report on internet for schools project -rural schools

Evaluation of rural schools of “Internet for school” project Mongolian Foundation for Open Society

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Mongolian Foundation for Open Society

Report on Internet for Schools project -Rural

schools

Prepared by the evaluation team Team Leader- Ms. L.Ariunaa,

Information Program Consultant

Ulaanbaatar July-October, 2001


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TABLE OF SCHOOLS Introduction 2 Evaluation criteria 2 Current situation 2 Findings 4 Recommendations 6 List of the schools, organizations and persons met by consultancy team during the countryside trips 8


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Report on evaluation of the rural schools of the "Internet for schools " project

Introduction "Internet lor school" project has been approved by the Board of Directors of MFCS in November 1998. The "Internet for school" project had two components:

• providing with e-mail access to the secondary schools of the Ulaanbaaiar cily and • providing with e-mail access to the secondary schools of the selected aimags of the rural Mongolia.

The current report covers the second part of the "Internet for school" project. The implementation of the second part of the project has been done through individual grant disbursements to the schools, connecting to local area network of computers provided by ADB and giving dial-up Internet email access. Only the project implemented in Selenge school No. 4 had subcontracts with the "Orchin-21" NGOs. The consultancy team has undertaken multiple countryside trips in order to get the general picture of the implementation of the ''Internet for schools" Evaluation criteria The consultancy team has identified the following evaluation criteria to evaluate the "Internet for schools - rural schools" project. These are:

1. Installment of the local area network in place 2. Utilization of the LAN 3. Connection to Internet 4. Share the facility with other schools 5. Availability of professional informatics subject teachers in rural schools and demand for teachers.

Current situation

The consultancy team has visited 11 aimags within the evaluation period and has been able to contact and do sight visits to schools of these aimags. One of the schools of the aimag center has been equipped with the computers supplied within framework of the ADB project for education sector. The MFOS has provided individual grants for each school to connect to a local area network and provide Internet access for one year.

1. According to our visits to schools of aimags. the local area network has* been established in each lab of informatics subject and was operational.

2. In most eases, the Internet access has been cut off in the beginning of the March. when the Mongolian Telecommunications company has increased the rate of connection to the Internet service provider.

3. All schools have actively participating in I*EARN project activities. 4. The pupils of the school where computer labs were located have used the informatics subject lab. 5. Most of the schools of the aimag centers have professional teachers in informatics subject. 6. A selected number of teachers and pupils were trained in the use of Internet and its applications. 7. The teachers and pupils were enthusiastic about the Internet and use of computers. The pupils of

the schools of Bayankhongor aimag. for example, were paying 8.000 tugrik for the computer courses conducted at the Community Information Centers.

8. Darkhan-uul aimag's governor's office has provided computers to each schools of Darkhan-Uul aimag purchasing those through their annual budget.

9. The consultancy team has also visited a number of the schools in the soum and bagh levels. Some soum schools had few computers (for example, secondary schools of Nariin teel soum of Uvurkhangai aimag) given by the Members of Parliament. Even though, the infrastructure issues have not been fully resolved in soum levels with the restricted hours of energy supply, the teachers of informatics subject were leaching between 7-10pm when the electricity was available.

10. The computers of informatics lab were mostly used for informatics subject teaching. The teachers of other subjects were hardly using the existing facility and equipment. Only few teachers were using computers to develop textbooks and teaching materials. Not much of the application use was done by other teachers.

11. Some schools have developed their own web sites. However, due to problems of server, the web


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site were not operational and the team could see the web site only on the local server, (except Dornod's web site)

12. The consultancy team met with the Regional Coordinators of MFOS "School 2001" and discussed their involvement and participation in Internet projects implemented in their aimags. According to our conversation and site visits, the Regional coordinators are engaged in Internet projects, however they use independent e-mail access with the telecommunications and email access expenses covered by the "School -2001" project.

Please refer to the countryside trip reports for more detailed information on the status of schools in rural area. Finding

1. Apart of the schools with the Local Area network, the consultancy team has found Od complex school of the Darkhan-Uu! aimag. which did not have any local area network established. However, according to the financial documents of the MFOS. the funds were allocated to provide this school with Local Area network. Since die consultancy team is not authorized to do the financial auditing, the team is suggesting looking into this issue.

2. The school No. 4 of Selenge aimag had a local area network established in one part of the building and the Internet connection established in the information center of the "School 2001" project. This affected the operation of the local area network as well as access to Internet, since the pupils need to go to Information Center to have access to Internet.

3. As it has been mentioned in the current situation, most of the schools has cut their Internet connection due to the increase of the fee. The connection fee prior to the increase of the rate was 6 tugrik per minute. Within 1 month period, the MTC has increased the rate of Internet access to become equal to the normal dial to Ulaanbaatar. which is between 200-270 tugrik per minute. However, since July 1 2UU1. die XII C has set up the connection fee for users of the Micom Company Internet service equal to 40 tugrik + 6 tugrik of local connection and plus VAT. (This equals to 3 1 18 tugrik for one hour of connection to Internet). The schools budget for telecommunications expenses were limited to 200.000-300.000T per year of normal telecommunications expenses and were given from the MOSTHC. Considering the high cost of the telecommunications expenses of connecting to the Internet, most of the schools, except of school No.1, of Orkhon aimag, were not been able to afford the high expenses of telecommunications and were forced to disconnect their Internet connection.

4. Some teachers and pupils (for example, Khumuun complex school of Selenge aimag. School No. 4 of Khovd aimag. School No. 1 of Orkhon aimag) were using Internet cafe's of Telecommunications company in order to communicate with their colleagues by I*EARN.

5. The consultancy team would like to specially note the use of the local area network by the teacher of the School No. 4 of Khovd aimag. Mr. Batnasan, the teacher of informatics subject has been using NetMeeting application to teach for pupils. This was the only\ case when the teacher has fully utilized the local area network for teaching purpose, compare to others which had local area network but didn't use it much for teaching purpose.

6. Most of teachers of the informatics subject were newly graduates of the school and did not have enough working experience of maintaining the hardware problems of computers. They were graduates of the Pedagogical University double majored in math’s and informatics.

7. The school No.1 of Orkhon aimag has closely cooperate with the local Citizens Representatives khural and local government, which supported their Internet connection fees by providing funds for connection of 600,000 tugrik for year 2001 and including 870.000 tugrik in next year budget for Internet connection only.

8. Even though, the computer supplied by ADB projects and enhanced with LAN by MFOS project were designed to be served not only for pupils of the school with computer lab. but also for pupils of other secondary schools of the aimag. in most cases, the computer lab was not shared to be used by the pupils of other schools for their informatics subject.

9. The training for selected number of teachers and pupils have been conducted successfully and the trained teachers and pupils were using Internet. However. considering the high turnover of teachers and graduation of the trained pupils, the schools faced with the issue of training the second generation of new teachers and pupils.

10. he number of informatics subject is limited to teach all aspects of Informatics. The classes of 9 and 10th grades have only 1 hour of informatics subject.

11. he informatics subject curriculum itself has a component of teaching the basics of programming and programming languages, which could be included only at the facultative classes.

12. There arc no extra-curriculum classes or activities in the informatics labs. Some schools conducts


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the fee-based training courses (for example, schools of Bayankhongor and Selenge aimags) but there is no classes and training targeted for pupils and involving pupils.

13. The informatics subject teachers do not have scheduled and paid self-development extra-curriculum lime, which they could use for conducting extra-curriculum activities or develop special training courses based on the needs of pupils. Having this extra time will enable the teachers to fully utilize the available resources and involve other teachers and pupils in this.

14. The books and manuals to use for informatics subject are outdated and not easy to be used to teach for pupils of secondary schools.

15. Based on the trips to countryside and discussions with citizens of aimags, soum and baghs, the consultancy team has been multiply addressed that the main divide between rural and urban areas lies in the information supply.

16. According to our findings, the J1CA is planning to implement "Sakura" project to introduce e-mail connection to the schools of rural area. Moreover, the "Sakura" project plans to provide second-hand computers for the schools.

17. The Action Plan to introduce ICT in education sector plans to subcontract private companies in the provision of the voucher services for pupils of informatics subjects in secondary schools, so that private companies will deal with the issue of the out- dating of computers and maintenance of equipment.

18. The computers of informatics lab were mostly used for informatics subject teaching. The consultancy team felt that the teachers of other subjects could be involved in using the existing facility and equipment.

Recommendations

1. The idea of the training trainees need to be followed up to ensure that the second and third and the following generations will be trained on the use of Internet and its services by the available local resources, rather than involving the central trainers.

2. The establishment of the networking among the teachers of informatics subject from different aimags. will enable them to share the experience and resolve the problems faced by contributions from other colleagues.

3. The establishment of networks of professionals living in the aimag center and involving them into the activities within the school for training and other purposes, will be beneficial not only for the school but also will enable to come together people of common interest and passion for ICT.

4. The MFOS could assist in the development of the specially designed books for pupils for secondary schools in order to facilitate the use of computers and Internet.

5. It's recommended that the MFOS could conduct a thorough financial monitoring of the Internet project at Darkhan-Uul aimag1 s "Od" school complex.

6. The MFOS could assist in the use of the stand-alone local area network through conducting training for teachers of Informatics subject on the use of applications, such as Net meeting to teach.

7. Establishment of the Aimag's Wide Area Network including the secondary schools informatics labs will enable to address the issue of high telecommunications cost and create the awareness among the pupils of the secondary schools to use internet and it" services.

8. The MFOS could assist in the establishment of the local and virtual networks of interest groups lo share the experience and knowledge through conducting on-site training and providing incentives for teachers and professionals engaged in the networking opportunity.

9. The MFOS could include the hardware trouble shooting component in the training for teachers and interest groups, subcontracting the training component to leading hardware and software companies and professionals.

10. For those aimags without Aimag Wide area network, the example of the Orkhon aimag's schools could be replicated to other schools to include the Internet connection fees in the budget of the local government.

11. The MFOS could introduce a project on the use of Internet, computers and applications for extra-curriculum activities providing CDs developed by MIDAS and other projects to the schools. The MFOS could involve the members and recipients of the grants of MIDAS in this activity.

12. The MFOS could cooperate with JICA, ADB and other donor organizations on the Internet and e-mail provision projects in order to ensure that the projects were not duplicated within same areas and as more as possible schools were covered by this kind of projects.

13. The MFOS could cooperate with MOSTEC on the piloting and implementation of the project to outsourcing of computer equipment and services to private companies for educational purpose, specifically informatics subject.

14. The MFOS could assist in conducting computer-based training for other subjects using web sites and CO developed by Think-Quest. MIDAS and other resources.


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15. Com in no support to provide local area network for the computer labs established with the ADB project and provide Internet access for those labs.

List of the schools, organizations and persons met by consultancy team during the countryside trips No Aimag name and schools visited Contacted persons

Dornod aimag 1 2 School No. 5 Principal of the school

Regional Coordinator of School-2001 project -Surlegmaa 3

Community Internet Centers Manager - Enkhbaatar 4 Judge department General judge - Enkhtuya 5 Local governor's office Chief of economic policy department

6 Members of Internet club Teacher at secondary school Oyunbileg Pupil - Soronzon

7 Individuals Wife, Child, Husband 8 Flour factory Director - 9 Educational and cultural center Umnugovi aimag

10 School No. 1 Head master - Tsetsgee. Regional coordinator of School - 2001 project -Batchuluun

11 School No. 2 Head master - Ragchaa 12 School No. 3 13 FM 103.5 radio station Editor 14 Library of Umnugovi Director - Tseenpil 15 Community Internet Center Batjargal, : Ulamtsetseg, Odonchimeg

16 Aimag's Governor's office Head of Governor's office - Zandraa Chief of finance and economics department -Tserenbayar

17 "Shinechlel" bank Chief of operations department 18 Judge department General judge - Sumya 19 Local telecommunications department Tsoodol Bayankhongor

20 Governor's office Governor of Bayankhongor aimag -Choijilsuren Deputy Governor - Unenbuyan Head of Governor's office - Gombodorj

21 Head of social policy development department -Saikhantseiseg

22 Community Interne! Centers

Director – Dangaasuren Manager - Baltogtokh Officers - Tumurbaatar, Ballulga

23 NGOs Scout Association - Yundenbazar Local prison

24 FM 102.5 radio station Operator- Byambanyam Pupils connected through radio programme on air - Javzandulam, Munkhtuya

25 Nomuun Dalai Principal - Enkhbayar Informatics subject teacher - Bayarsaikhan

26 School No. 2

Principal -Tsend-Ayush Regional Coordinator of "School -2001" -teacher Tseren Headmaster - Munkh-Ochir Representatives of 9lh and 10n grades - 10 pupils Teacher of Informatics subject - Tsetsegdulam

27 School No. 3 Deputy Principal - Nyamdorj Informatics subject teacher - Nanjidmaa Teacher Cianchimeu :

28 Local telecommunications office Manager of Internet cafe


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29 Educational and cultural center Director - Batsukh Officer responsible for non-formal education -Bat-Orkhih

Ulziit Sum School Principal - Baigalmaa

30 Shargaljuul village school Officer in charge of non-formal education -Lkhagvatseren Teacher - Oyungerel

31 Bayan-Ovoo sown school Principal - Dashbazar Headmaster - Enkhzaya

32 Bayan-Ovoo soum Head of citizens representatives khural - Dalai

33 Galuut sown Manda] bagh school Headmaster - Ariunbold. Teacher - Ariunaa

34 Jargalan sown school Principal -Nanzaa Tuv

35 School of Erdenesant Head master - Jidee Teacher of informatics - Gunbayar and Ariunjargai

36 School No 4 Informatics teacher -Tumurchudur

37 Governor's office Head of governor"s office - Bold Ofiker of the Statistical office - Narmandakh

38 CIC Manager 39 Telecom I-cafe Manager Bulgan aimag

40 School of Rashaant soum (Sansar) Principal - Badamdorj Head master - Khurelbaatar Uvurkhangai aimag

41 Citizens Information Service Center Manager - Oyunsuren 42 Educalional and cultural center Melhodologisl - Olgon

43 Ex-network administrator of Governor's office Tumurnyam

44 Local governor's office Social policy development department - officer Dashdorj 45 Local Telecommunications Internet cafe Manager 46 School No. 2 Pupils : Amarsaikhan, Lrdenebileg 47 Khairkhandulaan .sown school Principal - Batdelger 48 Nariinteel soum school Principal - Enkhbold 49 Khar khorin soum CIC manager - Galbadrakh Arkhangai aimag

50 Chuluut soum school Principal - Attantzerel 51 Ikh tamir soum Khan- Under bagh school Principal - Natsagnyam Teacher - Surenjav

52 Khumuun school complex Regional coordinator of School -2001 project-Densmaa Informatics subject teacher - Ganbold

53 Local governor's office Head of social policy development department - Dandarvaanchig

54 Educational and cultural center Methodologist - Shaalai, Bats ai khan 55 School No 3 Principal - Enkhtuvshin Head master - Dorjpalam 56 Teacher college Principal - Bat-Erdene Khovd aimag

57 Educational and Cultural Center Principal - Natsagdorj 58 School No 4 Informatics teacher - Batnasan 59 Aimag library Head of the library - Bayanbulgan 60 Aimag’ s Governors office Head of the Governor's office - Ayushjav 61 Officer of the Statislical office - Narmandakh 62 Local Telecommunications Internet cafe Manager - 63 Khar Us nuur Information Center Director - Suvdanchimeg Consultant - Dr. Heino Hertel


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64 Individuals Naranbaatar 65 'Tungalag Вuуаnt radio station Manager - Narantuya and staff 66 Radio sesmic center Head - Sukhbaalar 67 Library of branch of the MNU Librarian - Dolgorjav Darkhan-Uul aimag

68 Educational and cultural center Head - Amgalan

69 "Od" school complex Principal - Balbold informatics subject teacher -- Munkhbaatar

Selenge aimag

70 School No. 4 Principal - Tsedcv Informatics subject teacher - Gantigmaa Regional coordinator of School -2001 -Nyamdorj

71 Local Telecommunications Internet cafe Operator - Battsengel Engineer - Bayankhuu 72 Aimag* s public library Director- U/jnee 73 Consultancy center Director - Amarsaihan 74 Educational and cultural center Officer - Sumyasuren Orkhon aimag

75 Educational and cultural center Officer - Baasai

76 School No. 1 Principal - Tumurchudur Informatics subject teacher - Burmaa

77 O'Net company Engineer - Amraa 78 Cable TV "Khiimoor" Director - Battsetseg 79 Book center Director - Tserenbat

80 Local Telecommunications Internet cafe Engineer - Erdenebayar

81 Infotekh Co. Ltd Director - Regzenbazar 82 School No. 4 Principal - Guncninsuren Teacher - Balsan

83 Social policy development department Head - Ariunaa Officer - Enkhtuya

84 Citizens representatives khural Secretary - Tsegrnid


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Mongolian Foundation for Open Society

Evaluation of Community Information

Centers

Prepared by the evaluation team Team Leader- Ms. LAriunaa, Information Program

Consultant

Ulaanbaatar July-October, 2001


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TABLE CONTENT INTRODUCTION 2 EVALUATION CRITERIA 2 CURRENT SITUATION 3

Management of Community Information Centers 4 Operation of Community Information Centers 4 Service of Community Information Centers 5

PROBLEMS AT COMMUNITY INFORMATION CENTERS 7 FINDINGS OF EVALUATION 9 EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT 11 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE CICS TO MFOS 12

Management of CICs 14 Operation of CICs 14 Activities of CICs 15


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Report, on evaluation of the Community Information Centers

Introduction The Community information Centers project is a joint project flee Mongolian Foundation for Open Society and Datacom Co. Ltd.. which have been initiated in 1998. The main purpose of CICs in aimags was to enable to access to information and communications technology tools for citizens of remote provinces. There are throe Community Information Centers in three aimags: Dornod. Umniigovi and Bayankhongor. Altogether, the MFOS only has spent 77,057USD for setting up 3 CICs in three aimags. Evaluation criteria The evaluation of Community Information Centers was done on the following criteria’s:

1. Operation of CICs - number of users. 2. Provision of services – type of services. 3. Ability to generate income to cover ongoing expenses. 4. Intuitiveness and enthusiasm of managers of CICs 5. Feedback from users of CICs on the idea, operation, management and functionality

of CICs 6. Future sustainability of the CICs,

The members of evaluation team have undertaken multiple trips to three aimags with community information centers established. During these trips, the discussions were held not only with the staff of Community Information Centers, but also with the representatives of the non-government organizations, local governor's officers, private businesses and projects of different organizations operating on the territory of those aimags. The multiple meeting were held as well as with representatives of the schools, governor's offices and judge department of aimags lo discuss the possibility of further implementation of Community Information Centers project and incorporation it with the aimags network. Current situation All three Community Information Centers were functional at the time of evaluation of the "Community Information Centers" project. The CICs were established in Dornod. Umnugobi and Baynkhongor aimags with the following arrangements:


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No Name of aimags

with CICs Location of CICs Organizational setup

of CICs Date of starting of operation of CIC

1. Dornod At the premises of the Aimag's library

NGO-run November 1999

2 Umnugobi At the premises of the Aimag's library

Governor's office runs CIC

December 1999

3. Bayankhongor At the premises of the “Khongor San” foundation NGO

NGO-run Jan 2000

Community Information Centers of Umnugovi and Dornod aimags received the full set support from MFOS and DataCom Co.. Ltd which included -4 computers, printer, local area network and VSAT technology equipment. Community Information Center of Bayankhongor aimag has received only VSAT technology equipment. The support from MFOS included the coverage of Internet fee of three centers for 2 years of operation. The list of computer and equipment provided to Community Information Centers from MFOS. Datacom Co. Ltd and local counterpart: No. Locations of

CIC Support from

Support from Datacom Co. Ltd

Support from local counterpart

1 Dornod aimag S33.857 VSAT antenna and connection equipment

Support from local Governor's office for setup of premises

2 Umnugobi aimag

S3 1.200 VSAT antenna and connection ^equipment

Umnugovi aimag's Governor's office assisted in the renovation of facility for CIC and spent around 1.4 mln tugrug for this purpose

3 Bayankhongor aimag

$ 1 2,000 VSAT antenna and connection equipment

"Khongor san" supplied 10 computers with LAN. printer, staff, covers 25% of Internet connection

The management of Communiiy Information Centers The management of Community Information Centers was different in each aimag. The staff CICs in Dornod and Umnugovi aimags was selected by MFOS and Governor's offices of aimags and their salaries were fully covered by the MFOS.


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No Locations of CICs Management structure 1 Dornod There are 2 persons working at the CIC: Manager of CIC and

officer of CIC. The salary of Manager is covered by the MFOS project, but the salary of officer of CIC is covered by the income generated from activities at CIC

2 Umrumovi аimag

CIC is managed by the Manager of CIC' selected by МFOS and local governor's office of Umnugovi aimag. From September 2001. there is a new Manager, Additional one person is assigned to work at CIC' from Public Library. whose salary, comes from the library budget. There is a Board of CIC. which consists of representatives of government and non- governmental organizations.

3 Bayankhongor аimag There are three full-time staff members working at CIC. The salaries of all staff are fully covered from income generated by the CIC. The "Khongor san" foundation manages CIC project and it has a Board comprised of representatives of business companies, who contributed to the setup and operation of the "Khongor san" foundation computer training center.

Operation of Community Information Center All three centers operate 7 days of week from 9:00am till 10:00pm during weekdays and 10:00am till 6:00pm during weekends. Having two and more full-time staff enables the operation of the CICs for long hours and weekends. The staff takes turn on their working hours and weekends. The evaluation team has made sudden visits three Community Information Centers and has witnessed the use of those centers by citizens of the CICs. Each CIC has a bulletin board with information about the CIC. fees, schedule of operation, addresses of useful web sites, services and activities of the CIC. All three centers work in close cooperation with staff of Open Web Center project, who assist in the development of aimags and ClC's web pages as well as providing consultancy services lo CICs. Moreover, in particularly. Ms.B.Zolzaya has conducted a number of training sessions in aimags' CICs for citizens of aimags. There is a list serve at the Open Web Center, which contains the email addresses of managers of ClC's through unhitch CMC's communicate with each other or receive announcements about different activities organized at the OWC. Service of Community Information Centers The main services provided by CICs include the following:

1. Use of Internet and its services for certain fee 2. Training on the use of computers, software applications and Internet use 3. Development of web sites and 4. Printing service

Although all CICs provide similar services, each CIC has given much emphasis to certain services.


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For example, Rayankhongor aimags CiC is mostly concentrated its services to the training on the use of computers and software applications, thoraces ClC's of Umnugovi and Dornod aimags concentrate mo>il\ on providing Internet services. Among three centers, the management of CIC in Dornod aimag is very much enthusiastic and initiative. They have organized an "Internet club" together with the enthusiasts of Internet - teachers of informatics subject of the secondary schools and pupils and students interested in internet and its services. On top of the services provided. CICs actively participate in different on-line chats organized by the Open Web Center project. No Location of

CICs No. of users since the date of establish me m of CICs

No. of people trained

Pees charged at CICs

Average monthly income

1 Dornod aimag about 7000 users with Internet access. opened email accounts for about 500 users

1500 pupils were training on computer use

8OOT per hour of Internet access. Internet telephony charge to UB is 180T and 220T per minute

45.000T

Umnugovi aimag

2500 people were served by CIC

575 people from 15 organizations attended primary computer training course

300. 800 and 2000T per-hour of use of internet

36.000T

Bayankhongor aimag

1550 people were served by ClC on payment based and 1000 people were served free of charge

240 people from 16 organizations attended Internet and web design courses

Internet phone to UB was 150T per minute and Internet use 8OOT per- hour, 4 week training cost was 15000T.

230.000


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Problems at Community Information Centers Dornod aimag's CIC Umnugobi aimag's CIC Bayankhongor aimag's CIC' 1 Luck of computers. Currently available

4 computers are fully utilized. It can be said that the operation of CIC in Dornod aimag has increased awareness and demand in the use of Internet and the number of users of Internet has been increased 1.5 limes for 7 months of 2001 compare to the same period of 2000

Lack of initiative The major problem with CIC in Dalanzadgad is lack of initiative from the management of CIC. The current management of CIC was quitting from job at the time of the evaluation mission and was prepared to pass over to a newly graduate from Pedagogical University.

Lack of enthusiasm ion on Internet . The major service provided and income generated by the Bayankhongor aimag's CIC is training on computer use. software applications and Internet telephony for calls to UB.

2 Limited bandwidth. Upon expanding their dial-up services and organizations. CIC will be facing problem of slow Internet connection. Existing 32 kpbs speed Internet connection is not sufficient enough to expand dial-up service and extensive Internet use once the number of computers and equipment will be increased.

Restricted outreach of services and activities of CIC beyond existing clients. The existing CIC is currently operating in the already established circle of clients and not much of activities were conducted to expand its services to other organizations, business, government government and non-government. The challenge of expanding the activities has been also lessened by the bad telecommunications infrastructure. which is currently updating

Lack of promotional activities on Internet and its services. The CIC did not conduct much of the promotional activities among the citizens of the Bayankhongor aimag center about the Internet services.

3 Luck of technical personnel. Currently publicly used computers are fixed through acquaintances. In the future upon expansion of existing network, number of computers and dial-up services, there is a need to have a full-time technician to overlook over the hardware and software problems which may occur

Limited number of services offered . Currently CIC is offering only Internet and emailing service. Considering the lack of printed material in Dalanzadgad aimag with only one local radio station supported through MFOS. there is a huge potential for implementing printed materials for wider public distribution with information about the latest news. digest of foreign press and others. Plus there is no dial-tip service connection, web page development and other services which could be initiated and fully implemented in CIC

Lack of cooperation with the local governor’s office and other parties, excluding schools. The perception that "Khongor san" is the business entity has influenced to the willingness of cooperation from the local governor's office and other parties. This influenced to the acceptance of the CIC in Bayankhongor aimag.

4 Language barrier. Due to English dominated web information and lack

Lack of technical expertise in CIC. Due to the lack of technical personnel, the breakage. malfunctioning of

Lack of the local content development by the CIC Since the concentration of


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of*English language by citizens of Dornod aimags. there is a need in combine English language courses with Internet courses.

computer and satellite equipment has been resolved sending them to UB

activities on the computer training and Internet telephony and the resentment to the Internet and its services, there was small content developed or initiated by the CIC itself.

5 Lack of equipment ~ photocopying digital camera and scanner. The users of CIC often ask for photocopying service. which CIC can’t provide with existing capacity. Moreover, upon working on the development of web pages of organizations, companies and individuals, there is an increased demand on placing pictures and images on the web. which the staff of CIC is not currently able to do without proper equipment

Lack of much content on either online as well as on hardcopy The CIC in Umnugovi aimag doesn't have much materials to distribute to organizations and individuals. Even I would say. that there's no material whatsoever been developed there emphasis is given to the use of internet and its services.

And software applications. The governor’s office of the Bayankhongor aimag has agreed to cover half of the internet connection fees once the networks of the local governor’s office. Schools and judge department will be connected to the internet through CIC

6 Uncertain future. The staff of CIC in Dornod are concerned with the future of CIC. They are dedicated people, however the issue of coverage by certain percentage of Internet fee by Governor's office doesn't fully resolve their future issue.

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Findings of evaluation Based on the above defined evaluation eriteria, Hie members of evaluation team have undertaken multiple trips lo Dornod Umnugovi and Bayankhongor aimags. The trips were mostly sudden trips without warning:.! and advanced notice of the arrival, so that the CICs will not get prepared especially to our trip. Location of

CICs Imitativeness and unthusiasms of.managers of CICs Ability to become sustainable independently

1 Dornod The staff of CIC are initiative and enthusiastic about the activities:

• setup "Internet club" from the enthusiast of IC'T and assist in developing web sites of aimag

• conduct promotional activities at the schools through organizing providing free Internet surfing opportunities for winners of contest

Possible, but still the CIC" will need some financial support to cover the Internet connection fee. The Local Governor's office has agreed to cover half of the Internet connection fee once the networks ofthe local governor's office, schools and judge department will be connected to Internet through CIC.

2 Umnugovi There is a new manager from September 2001. newly graduate from the Pedagogical University

• so it's hard to tell at this moment

No, unless the Local Governor's office will assist with the coverage of the Internet connection fee. There is a consideration that the local governor's office will cover the Internet connection fees, once the networks of the local governor's office, schools and judge department will be connected to Internet.

3 Bayankhongor The manager of CIC is mostly concern about conducting training on the use of the computers and software applications and not much of emphasis is given to the use Internet and its services

Yes, even without the Internet services, the CIC in Bayankhongor aimag has been able to generate enough income from conducting training on use of computers and software applications. The Governor’s office of the Bayankhongor aimag has agreed to cover half of the Internet connection fees once the networks of the local governor’s office schools and judge department will be connected to the Internet through CIC.


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Expected outcomes of the project Positive outcomes: 1. Three Community Internet Centers have two different structures – government and

non-government. 2. All three centers offer fee-based services including training for general public. internet

browsing and email facility. Dornod and Bayankhongor aimags CICs offer Internet telephony to call to UB for a tee 50% less than the telecommunications company fee

3. They offer free or discounted services for schools, teachers, medical workers and local NGOs. They all had a voucher system for pupils of the secondary schools. here the pupils could come and use Internet within specified time to browse Internet and use its services.

4. All three CIC work in close cooperation with the Open Web Center project. implementing different activities, such as training, web development, web hosting and other project implementations. The web pages of all centers have been developed with the assistance of staff of Open Web Center.

5. There is a separate listserve maintained by the 0WC of rural CICs through which they exchange information.

6. All three CIC has the bulletin board where all related to CICs information is published (regulations of CIC. Ices for services, statistics on the usage of the CIC. training and mho" activities current!) conducted at the CIC, etc).

7. Each CIC has a business plan developed with the assistance from the MFCS. 8. Only Dornod aimag’s CIC has been able to raise certain revenues locally through

local Governor's and Aimags Citizens Representatives KhuraL 9. Dornod and Bayankhongor aimag's governor's offices committed to cover Internet

connection lees once the network of local governor's office. schools and judge department will be connected to Internet through Community Information Centers.

10. Dornod and I umnugobi aimag's CICs introduced incentives for users of the CICs. such as:

• Free internet browsing for winners of the contents organized at the schools • Certain hours of the computer use for frequent users. • Free or discounted services for pupils from secondary schools, teachers and

medical workers. Negative outcomes: 1. All three centers do not provide Internet connection services to local government.

international projects, local businesses and NGOs. There is a project underway from MFOS to introduce network and Internet services for schools, governor's office and the juridical department of the aimag. but it's still not implemented yet.

2. CICs do not directly networked to ADB computer classrooms media. NGO centers, schools and local government.

3. Apart from the Internet services (email, on-line chat, discussion group and web browsing), the CICs do not offer any consultancy • services to local businesses, government, international projects and private individuals. This is due to the lack of the technical personnel to work at CICs.

4. There was no basic survey of the market for communication and information services done in three aimags. Therefore it's hard to talk about the adjustment of their services to market at aimags.

5. The CIC of Umnugobi aimag lacked (he initiative of implementing CIC project in aimag level, constraining their services to already established clientele and not outreaching more public.


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6. CICs of Umnugobi and liayankhongor aimags were not been able to raise certain revenues b\ providing Internet connection services to local government, international projects, local businesses. NGOs. etc.

Recommendations on the CICs to MFOS. Based on the evolutions of CICs in local aimags. the evaluation team identified three possible solutions to existing situation of the implementation of the CIC project.

1. Continue implementation of the CICs projects in three aimags with the extension of Internet services to the schools, local governor’s office and judge department and continue covering Internet fees for another year . The project to establish local area networks at the governor’s office, provide computers and equipment to the secondary schools have already been approved by the board of the directors of MFOS and the project is underway to be implemented. However. this time, the MFOS must introduce sliding scheme of payments for Internet services . The governor's offices of three aimags -- Bayankhongor. Umnugobi and Dornod - has agreed to contribute to the partial coverage of the Internet connection fees for aimags network, once the local Governor's office, secondary schools and judge departments are connected to the aimag's WAN.

2. Terminals implementation of the CIC in three aimags . The implementation of CICs has given great impact on the citizens of the local aimags. However, considering that the CICs are not able to generate enough income to cover their ongoing expenses (except Bayankhongor aimag's CIC) and that MFOS is not in position to cover Internet fees forever, this solution will be possible solution to deal with CICs. The local Governor's office and local initiatives could take over the CIC project with or without Internet and continue implementation of CIC project. The decisions need to be made on the ownership of computers and equipment and other administrative and managerial issues.

3. Continue implementation of CICs projects in three aimags but do not continue covering Internet connection fees for CICs, As it has been mentioned earlier. Community Information Centers are not able to generate enough income from services at CIC (except Bayankhongor aimags" CIC) to cover Internet connection fee According to the project document after 2 years of implementation of the CIC projects in three aimags, MFOS will stop covering Internet connection fees for three aimags. This will enable to operate the CICs as the main local Information service provider. The CICs in cooperation with secondary schools, governor's office and judge departments will be able to generate and distribute local information for local needs. The schools will generate the information about the activities in their schools, governor's office will share with the information and news in their organization, me judge department will share their court schedule and decisions made. etc. Once the organizations will start using the WAN as the main source of information, the internet issues could be easily resolved by the local Governor's office. Currently, all three Governor's offices agreed to contribute in the coverage of the Internet connection fee. once three schools, governor's office and judge departments will be connected lo the Aimags network. The MFOS could be part of this local information sharing supporting training, workshops and seminars, development of local content, etc.

Based on the identified solutions for CICs. the evaluation team recommends selecting the first solution lo deal with the Community Information Centers project. The following is recommended to implement in the steps:


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1. Implement the setup of the aimag's network at the secondary schools, local

governor's office and judge department. 2. Ensure that all parties - principals, headmasters, teachers, pupils, officers from

governor's office, judges and others - will share the information and news with each other and cooperate with each other. Introduce MOD among the interested parties.

3. Introduce special sliding scheme of Internet fee payments for CICs and aimag's WAN. The special sliding scheme could be introduced on quarterly basis. The MFOS could pay 50% of Internet connection lee (the other 50% paid by local governor's office) in first quarter of the project implementation. Within 3' months, the CIC will have time lo generate income to start covering Internet connection fees from the second quarter. For the second quarter, the MPOS could pay 25% of Internet connection fee (25% of Internet connection fee will be paid by CIC. 50% of Internet connection fee will be paid by local governor's office). For the third quarter. MFOS could withdraw from the payments for the Internet connection fee (the local governor's office will pay 50% of Internet connection fee and the remaining 50% of connection fee CIC must generate from its income).

4. MFOS could introduce new incentives for managers of CIC. such as : • Trying salaries of managers to the number of users for a certain period of

time • introduction of new services and initiatives at the CICs.

Management of CIC’s 1. The evaluation team recommends discontinue the support for the salaries and

administrative expenses for CICs The reason behind this decision is that the managers and staff working at the CICs are not enthusiastic and initiative enough. since their salaries are stable and set. The evaluation team recommends to introduce some incentives for managers and staff of C1C to encourage them:

• Tie the salaries of staff of CICs with the income • Introduce incentive on initiating and implementing different activities to

promote the use of (he Internet in the aimag - for example. IOOUSD for increasing the number of Internet users for consequent three months by 30 percent constantly.

2. Tim evaluation team strongly recommends strengthening and functionality of the Board of CICs. Even though each CIC has a board, but currently none of these is operational. The evaluation team recommends to organize training or Board embers, if necessary re-select members of the Board with new active members to ensure that the members of the Board \\ill be able to monitor the performance of the center activities and provide guidelines for its further operation. The Board could include the representatives of Ml OS. I he Board meetings could be conducted on on-line basis.

3. Conduct constant evaluation and monitoring of the project activities by outside auditors and consultants The evaluation team recommends implementing continuous evaluation, monitoring and consultant to the staff of CIC. The recent evaluation of the Centers identified the lack consultancy training and advisory services for the staff, which affected the performances of the project activities within the defined the project document.


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Operation of CICs 1. The evaluation team recommends to enforce the operation of the CIC's by providing

constant cooperation and consultancy services not only by the staff of MFOS but as well as from the experts of ICT in Mongolia. The evaluation team identified the need of conducting constant cooperation and consultancy services from experts of ICT in Mongolia as well as from the content developers. There are following solutions to this issues;

• Subcontract the services of specialists on ICT or content development lo work on a monthly basis at the CICs in aimags to ensure the thorough training and consultancy provided ю the managers of CICs as well ;:s to assist with the activities to promote CICs and Internet in local level

• It’s possible to engage national and International UNVs to work on CICs on aimags

2. Ensure the proper incentives were introduced to the staff of the CICs as well as. For the members of the Board of CICs. The evaluation team recommends providing assistance and supporting for the members of the Board to ensure the proper management and guidelines were implemented in the CICs. Considering that the members of CICs work on a voluntarily basis, introduction of small incentives for them would encourage them to be more dedicated to CICs.

3. Conduct special network maintenance training for staff of CICs . The staff-members of CIC are mostly the people of non-technical background. The evaluation team recommends conduct special network maintenance training for them, especially with the consideration of introducing Aimag's WAN. when the staff of CICs will be the major focal points for Internet and computer issues.

Activities of CICs 1. Assist in the development of business plan . There is a business plan developed by

the managers of ClCs at each center. The evaluation team feels the thorough 1-2 weeks work of the consultants or advisors at the Community Information Centers will ensure the development of the proper business plan for CICs to ensure their future sustainability.

2. Strengthen old activities at C/Cs. The evaluation team recommends assisting in the strengthening old activities conducted at the CICs. For example, as it was mentioned earlier, the Umnugovi aimag's CIC was conducting activities within the limited circle of clients and it is recommended to expand this circle for other people - potential users of the CICs.

3. Assist in the introduction uf new activities at CICs The evaluation team recommends assisting in the introduction of new activities, since as it was identified by the evaluation team. The activities could include the initiation and implementation of different on-line discussions, newsletter publishing, becoming real "Information Resource center of the aimag".

4. Assist in conducting promotional activities for CICs . The managers of CICs are aware about the necessity of conducting promotional activities. However, they need to be trained on the conducting promotional activities for non-profit organizations. Therefore, the MFOS could assist in organizing trainings, workshops and mutual exchange of experiences among the managers of CICs as well as for members of Board of CICs.

report on internet for schools project -rural schools

Documents