The ICT Transforming Education in Africa – Phase III Project is designed to go beyond providing teachers with basic digital skills by building a sustainable culture of technology-enabled teaching and continuous professional development, Project Coordinator Gabriela Lucas has said.
Ms Lucas, who coordinates the project at UNESCO, said the KFIT-supported initiative was focused on strengthening teachers’ ability to use ICT purposefully to improve teaching and learning while ensuring that the skills acquired could continue to benefit other educators and learners beyond the training period.
“UNESCO aspires to see every teacher able to use ICT for learning and teaching,” she said.
She explained that the project uses the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers in Tanzania (ICT-CSTT) as a structured framework for helping teachers progressively develop their digital competencies according to their existing levels of knowledge and skills.
The framework comprises 15 modules, with the Arusha training focusing on the Beginner and Intermediate levels, covering 10 modules, while participants are also being introduced to five modules under the Advanced level.
Ms Lucas said the training covers practical areas including ICT integration in teaching and assessment, digital learning platforms, Open Educational Resources (OER), online information-search skills, digital content development and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education.
She stressed that the objective was not simply to teach teachers how to use digital devices, but to enable them to integrate technology effectively into classroom practice, develop relevant learning resources and create more engaging learning experiences for students.
Ms Lucas said the project had adopted a cascade training model, whereby teachers who receive specialised training are expected to share their knowledge and skills with colleagues in their respective schools.
“This approach enables us to reach more teachers and expand the impact of the training beyond those participating directly in the programme,” she said.
She explained that the approach would allow trained teachers to become multipliers of digital knowledge, helping to extend the benefits of the programme from individual participants to entire schools and, ultimately, to more learners.
The Arusha training follows a similar programme conducted in Morogoro, while the wider project is being implemented in Tanzania, Namibia and Uganda.
Ms Lucas said the project was also leveraging existing Government digital systems to ensure that teacher professional development continued beyond face-to-face training.
Through the TIE Teachers Continuous Professional Development Learning Management System (TCPD LMS), linked to the Government’s MEWAKA system, teachers can access learning materials and continue strengthening their professional skills.
She said continuous professional development was increasingly important as digital technologies, including AI, continued to change the way teaching and learning were conducted.
Ms Lucas said the long-term ambition of the project was to contribute to a digitally capable teaching workforce in which teachers could confidently use technology, support their colleagues, develop relevant educational content and prepare learners with the knowledge and competencies required for an increasingly technology-driven society and economy.
She said investing in teachers’ digital capacity was therefore an investment in the future of education and in the human capital needed to drive sustainable development in Africa.
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