This project aims to enable the next generation of post-primary teachers in the Asia-Pacific region to harness the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance teaching and learning.

Sheldon Shaeffer, Director of the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, says: "By 2008, all regional Member States will be in a position to offer teachers an education on how and when to best use technologies for teaching and learning, through training which is integrated in all national pre-service teacher training institutions in the Asia-Pacific region."

The project is now about to complete its first year, during which the activities have focused on identifying the needs of the participating Teacher Education Institutions (TEI) from China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The reports on these needs analyses will be completed in January 2007.

Based on the results of these analyses, each participating TEI will develop a strategy for raising the capacity of the institution to prepare the next generation of teachers to use technologies in teaching and learning, with particular focus on:

• upgrading the curriculum management skills;
  
• building instructors’ ability to use ICT;
• enhancing the teacher-trainers’ skills in integrating the use of relevant ICT into the curriculum; and
  
• cultivating learner-centred approaches to teaching and learning.

At the same time, the work on the “ICT Competency Standards for Teachers” that UNESCO is preparing together with several partners from academia and the private sector including Microsoft, Intel and Cisco, an international standard for integrating ICTs in teaching, enters its final phase.