March 2002 - Volume 1, Issue 2

Towards Strengthening ICT Training in Ethiopia

1. Introduction
In the 1960's acquiring a clerical and secretarial training such as Amharic and English Typing, modern filing, business letter writing and stenography were sufficient requirements to secure decent paying jobs in the civil service, parastatals and the private sector.

The major tasks that typists/secretaries were expected to accomplish were typewriting letters and reports with speed and accuracy, handling incoming and outgoing mails, receiving and transmitting telephone messages etc. Thus, gradually, typewriting replaced the long-held tradition of handwritten reporting, correspondence and other forms of communication in the state bureaucracy.

The Commercial School of Addis Ababa - now Addis Ababa Commercial College - was graduating students with advanced diplomas in Secretarial Science and Accounting to meet the labour needs of the growing market economy. The Business College of the Addis Ababa University has been training young Ethiopians in degree programmes in Management and Accounting who had been playing no lesser role to introduce modern concepts and practices to transform the lives of the Ethiopian society.

Comprehensive and vocational schools in and outside Addis Ababa were also producing skilled manpower trained in the clerical and bookkeeping streams to further supply the labour market.

There were also private typing centres engaged in training job seekers in Amharic and English typing. Opening a centre with a few second hand English and Amharic typewriters was enough to attract prospective trainees into it.

The training duration mostly ranged from six to twelve months and concentrated on typing speed, accuracy, dexterity and attractive page layout. This booming business ceased to grow with the introduction of computer training in Addis Ababa and the major cities of Nazareth, Bahir Dar and Dire Dawa.

2. The Level of IT Training
IT training has been restricted to a very few individuals selected for training when organizations were planning to establish computer centres or install PCs at institutional and departmental levels. The following government institutions were in the forefront to conduct computer courses tailored to the specific needs of requesting organizations during the initial period of the introduction of computers into the country.

2.1 The Addis Ababa University: It was perhaps the forerunner to establish a computer centre for training. It established the centre in 1986 in its Department of Mathematics to offer courses for extension and regular students in Diploma and B.Sc. degree programmes respectively. Other departments were also giving minor courses in computer science.

The electrical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Technology at the Addis Ababa University has been offering basic courses in signals and systems, communications systems and theory, computer methods, computer programming, logic design, computer architecture and micro-processors to undergraduates.

We have no information whether or
not other faculties of the University, institutions of higher learning and specialized colleges were introducing their students to different kinds of application packages so as to enable them use computers for different purposes.

2.2 The Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission: It could be the largest single training provider in the country offering a wide range of accredited courses at different levels with high reputation and respect.

2.3 Private Training Centres: It was in the 1990's that computer training centres mushroomed in every corner of the city in a similar way that characterized the opening of typing schools in the early 1960s'. Many young boys and girls thought that a mere testimony in software application would open the narrow door to employment. The rest who were rushing to obtain computer training were professionals such as engineers, accountants, administrators, managers, secretaries and other professionals for better opportunities and future career advancement.

The private sector has acted quickly to meet the growing demands for basic computer training in software applications after the liberalization of the socialist command economy. Most of these private training centres have been offering courses on application packages, programming, systems analysis and design and computer maintenance. As of recently, most centres have included networking, web site development and design and and other advanced courses in their training packages. The latter inclusions will have a positive impact on producing knowledgeable ICT users.

3. ICT Education in Vocational Schools

It is expected that the launching of a training programme to specialize in computer in vocational schools according to the new educational policy will further reinforce the growth of ICT users in Ethiopia. The students will encounter both the operational and conceptual levels of knowledge during the process of training.

The students will not only be required to learn IT skills that enable them to operate the software - i.e. - page layout, using different text fonts and sizes, importing pictures and printing the final product. However, learning ICT takes place at a much deeper level. The students using IT have interactive access to the operational and conceptual structures making IT an interesting teacher.

There is no doubt that IT extends the capability of students with a knowledge about the application of IT and its tools such as word processors, databases, spreadsheets and software for processing and modelling.

Thus, the students should be enabled to use IT to organize, refine and present information in different forms and styles for specific purposes and audiences. They should develop the skill to select information needed for different purposes, check its accuracy and organize and prepare it in a form suitable for processing using IT. They must have the ability to communicate their knowledge and experience of IT and assess its use in varying environments.

3.1 Assessment of ICT Students: It is imperative to collect teachers' assessments of students in a range of ICT training. Collecting and summarizing the assessments should be done by a group of IT teachers and specialists that the student:

- Uses IT autonomously;
-Considers purposes of using IT
-Investigates problems using IT;
-Considers the limitations of IT;
-Selects appropriate IT resources;
-Conducts systematic searches;
-Collects inputs, processes and
-analyzes information;
-Interprets and displays information, checking its accuracy and validity.

3.2 IT Training Management: The IT Training Department of the vocational schools should have an IT manager or an IT coordinating committee consisting of IT teachers and specialists. They will be able to discuss and give decision with regard to the allocation of IT resources such as hardware, software and security.

4. The Need for Establishing a National ICT Agency

There must be an approved body responsible for determining the subject and programme of study, supporting and encouraging ICT training and teaching in Ethiopia by designing a national ICT Education Strategy - curriculum development and assessment being one of its areas of concern. The Agency will oversee that:

- The teaching syllabuses of all training and educational centres are consistent with the national curriculum;
-Students shall have opportunities to solve IT problems;
-Students shall develop an understanding of the capabilities of a wide range of IT systems;
-Students apply their knowledge, skills and understanding of IT to a wide range of situations;
-Students analyze, design, implement, test, evaluate and document IT systems for use by others and develop an understanding of the wider application and efforts of IT; and
-Opportunities are there for them to discuss and review the impact of IT application in the society.

The students' capability must be characterized by the ability to use effectively IT tools and information sources to analyze, process and present information, and to model, measure and control external events with regard to:
-Using information sources and IT tools to solve problems;
-Using IT tools and information sources such as computer systems and software packages to support learning in a variety of ways and contexts; and
-Understanding the implication of IT for working life and the society at large.

Thus, the establishment of the Agency will enable to:

- Create a robust, growing and sustainable ICT sector;
-Increase use of ICT as an enabler for socio-economic development; and
-Create a knowledgeable ICT workforce and create a culture of ICT innovation.

The Ministry of Education, the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission and ICT professionals could pull their resources together to formulate the national strategy of ICT education and training to achieve the above aims and objectives.

5. The Challenges Ahead

Due to low levels of general literacy and the prohibitive cost of computers, computer literacy skills are probably the lowest in the world. The average Ethiopian wage earner could not still afford to pay for a computer training even though the cost has gone down from a high of Bir. 500.00 to a low of Bir. 100.00 for a single training in some of the training packages in Addis Ababa the cost is still unaffordable to ordinary Ethiopians. As such, technology training and skills development in the ICT sector should be a priority for the Ethiopian government. The Government's ICT Sector and the private domain should create a forum to channel and allocate funds for the expansion of Internet infrastructure, the interconnection of institutions of higher learning, public and school libraries and the creation of community access centres across the country. It is expected that the availability of ICT, together with new low cost computers will naturally promote more technology users among the general public.

The shortage of IT knowledge workers can also pose a challenge, and is an area on which the country will have to concentrate further in order to be a partner of progress in the ICT age.

It is widely acknowledged that integrating ICT education and training into other disciplines along the educational ladder will assist the acceleration of economic and social development despite limited resources available to address the various needs facing Ethiopia. It will, therefore, take considerable time for all colleges and institutions of higher learning to graduate all their students with ICT literacy.

The other aspect that yields positive results in the development of ICT in Ethiopia is the introduction of computer education as a field of specialization in vocational schools. This strategy, that is a part of the new Education Policy is expected to result in producing specialists and capable end-users who can readily meet job requirements of prospective employers. The success, of course, depends on the availability of the following basic requirements.

- Sufficient rooms
- Competent and qualified ICT instructors
- Computers and soft wares including accessories such as, generators, printers, stabilizers, etc.
- No. of students assigned to a computer
- Standardized and approved teaching materials and reference books
- Security of the training premises.

The inclusion of computer education in vocational schools will create pools of appropriately skilled personnel to fill jobs in different institutions where computers and networks are used to undertake tasks.

The expansion of ICT education and training will enable to meet the needs of the ICT sector for skilled manpower both to sustain the sector and drive demand for products and services. It can also have the potential to lead to informal training of sectors of the society that could not be touched by conventional teaching and learning.

Training in the skills required by the ICT sector is only one part of the national strategy; the other part is the creation of a culture of enterprise and innovation. Therefore, the provision of ICT education and training at an early stage in the school curriculum along with skills development should be encouraged to generate appropriate ICT skills base.