Information & communication technology integration in Bangladeshi primary schools: case studies of government primary schools

Over the last three decades, information and communication technology (ICT) has progressed a great deal in many different sectors, and in the education sector governments and policy makers have made massive investments to support teaching and learning by ensuring the integration of ICT in the classroom. The aim of integrating ICT in education basically focuses on enhancing the teaching and learning quality remarkably to make a skilled and knowledgeable society for the future. Many studies have been conducted to identify the necessary requirements of a successful ICT integrated classroom; however, the success of the whole process is still under question and more studies are required in this area. This research concerns the integration of information and communication technology in Bangladeshi primary schools where the government of Bangladesh has taken initiatives to introduce ICT in the education system and has already started the integration process. This study was conducted in four government primary schools in Bangladesh based on a constructivist approach and using mixed method research to collect data. The qualitative data were collected through the analysis of government documents, analysis of interviews with policy makers and teachers and through classroom observations. The quantitative data were gathered through the survey questionnaires with schoolteachers from the four selected primary schools. The main objective of this research was to identify the opportunities and challenges of the current program that the Bangladesh government was implementing from the policy makers’ and teachers’ viewpoints, and another important aspect of this research was investigating the language barrier to integration. The findings of this study reported that the lack of infrastructure and ICT equipment played a key role in the integration process. Along with that, the lack of teachers’ professional development opportunities also acted as a primary component to hinder technology inclusion in the classroom. Other factors hampering the process were lack of maintenance, lack of leadership, lack of older teachers’ positive attitude towards ICT, lack of female teachers’ participation in the training program and of course the language issue. In Bangladesh, the medium of education and the mother language is Bangla. With English being the dominant language over the internet and in software, the teachers identified English as a language barrier while integrating ICT in education.