A controversial project

The Education Reform Initiative of Sabancı University (ERI) recently teamed up with the US-based Research Triangle Institute (RTI International) to examine Turkey's controversial Movement to Increase Opportunities and Technology (FATİH) project, which envisages equipping all classrooms with Interactive White Boards (IWBs) and distributing tablet computers to all Turkish schoolchildren from grade five to 12.

If well managed, the grandiose project, unveiled during the 2011 election campaign, could have a transformative effect on Turkey's education system and could positively affect the competitiveness of Turkey's human capital.

Many will question if this ambitious project makes the best use of limited resources allocated to education. The ERI/RTI analysis, however, starts from the premise that the FATİH train has left the station and the project is being implemented. Since 2011, when the Turkish authorities began testing their plan, at least 63,000 tablets have been distributed to students and 84,000 IWBs installed in classrooms.

But with an initial investment in 570,000 smart boards and 10.6 million tablets in the first three years alone, the "potential for failure is significant," the report points out. Is FATİH a “plan to conquer the digital divide" or is it a risky "technological leap of faith?"

The policy brief aims to identify challenges and opportunities in the light of large-scale international initiatives using ICT in education -- tablet and laptop programs in Maine and Texas, in Portugal, in Uruguay and Peru, as well as a decade of IWB use in the UK. If none of these projects have a scope quite as broad as FATİH, they do offer important pointers.

Tablets can be useful learning tools, experience has shown, but handing them out to students does not, in itself, guarantee better educational outcomes. Long-term political will, a strong institutional framework that supports change, the right choice of hardware and well-targeted software that allow technology to be integrated into various fields of learning are also crucial elements to ensure that the computers provide an effective interactive learning experience rather than simply presenting traditional material in a digital form.

If a proper transition takes place and the right infrastructure and pedagogy, are put in place, the use of ICT can lower the cost of procuring textbooks, improve students' learning experience, offer personalized content and allow students' performance to be easily monitored.

How teachers adapt to the new environment is crucial. The current framework envisages 680,000 teachers receiving two modules of training, 30 and 25 hours, respectively, unlikely to be sufficient to allow them to make the most of the technology at their disposal. Changing teaching behavior takes time and requires "follow up training with school-based support, monitoring, teacher collaboration and promotion of best practices." Experience in other countries shows that students' out-of-school use of the technology contributes to boosting their motivation and engagement. Involving the parents and ensuring that the technology is also used at home are therefore crucial.

The FATİH project is attracting a lot of attention, at home and abroad. With a quarter of Turkey's population under 15, promoting the use of technology is a worthy goal. But as the ERI/RTI policy brief points out, it is not clear that transforming the educational system was the main driver behind the project and the authorities do not appear to have set measurable targets, beyond the delivery of the hardware. As the authors of the report underline, "When planning, implementing, or evaluating ICT in education, it is important to remember that any hardware is only as good as the software it runs, the content that it delivers, and the wider learning environment in which it is used."