Abstract
The study, through the lens of school principals’ views, investigates the challenges and opportunities to formulate an information and communications technology (ICT) policy in order to integrate it in teaching and learning practices at the schools of mountainous rural areas of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). This quantitative research approach focuses on three different educational systems (Regional, National, and International), as a source of data collection, which operate in GB, Pakistan. To collect the required data, questionnaires with principals and policy document reviews were used. Applying SPSS, the data were analyzed. The results show that both groups (male and female) strongly agree to formulate a policy on ICT in order to integrate it in teaching and learning to improve at the school level. The results also show that the school heads face a number of challenges (e.g., lack of infrastructure, finance, Internet, technical staff, time, awareness, and training facilities, etc.) in the formulation of ICT policy and its integration in teaching and learning. The results revealed that the majority of the schools have an absence of ICT policy instead of having competent principals in those schools. Therefore, the research recommends that the school level ICT policy should be developed and integrated in teaching and learning practices to create an environment of powerful learning at schools, in order to fulfill the needs and demands of the 21st century education.
Highlights
information and communications technology (ICT) are effective tools to play a vital role in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in schools [1]
Keeping in view the challenges and opportunities, this study develops a conceptual framework for the schools of mountainous rural areas to formulate and integrate an ICT policy for improving teaching and learning practices
Demographic information such as age, gender, qualification, and training/certificate courses related to the ICT of school principals have been shown on Figures 1 and 2 and Table 3
Summary
ICTs are effective tools to play a vital role in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in schools [1]. It is observed that the advancement in ICTs brought an enormous revolution in the field of teaching and learning in the 21st century education at all levels. It highly depends upon the level of awareness, skills, and competence of institutional leaders (e.g., school principals/heads and teaching staff, etc.) regarding ICT policy formulation and integration in their everyday practices at schools, colleges, and universities [2]. The schools in mountainous rural areas of developing countries such as Pakistan face enormous challenges to formulate a policy on ICT, access technological resources, and to develop relevant skills amongst the teaching staff to integrate technologies into their teaching and learning situations at almost all levels [3]. In the context of GB, the above mentioned three educational systems have some limitations in formulating an ICT policy document for their schools [4]
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