To Help Us Empower Our Children

ALKHOBAR, 5 October 2004 — There is no doubt that information and communications technologies (ICT) are playing an important role in business across the Middle East. However, recently much of the talk about IT has been most concentrated in the region’s education sector. Some of the initiatives are cutting edge but others have been long in coming. While it is delightful to see students in Jordan benefit from programs implemented by the government there in conjunction with a large number of international and local IT vendors, it is depressing that as of yet, students in Saudi Arabia do not have access to similar resources.

At the end of September the Saudi Ministry of Education agreed to participate in Microsoft’s “Partners in Learning” global initiative, which is aimed at improving IT education. This initiative is already in place in Egypt, Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Jordan and Kuwait. The signing of the memorandum of understanding for the program took place after a long negotiation process between the Ministry of Education and Microsoft Arabia.

On signing the MOU, Dr. Khaled Al-Awwad, undersecretary for education affairs at the Ministry of Education, said: “This agreement is a very important step forward for education in the Kingdom. This program will ensure that our students receive ICT teaching of the highest standard and that our teachers are prepared and supported to educate Saudi Arabia’s future generation in the IT skills they need for employment in the modern workplace.”

Dr. Khaled Al-Dhaher, GM of Microsoft Arabia, explained that under the umbrella of Microsoft’s “Partners in Learning” program, Microsoft is investing in the Saudi education sector hoping that this will contribute positively to the utilization of IT in the education process. In the Microsoft initiative more than 30,000 Saudi teachers, IT teachers and IT supervisors will be given intensive training in basic computer skills, Microsoft Certified System Administration (MCSA), Microsoft Certified System Engineering (MCSE) and Microsoft Project. E-Learning Gateways will be introduced at 25 schools in Riyadh. The Digital Curriculum, which can be integrated with Class Server 3.0, will be introduced for Grades 4-12. Finally, Microsoft will support the Education Ministry’s initiative to consolidate all its data and information into a single data center.

While the Microsoft Arabia initiative is to be commended, recently Jordan has been bringing out some amazing programs incorporating IT in education. These include the implementation of a national e-learning platform, early years PC-based learning and university and school level connectivity programs that integrate closely with curricular developments reflecting the move to ICT-based learning at a national level. These initiatives have been led by the Jordanian Ministries of Education, Planning and ICT.

Jordan’s remarkably strong private/public sector links and relationships have been key to the success of these initiatives, with major program elements being developed in conjunction with the World Economic Forum (WEF). Examples of cooperation include the WEF-backed Jordan Educational Initiative (JEI), which is sponsored by major global ICT companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, HP, Intel, Siemens and Sun Microsystems, as well as a number of other global, regional and national companies. The multitrack initiative has, in its first year, matched or beaten all of its projected timelines and goals. Companies have contributed resources to JEI not just in cash and equipment but also in mind share and effort from senior management. Computer Associates is a good example of a partner that has contributed by seconding a senior manager to support the JEI Project Management office at Amman.

Under JEI, 100 “Discovery Schools” have been selected to pilot the scheme in Jordan. They will serve as a test bed of how ICT can enable new systems to be used and benefit schools and their pupils. Though focused on the advancement of learning in Jordan, the plan also provides the opportunity for the sustained development of the local information technology industry through infrastructure and e-content development.

Other projects moving forward in Jordan include the University Learning and Research Network component of the National Broadband Network launched last month at Jordan University by King Abdallah. The University Learning and Research Network is the first component of the National Broadband Network, where eight public universities have been connected through a broadband network supporting high-speed connectivity of up to 1GB per second. The university network connects Jordan’s universities utilizing the existing infrastructure of the National Electricity Power Company’s optical fiber network to minimize new infrastructure requirements for this network.

It is not only advanced learners that are receiving attention from Jordan’s IT in education programs. At the beginning of September, Queen Rania inaugurated the first Kidsmart school, part of an IBM initiative to equip schools and teachers for early years e-learning as part of Jordan’s national e-learning push. The inauguration ceremony took place alongside the official launch of Jordan’s new curriculum for kindergarten schools.

The Kids Smart initiative is to see the donation by IBM of over 100 early learning centers to Jordan’s Ministry of Education in 2004 and is the first such initiative to take place in an Arab country. The Kidsmart initiative includes the donation of specially equipped early learning terminals designed by IBM in collaboration with children’s equipment manufacturer Little Tikes. The units are designed to allow two or more children to work together, sharing learning experiences driven by educational software developed by Riverdeep. The software, which has been translated into Arabic, covers basic skills in math, science and creative writing and thinking.

IBM has been a world leader in academic initiatives. In fact, IBM recently launched a global initiative which the company claims is aimed at “better preparing college students for the jobs of tomorrow.” Under this program IBM plans to collaborate with educators in teaching students the open standards skills necessary to compete and keep pace with changes in the workplace.

The IBM Academic Initiative is an innovative program offering a wide range of technology education benefits from free to fee that can scale to meet the goals of most colleges and universities. IBM will work with schools — that support open standards and seek to use open source and IBM technologies for teaching purposes — both directly and virtually via the web.

The Academic Initiative includes the IBM Scholars Program (ibm.com/university) which provides access to software, hardware, training and course materials at no charge. Through the Scholars Portal, more than 40 IBM software technologies are already available at no charge for integration into college curricula to help teach students how to master open technologies.

The case for the IBM Academic Initiative is compelling. Linux continues to be the fastest growing operating system, according to IDC, and some analysts project it will overtake Windows in new server shipments in the next few years. Meanwhile, 70 percent of enterprises surveyed by Gartner use Java technology and Java developers are expected to quadruple from 700,000 in 2003 to 2.8 million by 2007.

“As businesses innovate with new technologies for competitive advantage, companies and universities need to make a greater commitment to fill the skill pipeline to feed these new disciplines,” said Buell Duncan, GM, IBM Independent Software Vendors & Developer Relations. “There will be increased demand for high-value, high-paying jobs which require a multidisciplinary skill set of computer services and line-of-business insight. Our goal is to help schools teach millions of students in-demand skills for an on demand world.”

Unfortunately, those students are not coming from Saudi universities. IBM does have a limited skills development program active in the Kingdom. Saudi Business Machines, the general marketing and services representatives of IBM in Saudi Arabia, is working with the Saudi Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) and the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) to bring vocational technical training to a limited number of young people in the Kingdom. But this is not at the university level.

When asked why this was so, Carlos Garcia who is in charge of IBM’s University Programs in the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region, explained that it is up to the professors and the university administration to bring IBM’s Academic Initiative to the students.

“We have been out to Saudi Arabia on several tours and visited several colleges and universities including KFUPM, King Saud University and Effat College,” Garcia said. “In fact, we were very pleased with the response from the administration at Effat College. In a lot of our initiatives the extent of participation is determined by the universities and faculties. We explain to them what the offerings are and then it is up to them to choose to participate.”

Garcia went on to explain that no institutional commitment is required and IBM’s programs are not limited to teaching and using IBM technology. A lot of generic information on open source technologies is made available. If even one professor at a university is interested in participating in an IBM academic program then his students can benefit.

Garcia did state that no presentation on IBM’s Academic Initiatives had been made to either the minister of higher education or the minister of education. Without a driver to push for such programs to be implemented in Saudi colleges and universities Saudi students will never have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete effectively in a global workplace and propel the Kingdom toward a brighter future.