An Assessment of Digital Readiness of Secondary Schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo

An Assessment of Digital Readiness of Secondary Schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo

dc.contributor.author	Voufo, Christiane
dc.contributor.author	Carvalho, Frederico
dc.contributor.author	Kazumba, Leonce
dc.contributor.author	Malu, Raїssa
dc.contributor.author	Savchenko, Yevgeniya
dc.date.accessioned	2024-11-26T18:35:45Z
dc.date.available	2024-11-26T18:35:45Z
dc.date.issued	2024-11-26
dc.description.abstract	This paper aims to assess the readiness of public secondary schools across different provinces in the DRC to adopt technology that supports the development of digital skills. To this end, nine key factors that influence schools’ ability to effectively develop students’ digital skills were identified and assessed to determine digital readiness. These include accessibility of schools, access to basic infrastructure, access to digital infrastructure and devices, quality and reliability of classrooms, availability of school equipment, school management, teacher capacity, digital literacy, and the availability of digital learning materials. These nine key factors have been organized into three categories: enabling environment, school capacity, and teachers and digital competences; the main takeaways from each key factor are summarized in Table 1. Most of the analytical work is focused on 10 provinces of the DRC Country Partnership Framework (Ituri, Kasai, Kasai-Central, Kasai- Oriental, Kinshasa, Kongo-Central, Kwilu, Lomami, North-Kivu, and South-Kivu) (World Bank Group, 2022).Results from this analytical work showed that most schools across provinces lack thenecessary conditions and need support in creating an enabling environment for the development of digital skills namely through increasing schools’ accessibility, along with access to basic digital infrastructure like connectivity and electricity. Additionally, many schools do not have enough basic equipment like chairs, tables, classrooms or teacher, to accommodate the growing population of secondary school students. Equipment deficiencies are exacerbated by the general lack of ICT resources and school management competencies, qualified teachers and digital learning materials. Addressing these constraints will be critical to equip students with skills necessary to further advance their educational career, to facilitate the transition to the labor market and to join the global digital economy. Assessing these constraints is crucial for understanding the readiness of each province to adopt technology in schools for the development of digital skills. Out of the 10 CPF provinces, the 5 provinces with the lowest lower secondary school net enrollment rates (Kasai, Kasai-Central, Kasai-Oriental, South-Kivu, and Ituri, which are also the focus of the DRC Girls Learning and Empowerment Project (French: projet d'apprentissage et d'autonomisation des filles [PAAF])) were scored across 18 key factors subcategories identified as crucial to the development of an enabling environment for the acquisition of digital skills; section 5 presents the results. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to strengthen preparedness of secondary schools in DRC for imparting digital skills.	en
dc.identifier	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099107411122424955/IDU17ee56b8213b0d14e8618b8313135dd89c185
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42472
dc.language	English
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Education Working Paper; No. 5, September 2024
dc.rights	CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
dc.subject	QUALITY EDUCATION
dc.subject	SDG 4
dc.subject	INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
dc.subject	SDG 9
dc.title	An Assessment of Digital Readiness of Secondary Schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo	en
dc.type	Working Paper (Numbered Series)
okr.date.disclosure	2024-11-26
okr.date.lastmodified	2024-11-12T00:00:00Z	en
okr.doctype	Working Paper (Numbered Series)
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.docurl	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099107411122424955/IDU17ee56b8213b0d14e8618b8313135dd89c185
okr.guid	099107411122424955
okr.identifier.docmid	IDU-7ee56b82-3b0d-4e86-8b83-3135dd89c185
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum	34421203
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum	34421203
okr.identifier.report	194681
okr.import.id	5879
okr.imported	true	en
okr.language.supported	en
okr.pdfurl	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099107411122424955/pdf/IDU17ee56b8213b0d14e8618b8313135dd89c185.pdf	en
okr.region.administrative	Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
okr.region.country	Congo, Democratic Republic of
okr.sector	Public Administration - Education,Other Education
okr.theme	Education,Mitigation,Science and Technology,Gender,Education Facilities,Access to Education,Standards, Curriculum and Textbooks,Climate change,Education Governance, School-Based Management,Teachers
okr.topic	Education::Education for the Knowledge Economy
okr.topic	Education::Curriculum & Instruction
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Skills Development and Labor Force Training
okr.topic	Information and Communication Technologies::ICT Applications
okr.unit	Education AFR E2 (HAEE2)