Yemen Online

This programme uses information and communication technology (ICT) to improve student learning by allowing young people to do online research and share information with other students in the region and globally. Schools have been equipped with computers and wired for internet access. In the first phase, organisers selected 10 schools in 2 urban areas - 5 in the capitol city, Sanaa, and 5 in the second largest city, Aden - along with 2 schools in rural areas. A further 8 schools will be selected in 2 rural areas for the second phase.

Once the hardware is installed, staff at EDC's International Education Systems division (IES), in concert with iEARN and World Links, work with teachers to help them use the internet effectively as an instructional tool in their classrooms. "Many of these teachers have never used computers before, so our training goes from the basics - this is a monitor, this is a mouse - right up to sophisticated techniques for conducting online research." The EDC trainers have introduced Yemeni teachers to new teaching methods, such as small group learning and interactive, hands-on approaches. One area of emphasis is "student-centred" teaching, which organisers describe as "a significant development in a culture where schooling is traditional, top-down, and teacher-centered". Project Director Helen Boyle explains that "Using the Internet is more glamorous than just going in there with a typical teacher training on student-centered methods. It creates more interest and enthusiasm among the staff and the students because there is great curiosity about other parts of the world." To help assuage many teachers' concern that the internet fosters the dissemination of problematic information and images, the project encourages teachers to use the computers alongside their students so that usage is monitored.

One special focus of the project is on girls: Two-thirds of the schools selected for the project are girls' schools (high schools in Yemen are segregated by gender). According to Boyle, "We have a particular interest in ensuring that girls get experience working on the Internet." EDC staff are also collaborating with SOUL, a woman-owned and operated non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Yemen, to conduct research on the barriers girls and women face in accessing the internet. They are collecting data based on classroom observations and teacher and student interviews at the selected schools.

EDC is also collaborating with World Links to develop a baseline evaluation and an end-of-project measurement to assess the overall impact of the internet on teaching and learning in the selected schools. Staff hope to determine what changes have taken place in these classrooms as a result of the computers. The research team is looking at such indicators as features of the computer the teachers return to, websites they visit, kinds of assignments they develop, and student products that result from the work. They also compare standardised test results from the pilot schools with other schools across the country to see if the new technology has had a measurable impact on student achievement. Those reports will be available through the IES division of the EDC website.

Education, Technology, Gender.

Organisers explain that Yemen is one of the least developed countries in the Arab world. Yemen has very low enrollment of girls in upper school grades - by middle school most have dropped out. Of those girls who do make it to high school, many are already married and have overcome great obstacles to be able to attend. For these and other reasons, literacy rates for girls and women run as low as 30%.

Organisers stress that poverty rates in Yemen are high. "With so many local schools in need of basics like qualified teachers, books, and desks, some people have asked why we have opted to focus on computers," says EDC project assistant Amel Osman. "The country is very poor, but does that mean the young people there should have no access to computers? We feel it's important to make a start in exposing them to information and communication technologies."

"By wiring these schools we’ve created a learning network that has even surpassed Yemen’s borders to other areas of the Middle East and even the United States,” says Towfick Sufian, EDC Project Team Leader.