At project appraisal in 2007, 35% of Samoa’s population worked overseas and remittances constituted 17% of the gross national income. Because of this, the government deemed it important to introduce the use of information and communication technology (ICT) at secondary education level. To help achieve this objective, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $5.9 million grant for the SchoolNet and Community Access Project in December 2007.
Covering all government and mission secondary schools in the 22 districts of Samoa, the project was to complement and expand the large Education Sector Project II (ESPII) ─ cofinanced by ADB, the Australian government, and the New Zealand government ─ to include ICT competencies and best practices for developing and using e-learning resources in classroom teaching and learning processes. Its anticipated impact was a more equitable and effective ICT-enhanced education system and promotion of life-long learning. Its expected outcome was enhanced learning outcomes for secondary students and better knowledge sharing through ICT. It had four planned outputs: (i) improved quality of teaching and learning through e-learning materials and approaches, (ii) improved education access through ICT, (iii) established partnerships to support SchoolNet and Community Access Program (CAP), and (iv) strengthened education management through ICT systems. The project’s outputs were further broken down into 13 sub-outputs.
At completion, the project delivered 11 of 13 planned sub-outputs, including the most important ones. 33,273 e-resources, aligned with the curriculum, were developed for six subjects and disseminated through school servers. 4,437 individual and group training sessions benefited 300 teachers, including all science, technology, engineering, and math teachers. An ICT competency framework was developed and integrated into the teacher development framework. Almost all teachers consequently acquired the necessary skills to access SchoolNet resources.
Learning centers in the five pilots established before the project were enhanced. Relevant units of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC) were connected to SchoolNet, and staff were trained in ICT applications. An MESC data center, was established to connect all secondary schools and host the e-learning resources. A system to monitor ICT use in education management was set up. But as it was determined inappropriate to the cultural context of Samoa, the CAP, originally intended to establish telecenters in communities, was not taken forward.
While the outputs were substantially delivered, the project did not and could not be expected to achieve the intended outcome, deemed overly ambitious and more appropriate at the impact level. Nevertheless, there were strong indications that the project did in fact give rise to certain conditions that would lead to the attainment of the outcome. Anecdotal evidence gathered during the project completion review indicated that the SchoolNet resources were helping the bright and motivated students to maximize their learning. In several cases, schools reported increased female students’ interest in the sciences due to the e-resources. In some cases, it was suggested that some students who lagged in class could catch up in their own time because of the e-learning resources the project developed.
The project was implemented through the existing MESC organizational structure. The Education Steering Committee, established for ESPII, coordinated the project, managed day-to-day by the MESC core executive.
