Formerly known as the “classroom of the Middle East” and traditionally a major priority for Lebanese households and a central pillar of Lebanese economy and society, the education system in Lebanon currently faces significant challenges and risks failing both students and teachers, while eroding the public positive perception about national education.

1. A tale of two systems

The development of the education system in Lebanon was characterised by an almost unwavering dominance of the private sector in service delivery in education, with this sector enrolling nearly two thirds of students in 2021, which is one of the greatest private sector shares of primary and secondary school students in the world. The history of education system privatization created a structural dichotomy between the public and the private sectors in education and led to large inequities, by placing the economic burden of education on households, and maintaining educational success as a function of socioeconomic background.

1.1. Education Funding

Although private and public investments on education in Lebanon are comparable to OECD standards (around 4,5% in 20195 – and world Education Forum 2015 recommends 4-6% of GDP in Education to achieve SGD4), significant levels of private spending from households exceed and contrast with the government’s decreasing trend of investment in education. Government budget expenditures on education are low and below MENA region average, having decreased from 2,1% in 2015 to 1,8% in 2020.

Public funding of education has been insufficient and inefficient, especially when considering that almost 30% is invested in private sector subsidies, such as allowances to civil servants and free-private schools’ support. Additionally, within the remaining 72% expenditures on the public sector, only 2% were invested in improving education quality – such as training, curriculum, and research, allotting most expenses on school management, especially teachers’ salaries.

Over-recruitment of teachers (from 2011 to 2017 up to 123% increase of contractual teachers) remuneration discrepancies (some teachers’ salaries clearly inflated above OECD average), and allocation and workload inefficiencies have exerted additional pressure on expenditure levels of the government in Education for several years. Lebanon student-teacher ratio used to be one of the lowest in the world and yet it has not been translated into guaranteed education quality, especially when  considered regional gaps in class sizes and quality of education. Moreover, this ratio might be the reflex of “politicized recruitment practices” aligned with the “institutionalized favouring of the private sector” that widen the gap between private and public sectors of education and perpetuates the high wealth inequity in terms of access to quality education.

1.2. Learning Outcomes

Lebanon is facing a severe learning crisis, with learning results exhibiting a declining trend since 2007, which contrasts with the commitment of the government and
especially with the historical strong investment from private households in education.

A perception survey9 conducted in 2016 revealed variations in satisfaction rates between parents with children enrolled in private schools and parents with children enrolled in public schools; however, and even though private schools tend to show better results, the investment by households was not reflected on highquality education. Performance of students from both private and public schools in Lebanon are far below international assessments and below MENA region average: results are declining from 2015 to 2019 both on TIMSS and PISA, and almost two thirds of Lebanese children did not achieve basic literacy by 2019.

Still, one cannot be oblivious to the wide disparity between schools and individual outcomes: Lebanon showed the highest gap in MENA region between top and bottom socioeconomic quintiles, with significant differences in learning outcomes between the wealthiest and poorest children. Students also scored differently according to school type, which reveals the persistent quality gap between the private and the public sectors of education, with the highest performing students attending private schools.

Not only socioeconomic background remains a key factor in driving inequity in learning achievement, but the system has repeatedly failed to support the most vulnerable children and guarantee access to quality education.

1.3. Education and Inequity

As a result, education system in Lebanon is highly inequitable and reveals significant gaps in schoolcompletion, with only half of 18 years old from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds still in school, evincing that a significant share of students is not progressing from primary to secondary school, and many not reaching higher education. Out of school rates are concerning (21% in primary and secondary school in 2020), compared to regional and international averages, with children from poor households having a high risk of dropping out and having significantly lower learning outcomes compared to students from the wealthiest households. According to a recent study conducted among Lebanese schools, poverty is still one of the main factors impacting enrolment of children in formal education, along with other risk factors for dropping out, such as age, gender, and bullying experience.

Additionally, current education system fails to support students with academic weaknesses, by focusing on needs and retaining students in school: underperforming students were 50% more likely to continue performing the worst.
The subsidization program used by the Government of Lebanon is not reaching students with the highest needs, and poorest households are not benefiting from government investments: evidence shows that “47% of total education allowances benefited the wealthiest 20% of households, while only 16% of the state’s education expenditure reached the poorest 40%”. So, financial expenditure is not linked with results and current financing system does not allocate spending according to different types of school and students, instead “it favours particular groups and is not based on socioeconomic need”.

Ongoing teachers’ strikes and protests since 2019 have resulted on school closures, reduced school curriculum and instructional time, and years of lost learning for students; and the beginning of the present school year was still marked by postponements due to negotiations between teachers and the government.

Not only prolonged lockdown caused severe effects on quality of education, increasing learning gaps and deferring critical reforms, but also led to the growing deprioritisation of education. As the economic situation of the country gradually declines, and many families struggle to afford education, many private schools are facing increasing economic challenges, given the lower enrolment of students and lower tuition collection from parents.

Some private schools have already closed, and many keep the value of tuition low by cutting school development budget, which can compromise even more the quality of the education provided by the private sector. The private education system’s crisis impacts students and teachers, but also the economy and the community, so neither the public nor the private sector must be left alone with no intervention, under penalty of compromising the education of future generations and the chance to recover sustainably from the current crisis.

On the edge, many students might leave school and an increasingly worrying number of children might be facing multidimensional poverty and might need a more comprehensive support in health, nutrition and psychosocial services: deepening economic deprivation poses a serious risk of increased school drop-out rates, and often concerning related issues such as increasing of child labour, exploitation and risks of violence at home. The present crisis poses a serious risk on retention and enrolment, so keeping schools open and providing access to quality education to the largest number of students possible is an increasingly urgent matter in Lebanese strategic priorities.

Under recent economic contraction, Lebanese education system model is facing disruptive transformations that if not assertively addressed by strategic holistic intervention can result in the collapse of the already struggling sector, with severe impacts on inclusive high-quality education. On the other hand, with political will combined with international support and commitment of key stakeholders, this crisis might be an opportunity to reimagine the future path of the education system and ensure equity and quality are priorities for future investments on education. Only then can education fulfil its main goal of transforming people’s lives and foster the sustainable development of the country.

In 2021, MEHE developed the Five-Year General Education Plan for Lebanon (5YP) as the first nationwide education sector plan for Lebanon with an inclusive global approach, that aims to construct a more resilient education system that focus on public sector while seeking synergies with the private school sector. The 5YP designed a comprehensive strategy to address the complexity of the current crisis and envisions a future path for the education system with a focus on access, quality and governance: MEHE 5-Year Plan aims to ensure most vulnerable children have access to inclusive and quality learning and to create opportunities for students to develop employable competencies and skills and to become responsible citizens.

Led by this strategy, 2022 Education Sector Crisis Response Plan36 aims to contribute to school retainment and the integral development of children, driving changes at 3 levels: at child and community level, collaborative work between sector partners will respond to families’ needs such as social assistance or financial support, and capacity-building programs; at service delivery level, education stakeholders will coordinate multiple and inclusive learning pathways and inclusive education to overcome gender and functional diversity barriers; and finally, at institutional level, MEHE will strengthen data systems, teacher performance and training, monitoring standards, schools’ administration and resource assessment.

To avoid short-term and low-impact solutions, Lebanon strategic planning for education sector’s transformation is aiming to move from a crisis response to a medium to long-term intervention under the 5-Year Plan. Hopefully, Lebanon might take the recent disruption of the current education model as an opportunity to fully reimagine pedagogy in education contexts, along with the integration of EdTech resources.

1. Student information management system (SIMS)

Accurate and reliable data is critical and information management is a key aspect of planning and strategic policy guidance. A strong information management and feedback loop system supports the establishment of data-driven decision-making processes, which could benefit the country’s Education sector.

However, collecting quality data requires sustained and deliberate efforts, and considering Lebanon’s education, data is not readily available in many critical dimensions, including regular publication of student enrolment, attendance, and dropouts41, particularly when desegregated by gender, refugee status and disability43. MEHE operates a database since 2000, designed to be a unique repository used by decision-makers to strategize the education sector; unfortunately, a fully operative Education Management System is still far away in Lebanon due to many challenges, such as lack of internet connectivity and ICT infrastructure, lack of ICT agents at regional levels, lack of finance and lack of support, guidance, or training for effective use of the system.

An Education Management Information System (EMIS), in order to be effective (and useful), must be planned and implemented with special attention to aspects like the enabling context (in the form of infrastructure, mindset, available budget, policies, and human resources, just to name a few), the technical robustness (to ensure that the solution is able to do what it was built for, with the technical support required to maintain and potentially expand the solution), the data quality (that will ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information collected, stored and processed in a clear and on-time fashion), and, lastly, the availability of all this information to the relevant stakeholders across the education system (policy makers, monitoring and support staff, school principals, teachers, students, and parents), so that they can make improved and data-driven decisions.

Considering Lebanon technological dimension in Education, two critical aspects for accelerating digital transition and an impactful integration of technologies in education were identified: the effectiveness of the existent Student Information Management System (SIMS) and the use of EdTech in the classroom for transformative teaching practices.

The surrounding social, economic and political context is crucial in enabling such a system, and Lebanon’s system is still fragmented, with the information not being used to its full potential due to incompleteness or unavailability, preventing its key support role in decision-making. In more recent years, some effort and progress has been seen towards this goal, but still there are multiple data systems being developed and used concurrently by different institutions. For example, the MEHE’s SIMS collects data directly from schools, but the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD), which is the body that publishes national educational statistics on a yearly basis, also collects similar data with their online data system. Additional information management systems have been deployed for monitoring specific activities such as school attendance in second-shift schools or student examination scores. This increases complexity, creating inefficiencies via duplication and potential discrepancies in the data collected.

Despite the significant investments in data systems, there is still the need of a clear policy with well-defined roles and responsibilities and the need of a unified framework for information management with standardized mechanisms for data collection, validation, storage, manipulation, reporting, and utilization, the lack of which is leading to fragmentation and divergence in vision and responsibilities for collecting and analysing data across different units at the MEHE and the CERD.

This would greatly improve a solution that could be used by all stakeholders in a more sustainable and efficient way, supporting better decision-making processes, and leading to better outcomes.2 3Following the 2021 5YP, and the 2022 Transition Resilience Plan43, MEHE is committed to work with contributing partners to reinforce governance, transparency, efficiency and learning results (in both formal and alternative learning pathways), by strengthening data collection and information sharing amongst relevant stakeholders in school, regional and national levels, and to ensure accountability, effective access to a safe, inclusive and quality learning to all children.4 5To enhance governance and managerial capacities of the education system and ensure resources are transformed into results by data-driven and evidence-based policy, 2022 Education Sector’s Response envisions higher capacities to unify data systems under SIMS: “the sector and the MEHE will ensure necessary data is migrated and that all relevant student, teacher and school information is collected, processed and reported via SIMS”44.

Despite the efforts for digital transition in public sector by the government and the conception of plans for the introduction of technologies in education, the absence of a holistic coordinated approach in implementation processes have made it hard to achieve impactful reforms on the education sector and the meaningful integration of EdTech in Lebanese schools.

Lessons Learned from the pandemic showed us that addressing the digital divide, reorient the curriculum and empower teachers with professional development are priority steps when leading the path for educational transformation. In fact, digital divide has been a preoccupation of educational decision-makers when addressing challenges of the Public School. But simply delivering the best technology has proved to be insufficient: “An initial idea of creating more schools or delivering more technology seemed adequate to face the social digital divide, but the perspective of a second divide is now calling attention to the quality of the education being delivered and to its effects in terms of citizenship and social and economic development”.

Considering the current stage of EdTech adoption in Lebanese reality, and starting by addressing the digital divide, providing access to resources has become a priority, ensuring equal opportunities for students and teachers, regardless the type of school they are enrolled in. Nevertheless, jp.ik previous experience in educational projects’ implementation soon revealed innovative pedagogical practices were a natural effect of using new technologies in the classroom, “where knowledge was at the centre of the negotiation between technologies and practices and meaning at the heart of the contextual learning design”.

Thus, to foster education quality and meaningful integration of those resources, other questions proved to be critical: first of all, any decision (including technological resources) must be pedagogically driven; secondly, specificity of the context should be taken into account; and finally, it is crucial to identify and engage the different educational players involved.

Tackling a more complex context requires a comprehensive and inclusive approach, aligned with international priorities agenda (such as Sustainable Development Goals – SGD) and national strategic plans. MEHE and CERD are revisiting Lebanon’s education strategy and are looking to work with all stakeholders in crafting an updated strategic direction to move the education system forward.

Most educational ICT projects are based on strategic policies that promote ICT use: “i) to support economic growth, through a better prepared workforce that uses new technologies as productivity tools and applies generative skills to foster knowledge creation, innovation and entrepreneurship; ii) to promote social development, raising extended access to education, as well as enhancing social cohesion and sociocultural participation; and iii) to advance pedagogical reform, introducing ICT along with pedagogical innovation or curriculum restructuring (development of 21st century skills and reinforcement of one’s ability to direct her/his own learning and to apply concepts to solve complex real-world problems)”.

To drive educational change, many frameworks have been used as guidelines; among them ik.model54 can support the process of educational ICT integration during project lifecycle, and also work as a monitoring tool that enables decision-makers, school principals, teachers and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate digital integration complexity, and understand which domain should be focused and reinforced. This framework has proved to be able to capture the singularity of different learning contexts in a glocal perspective, so it might be helpful during the process of defining a future masterplan for meaningful EdTech adoption by driving essential questions. Following field experience and real case scenarios around the world, jp.ik framework for meaningful integration of technology in education scenarios places technology as one of the critical domains that should be considered when addressing educational transformation, along with content, process, and relational domains.

To address the challenges previously described faced by Lebanese education system, the Relational Domain might be a priority. Considering the ongoing economic crisis and recent history of tensions, political instability, refugees’ influx and structural complexity of the Lebanese society, in one hand, Education system’s main traits (centralization of decisions and fragmentation based on a great variety of stakeholders and the week regulation of the sector, added to the little power and other characteristics of school principals, and schools’ specific needs), how can new strategies be designed to reinforce citizenship and social cohesion and become true allies in promoting sustainable development and recovery from successive crises that disrupt the Education System?

Considering most recent Lebanon’s education strategy, not only Education Sector Response on strengthening the education system by developing crisis management and a stronger capacity-building at many levels (including service delivery and governance), but also by improving collaboration between partners, communities and parents, through an intersectoral coordinated intervention to guarantee access and retention in education. Starting the path for the co-creation of strategies (contextually defined by the engagement of critical stakeholders) might be vital to rescue the national culture of education based on active community dynamics, by engaging schools with the community, promoting parents’ participation in schools, and also by developing teacher’s community of practices to embrace a new mindset that contributes to educational transformation and the empowerment of both schools and the community.

This would be reflected on the content domain, once the need for the education system to promote quality learning, life skills and social cohesion is progressively embraced by national strategies.

Only by ensuring broad dissemination of these capacities in the population through quality education can Lebanon build lasting foundations for crisis recovery and sustainable development; so, one main question considering content might be how to systematically and effectively infuse these goals into the curriculum reform long lacking in Lebanese education system, for teachers to create opportunities to develop engaged life-long learners and active citizens? STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is one of the most shared and recognized trends to address emerging needs in the labour market and prepare students to the future, but this is a restricted vision which misconceives the importance of a holistic vision on Education. Adding Arts and Humanities to the equation (STEAM) can bring creativity, reflection and critical thinking to active and play-based learning, and ultimately challenge technology to foster critical skills in education contexts.

So, addressing gaps in terms of private and public sector quality and curricular specialization (STEM vs Humanities), by promoting the holistic development of students through the definition of education priorities and educational goals to be infused in curriculum reform, will create opportunities for students to be prepared to labour market, but also to be prepared for life and to be actual agents of change. In fact, promoting citizenship as foreseen by most recent national strategy, might be limp while contemporary history is not included in national curriculum. Some Recent trends establish a clear relation between media literacy and social sciences (MESH as for Media Literacy, Ethics, Sociology and History): recognizing the importance of media literacy for critically interact with the huge amount of information available, ethical reasoning and values for responsible decision making, sociology to understand institutional dynamics and the way critical social issues shape our world, and history to have the contextual narrative that will allow us to critically perceive technologies-related gains and threats.

Considering the process domain, this is where accurate and innovative pedagogical practices will be applied for technologies to be effective tools to reimagine an inspirational and engaging learning environment, based on the progressive transition from a cognitive teacher-centred approach on teaching and learning to an innovative model where teacher facilitates knowledge construction based on active learning methodologies. To create opportunities for teachers and students to reflect on the meaning and relevance of learning experiences, Project-based Learning with Interdisciplinary strategies and curricular infusion for knowledge construction, autonomy, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving would ultimately fulfil the goal of creating the critical skills and attitudes required for students to become future agents of social, economic, and cultural development.

At the same time, and considering the challenges faced by Lebanese Education System in holding public and private institutions accountable for outcomes and learning, standardization of frameworks for monitoring and evaluation based on revised learning goals is a national priority target, along with the strengthening of the existing SIMS for data-driven decision-making and efficient allocation of resources and expenditures according to future systemic diagnosis.

Considering the technological domain, Lebanese education system’s distribution of learning tools and resources has proved to be unequal, so, to accomplish recent strategy goal of providing access to appropriately equipped public schools and learning centres, the effective delivery a high-quality equitable education might be simultaneously ensured through a systemic change. This requires a paradigm shift where technology becomes a mean to challenge not only pedagogical methodologies and educational goals, but also to overcome social inequity and education quality gaps, intrinsic to Lebanese Education System and defined as national priorities in Lebanese political agendas.

Addressing the digital divide and quality gaps in Education delivery by strengthening the public sector as advocated in recent national strategy, cannot be disconnected from the context in which it happens, ideally by taking into account the specificity of the context and the needs of the different educational players involved. EdTech meaningful integration is therefore connected with media, information and digital literacy for the accurate selection and usage off the learning tool and resources for pedagogical purposes. EdTech will fulfil its goal of transforming pedagogical practices by the empowerment of teachers for EdTech use, overcoming the absence of continuous training of teachers not only on skills to face recent pandemic digital challenges, but mainly on pedagogical driven meaningful EdTech adoption.

Finally, the signification domain will be achieved by the interception of all dimensions above and systematic consideration of the priorities and needs of the education system. Considering the paramount role that intentionality and appropriation plays in this glocal framework, signification will occur in the context of the project implementation and ideally create the foundations for the development of a comprehensive macro project based on the pilots.

In the near future, the project might scale to the progressive consideration of integrated solutions based on the diversification of adoption models and the transformation of learning environments through effective meaningful integration of EdTech into Lebanese educational contexts.

jp.ik’s strategy started by acknowledging the importance of EdTech in the transformation of educational processes and evolved to the development of innovative solutions: considering public sector large scale educational projects, jp.ik offers comprehensive solutions for classroom and schools, including hardware and software, content, classroom tools, infrastructure, network and security products, as well as integrated solutions such as the Education Innovation Hub (EIH!), ideal for project-based learning, and the Inspire Educational Services (IES).

jp.ik’s layered approach provides the best out-of-the-box EdTech experience for teachers and students, where, with just electricity, the classroom can become an engaging and productive learning space using the built-in tools and content of the devices. That solution can be seamlessly integrated in the existing school infrastructure, allowing for the students to take advantage of the school’s local resources. Finally, with internet connectivity, students and teachers can benefit from all the tools, contents, and platforms available in the cloud.

For Lebanon to lead the path to a comprehensive sustainable education transformation enabled by EdTech adoption, considering Pedagogy in an intentional and systematic way, it is critical that a comprehensive diagnosis is aligned with evidence-based decision making for the digital transition process to be meaningful and reach the expected outcomes that are relevant for all those involved. Additionally, within a multilayer structure of stakeholders that need to be heard, actively engaged, and prepared to succeed in the roles they will play in the project rollout, it is also crucial to build capacity for action through a strong continuous professional development approach.

jp.ik believes one-size doesn’t fit all, so we develop a set of support services for governments including consultancy-in-context, professional development and impact assessment in order to understand, hand-to-hand with critical stakeholders, what might be the strategy to EdTech adoption that best serve educational, socio-economic and political needs of Lebanese reality.

To ensure adequacy, equity, quality, efficiency and specially significant impact, implementation should result in a dynamic and flexible intervention that ideally meet specific needs and ensure the involvement of the most relevant stakeholders. By the assumption that technologies cannot be seen as universal tools because they will be used in different contexts, the meaningful EdTech integration expresses this context dynamic and enables change by the intentional use of technologies. Achieving this is both a form of empowerment and a reimagination of technology as an agent of sustainable quality transformation of Education Systems.

The Ceibal Plan was created in 2007 as a national education initiative launched by President Vasquez to incorporate digital devices into education, help bridge a digital gap in the country and provide schools with Internet access by introducing a variety of tools and resources to improve education in Uruguay.
Ceibal is Uruguay’s digital technology center for educational innovation at the service of public education policies. It promotes the integration of technology to improve learning and foster processes of innovation, inclusion, and personal growth.
Plan Ceibal has created school and afterschool activities, in coordination with ANEP1 (National Administration of Public Education), for students to learn computational thinking, robotics and coding skills. These efforts have created a culture where teachers and students are encouraged to use technology to explore innovative and practical applications. The initial top-down organizational structure of the Ceibal Plan allowed the relatively rapid implementation of the One Laptop per Child programme.

During the first years, Ceibal’s focus was on availability with the delivery of devices to students and teachers, as well as the Internet connection of educational centers and logistics to keep the system operating. Once this is cover up, the aim is to complement the delivery of equipment with professional teaching development and the incorporation of technological-educational programs.
The Plan Ceibal is a plan for inclusion and equal opportunities to support Uruguayan education policies with technology. Since its concept, each student entering the Uruguayan public education system has access to a computer for personal use and has a free Internet connection from the educational center.
Fifteen years after the Plan started, there is no access gap to the devices. With jp.ik’s help, more than 720,000 students and teachers have access to their own computer and internet in the classroom, the city educational centers have fiber optic and videoconferencing systems and, by using technology in platforms, mathematics, English, robotics and reading have been enhanced, among others.

Collaboration

Citizenship

Communication

Critical Thinking

Character

Creativity

However, these technological changes, linked with social changes, call on teachers, more than ever, to accept the challenge of having young people interested in school. Therefore, it is important to think of different pedagogical proposals, so that they remain in the center as much time as possible and that this place becomes fundamental for the support and training of children and young people.

For this difficult task, it is necessary to increase the teaching role, the value given to them in society, but Plan Ceibal also set our sights on a horizon for all.

Collaborative networking, between centers and teachers, is the best way to make sustainable changes. For this to take place, it is essential to have spaces for teachers to share, innovate the curriculum and the educational proposals.
If we want young innovators, we must have innovative teachers. Innovation comes from the environments where children are formed. In addition to working with students, collaboration must happen between teachers and schools. Exchanging ideas generates a virtuous circle in which, based on partnership, more and better ideas are generated.

In 2014, out of a population of 6.1 million people, 1.62 million Salvadoran students were enrolled in primary and secondary school. With a very young population, El Salvador was lagging behind the ideal numbers: between 2009 and 2014, students enrolled at all levels of Education in the country decreased by about 2.7 percent.

Faced with this scenario, the Presidency of El Salvador named “Security, Education, and Employment” as the main priorities for the country, also envisioning Education as the basis of social and economic growth, with an impact on all the other axes of society.
The watchword was “improvement” and it should reach security, enrolment rates, school infrastructure, teaching quality and technological resources.

The Presidential Programme “Una Niña, Un Niño, Una Computadora” began to take shape in 2011, but it was only in 2015 that it was officially launched by the former Minister of Education and current President of the Republic of El Salvador, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.

This ambitious programme of transformation of El Salvador society is based on three axes – equipment, connectivity and teacher training – and has two primary objectives:

1. That each Salvadoran child has access to a computer at their school or educational centre;
2.  That the Salvadoran teachers use the best technological tools in their day-to-day, as well as in their professional development and career progression.

The target audience of the programme is thus the students and teachers of all the public educational institutions of El Salvador that have not benefitted yet from technological resources, as well as all the members of the educational community.
The master training strategy for the pedagogical integration of the technology in a learning context will reach thirty-five thousand teachers, with the second phase of the operation already underway, with recourse to b-learning platforms.
In addition to the Presidential Programme “Una Niña, Un Niño, Una Computadora” the Salvadoran Government is also focused on the National Literacy Programme, the National Teacher Training Programme and on the training of the National Education Council.

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“The key issue here is the preparation of the Teacher, so that good use may be made of the resource that is being provided in the classroom, to speed up and reinforce what is being taught and to guarantee better quality learning by the students”

– Erlinda Hándal, Deputy Minister for Science and Technology of El Salvador

At the same time, jp.ik provided supplementary support services, guaranteeing the fulfilment of all the contracted requirements, such as the Creation of BIOS and customised software images, the permanent supply of equipment, industrial tools and all the components necessary for the assembly of the devices.
The production unit of the project “Una Niña, Un Niño, Una Computadora” is located in the city of Zacatecoluca, 61 km from the country’s capital, San Salvador. The factory extends over a total area of 3 thousand square meters, including the warehouse spaces, technical and engineering areas, production line and administrative services.
The assembly line is designed to respond to the following 10 production stages:

1. 1. Internal logistics;
   2. Preparation of raw materials with delivery to assembly posts;
   3. Assembly;
   4. Updating of firmwares and calibrations;
   5. Mechanical and Cosmetic Inspection;
   6. Automatic quality control;
   7. Software installation;
   8. Final (functional and cosmetic) quality control;
   9. Packaging;
   10. Storage.

At the same time, there are also other ongoing processes to support the handling of non-conformities and reverse logistics. With a production capacity of about 100 computers, the implementation of this unit enabled the creation of 20 (direct) jobs, associated to the Assembly and Support, Quality Management, Operations and Logistics areas.

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“Our aim is to obtain an inclusive social and economic impact from the computer assembly plant. The importance of this project in the economic sector lies in, as a country, having the experience and ability to sustain our own development.”

– Salvador Sánchez Cerén, President of the Republic of El Salvador

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“This project stands out as one ofthe most important references in terms of sustainability in the last few years.”

– Salvador Sánchez Cerén, President of the Republic of El Salvador

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“El Salvador is an example for many other countries that do not want to remain in the past in terms of Education”

– Jorge Sá Couto, Chairman of jp.ik

Texturbol: when the old becomes new

The refurbishment of an old textile factory gave birth to the first assembly plant in Bolivia. Texturbol is managed by Quipus with the consultancy of jp.ik and, in only a few months, it has produced 150.000 student devices.
At full capacity, Texturbol runs three shifts of 60 people each, producing up to 2700 devices every 24 hours. These shifts comprehend not only the production, but also the quality control, logistics and administrative services. At the moment, Texturbol is assembling not only laptops, but tablets as well. The technical qualification was a key step for the implementation of Texturbol as a highly productive plant: jp.ik performed an intensive process of knowledge transfer in order to ensure effectiveness and efficiency.

Kalutaca: the final project

The Kalutaca plant is the final assembly plant of the project; it is still under construction, and it will accommodate up to 800 workers in just one shift.
This plant will have more complex and diversified production process, with the ability of producing WI-Fi boards, motherboards and RAM memories.

Quipus: a Bolivian company for the Bolivian people

Quipus may be a brand new company, but within little time, it has gained ground in delivering meaningful technological solutions.
The company name itself is full of meaning: ‘Quipus’ was an ancient technology created and used by the Aymaras for accounting purposes and mnemonics records. The main goal was to bring the invaluable ancient culture to the new technologies field, reinforcing the country’s attachment to its history.
With the support from the Ministry of Productive Development and Plural Economy, the 60 people working in Quipus have built a responsible and committed company that works proudly for the Bolivian People.

The future will bring the diversification of its product offer, not only for covering more school years but also to reach the general public. These new solutions will be made available at a very affordable price, including, for example, servers and digital TV decoders.

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“Technology produced in Bolivia, with our own hands”

– Camilo Morales, Viceminister of Productive Development and Plural Economy

An entirely new classroom routine

A question of motivation…

The importance of educational content

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“International entities recognize Bolivia as the state that has invested the most in Education”

– Evo Morales, President of Bolivia

The collaboration between stakeholders

Inspiring knowledge in Bolivia

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“The Bolivian project constitutes a proof-of-concept of the turnkey solutions developed by jp.ik, in order to help nations invest in Education. Other countries should look at Bolivia as an example.””

– Jorge Sá Couto, Chairman of jp.ik

This educational project in collaboration with Moi University which started during the last quarter of 2015 is already in development phased into three stages:

Proof of concept

• Setting up of 79 digital classrooms;
• Training 145 teachers;
• Delivering 6197 equipments.

Phase II

• Implementation of the project in large scale. In the field there is a team of 300 professionals directly involved in the project.
• 100 classrooms are set up per day, in other words, 500 per week.
• An average delivery of 25.000 equipments per week.

Phase III

• Total of 13.500 digital classrooms
• Total of 45.000 teachers trained
• Total of 695.000 students impacted

How jp.ik programmes boost education in Africa

A meaningful agregation of EdTech in learning environments is strongly related with training the local educational stakeholders.
This training has to be designed and implemented as a comprehensive approach to EdTech integration, considering not only the
technological dimension, but also all the elements that are part of the ik-Model – Technologies, Content, Processes, Relations and
Signification. All the ik-Learning Courses are well-founded on these premises.

In sub-Saharan African countries the great demand for tertiary education makes distance education increasingly relevant. This strengthens African experience regarding distance education and technology to make educational opportunities grow. By considering cultural, social and ethnographic diferences and demands, ik-Learning training is having impact on:

ik.impact is jp.ik’s methodology for monitoring and evaluating EdTech transformation. It runs across four phases — pre-assessment, professional development, assessment, and follow-up — and is anchored in three internationally recognised frameworks. Together, they enable a rigorous read on both student outcomes and teacher practice change.

Students
DigComp 2.2
The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. Used to assess student proficiency across five dimensions: information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety, and problem solving.

Teachers
UNESCO ICT-CFT
The ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. Used to position each teacher along the progressive stages of EdTech integration — Emerging, Applying, Infusing, Transforming.

Practice
ik.model
jp.ik’s proprietary framework. Analyses pedagogical practice transformation across four domains: technological, content, relational, and process.

A holistic perspective on teaching and learning

The impact of technological transformation on how we live, study, and work—especially with the recent development of AI—demands a paradigm shift in education. To harness the transformative potential of technologies and create meaningful educational experiences, ik DI offers a layout that is both material and, above all, pedagogical, aimed at developing a holistic perspective on teaching and learning, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.

To ensure the transformative impact of Edtech, it is essential to integrate them into learning environments with a clear pedagogical intent, following key principles of Learning Design: the ik DI are designed to be collaborative spaces for experimentation—Hands-on, Minds-on, and Hearts-on— where active, project-based learning methodologies are employed, and where students are the main protagonists in the learning process.

These spaces are designed to promote the holistic empowerment of students, following a human-centered digital literacy approach that includes the learning of technical skills related to STEAM fields, as well as essential socio-emotional competencies for the future, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and citizenship.

At the same time, these spaces address not only access to educational technologies but, more importantly, access to quality, inclusive, and equitable education. Several academic studies argue that these learning environments have the potential to democratize education because they can accommodate different learning styles and adapt to the diverse needs of students, thereby democratizing access to essential skills for building a digital society that is increasingly green.

To support education systems in the process of educational transformation, the ik DI offers an integrated solution, designed in close collaboration between technology experts and jp.ik’s pedagogy team. This solution includes a phased implementation process, encompassing planning, capacity building for educators, and impact monitoring of the project.

In addition, jp.ik’s pedagogy team continuously conducts research and curates educational experiences that can be implemented in these spaces. Currently, over 240 activities are available, totaling around 520 hours of learning.