I am interested in learning about the effect of ICTs on education in the country of Namibia, Africa.  Namibia represents one of the more developed nations on the continent in terms of ICTs, but still has much progress to be made.  A recent World Bank report on Namibia’s education found that it was not meeting the needs of the country’s economy and was “ineffective.” It also found that Namibia’s lack of early childhood development resulted in 80% of children entering Grade 1 without the required level of learning readiness. With certain ICT goals already in place, it should be interesting to learn if the country’s education system has benefitted by the increasing number of ICT technologies in the classroom.  Does a certain level of ICT penetration increase the level of educational attainment?  Is there a positive correlation between education attainment and ICT penetration?  In my paper, I will hypothesize that there is a positive correlation between these two concepts. 

     I am currently exploring potential methods for this project.  Originally, I planned to use statistical data for a quantitative project.  However, as I have gotten deeper into the data, I am finding many of the statistics do not match in terms of years, etc.  Professor Bar mentioned interviewing a few contacts he had in Namibia, and I hope to look further into that possibility.  Professor Bar, is this still an opportunity?  If so, this project will become a more qualitative look into the success of education programs in Namibia.

     Through this project, I plan to better understand the intracacies of implementing better educational standards in a developing country, as well as the challenges third parties face when working toward these goals.  Already, I have made significant strides in the research area of the paper, and feel quite comfortable speaking on the educational iniatives currently at work in the country.  Namibia truly is an interesting country in terms of ICTs, and I hope to better communicate this through my final paper.