ICT integration in Secondary Education in Bangladesh: A study of Policy and Practice

Abstract

Bangladesh, as a developing country has brought a substantial change in socio-economic sectors during last decade. The desire of being a middle-income country has driven Bangladesh to come up with a modern education policy which will help them to produce the skilled workforce. ICT integration in education was the most significant step of this latest education policy, and Government of Bangladesh has stepped up to make a successful implementation of ICT in education. This study investigated the strategy of technology- inclusion in secondary education according to new education policy of Bangladesh. It examines the extent of ICT usage in the classroom, the perceived impact of technologies in teaching and learning and the possible factors that seem to hamper enhanced ICT use in secondary education. Data were collected from teachers and students by using interviews and focus group discussions respectively. Class observations were also conducted to bring more credibility in data. Secondary schools started using technologies in their teaching and learning, but still, the use is not optimal mainly because of minimum infrastructure and perception of stakeholders. ICT helped to make the classes student-centered and interactive which was one of the aims of new education policy, but the practice of using technology in teaching and learning is still limited in most of the schools. Although all the stakeholders of education sector understand the benefits of ICT inclusion, they are facing various problems in the implementation process. More time is needed to overcome these obstacles and to bring about behavioral changes among the teachers and students to a successful integration of ICT in secondary education of Bangladesh.