-Aide et Action, Lao People’s Democratic Republic-
Ministry of Education and Sports officials together with Aide et Action Laos, recently exchanged and studied lessons learnt about using ICT with Aide et Action Cambodia to improve the quality of education.
Head of Programme at Aide et Action Laos (AEA Lao), Mr Khavi Homsombath said the purpose of the visit was to study how to develop an E-library application with the Aide et Action Cambodian team in order to pilot a project in Laos.
Apart from learning about the technical parts of its application, AEA Lao and ministry officials also joined a field trip to inspect project implementation in communities and targeted schools.
He also stressed the aim of the visit was to learn more about success factors and challenges in order to reapply them to the implementation plan when the project is piloted in Laos in the near future.
Technology has become essential to daily life, especially in education. Aide et Action has valued the importance of this phenomenon, focusing on developing solutions to ensure that all children will have equal opportunity to access education. Aide et Action Cambodia has pioneered the application of ICT innovation to develop literacy, teaching and learning in Cambodia since last year.
This project is called Khmer Learn and has three objectives: To improve literacy and build a reading and learning culture among 44,400 children aged 3-11 years nationwide through the pilot and expansion of an award-winning e-learning application: The Khmer Library; To increase the volume and quality of e-books and other learning content available in Cambodia by creating online spaces for authors to produce, peer-review and make available their own content, and; To strengthen the capacity of 1,656 pre-school and primary school teachers to deliver quality education to students at disadvantaged schools in Cambodia through the use of mobile technology-enabled training and support.
Khmer Learn was first piloted in March this year and has made a huge impact on communities. Currently, the project has successfully trained 30 teachers on how to use ICT tools for education. Moreover, 1,560 students can have access to reading materials online. The organisation was also able to distribute tablets and renovate classrooms and libraries in 11 schools. More than 50 pieces of educational content have been successfull y produced, plus, there are more than 1,200 active users using the Khmer E- Library application each week.
Aide et Action International (AEAI) is an international NGO headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland beginning programmes in India in 1981 and is now working in more than 20 countries across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China to support sustainable education projects.
Aide et Action has been working in partnership with Lao authorities, particularly the Ministry of Education and Sports, and local partners since 2004, playing an important role in helping the government achieve the Education for All National Plan of Action 2003-2015 and the National Education Quality Standards (NEQS) for primary schools.
Source : Vientiane Times
