitated by free flow of knowledge and information in  a seamless manner cutting across levels and boundaries  embracing all walks of life in the three sectors of the economy such as agriculture,  manufacturing and the services sector He said “Two decades ago,  there had not been many international partnerships in India. Therefore, one could keep track of all the partnerships entered into by various business houses. In the recent past there is a trend of increased partnerships by India with many  countries”. The president recomemded that CII create a directory of  existing partnerships and make this available to the development community. This will enable propagation of real
meaning of globalization and will stimulate more partnerships and draw our youth into partnership operations.  The president highlighted the importance establishing connectivities among the  various components of education, healthcare, e- Governance, rural  development. This could be achieved by establishing GRIDs namely knowledge  grid, healthcare grid, e- Governance grid and the PURA knowledge grid. These  connectivities through GRIDs will maximize the synergy  between these various components; bring seamless
access and information flow among the various domains  leading to maximization of GDP and productivity. This interconnecting grid will be  known as societal grid that will promote knowledge sharing,  knowledge utilization and knowledge  re-use which is very vital for faster economic growth and productivity. ?