Two major projects spearheaded by the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), India, and Ubongo Foudation in Tanzania have won the prestigious Unesco King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education.
The co-winners of the 13th edition of the award were announced by the Paris-based UN agency yesterday.
They were chosen from among 111 nominations submitted by 58 Unesco member states. Eight non-governmental organisations were also in the fray vying for the prize, the theme of which was “Using technology to enable inclusive learning resilience during crises”.
The Indian project by CIET – Initiatives for Inclusive Accessible Education – has embraced more than 1.5 million schools, 240m students and 8.5m teachers until date.
The Tanzanian project ‘Ubongo: Largest Digital Classroom in Africa’ launched in 2014 has contributed to providing more than 300 television and radio materials in eight local languages in 18 African countries located in sub-Saharan Africa. The programme also reaches out to refugee children and those recovering from trauma.
The 2021 winners will be honoured at a ceremony to be held at the Unesco headquarters, in co-operation with the Education Ministry. However, the date has not been announced yet.
Meanwhile, the two co-winners of the 11th edition (2019) will also be honoured as the prize distribution ceremony was postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, said Education Minister Dr Majid Al Nuaimi.
Themed “The use of Artificial Intelligence to innovate education, teaching and learning”, the 2019 edition honoured a Brazilian programme to reduce illiteracy and a Spanish app to detect dyslexia among schoolchildren.
The Unesco award recognises innovative approaches in leveraging new technologies to expand educational and lifelong learning opportunities for all, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Goal 4 on education.
It rewards individuals and organisations that are implementing outstanding projects and promoting the creative use of technologies to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance in the digital age.
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