ICT in Education

• ©FIKOM UP

Bidakara Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, 26 June 2012. Director and Representative of UNESCO Office, Jakarta, Mr. Hubert Gijzen, addressed the international conference on the theme “Strategic Communications in a New Media Culture”. The title of his presentation was “ICT in Education – Opening prospects for access to quality education”. The conference was organized by the Faculty of Communication, Universitas Pancasila. The aim of this conference is to discuss media developments and trends that play an indispensable role in our life, as the media are indeed mirrors of society and reflect our norms and values.

In his speech, Mr Hubert reminded that just last week, world leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss the big challenge of sustainable development and ways to transit towards a Green Economy. At the Rio+20 summit, more than 513 billion US$ was pledged to build a sustainable future. The UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki Moon stated that: “Sustainable Development is the imperative of the 21st century”. It is against this backdrop that the discussions in this conference on strategic communications will take place. Mr. Hubert also reminded of UNESCO’s mission, which is to contribute to building peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.

He emphasized that knowledge societies need to create the necessary conditions to allow their workforces to have ICT skills to handle information and be able to create, and solve problems in order to generate new knowledge and wealth. It is only possible through sustained efforts to improve access to quality education at all levels – primary, secondary and tertiary.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can contribute to universal access to education, equity in education, the delivery of quality learning and teaching, teachers’ professional development and more efficient education management, governance and administration.

The effective harnessing of ICT in education has the potential to bridge quality gaps between institutions separated by geographic barriers, improve resource sharing, information asymmetry, and therefore improve efficiency and quality of overall educational output.

The use of ICT in and for education is now seen worldwide as both a necessity and an opportunity. UNESCO is giving a high priority to the use of ICT for a more equitable and pluralistic development in education.

Click here to read the full speech

• 27-06-2012

• ©FIKOM UP - 
• ©FIKOM UP -