ICL test will enable Armenian school children to improve their education level, Laura Bailey says

YEREVAN, May 26. / ARKA /. The results of Information and Communication Literacy Test (ICL Test) will enable Armenian educators to develop and improve the national education policy and  also create equal conditions for all, World Bank Armenia Country Manager Laura Bailey said today at the opening of an international workshop on assessment of ICT competence of school graduates in Yerevan.

She said more than two thousand 9-grade school students in Armenia took part in the ICL Test that was developed by the Russian Federation's Center for Education.

According to experts, most ICT tests are aimed at defining the level of the technological skills and algorithmic thinking of school students. Apart from these, ICL Test makes focus on the assessment of not so much technological proficiencies (using different computer programs or technical capacities of a computer) but first and foremost of cognitive skills. Thus, ICL Test allows to assess a student’s ability to use computer and other modern information technologies in order to acquire new knowledge, to communicate, to conduct research. As a result this will help him/her to develop skills of lifelong  learning.

According to Laura Bailey, education has tremendous power and an educated person has much more opportunities not only to get work and earn a high salary, but also to innovate and create opportunities for others.

She thanked the government of the Russian Federation for being a very important partner and contributor to the World Bank programs and for helping to conduct the workshop in Yerevan.

Deputy education and science minister of Armenia Manuk Mkrtchyan, said ICL Test was used to make a serious research revealing that schools with a greater possibility of using information technology in teaching other subjects showed better results.

ICL Test is based on seven components: definition (ability to formulate the problem), access (the ability to find information from different sources), management (the ability to classify information), integration (the ability to analyze information), as well as its evaluation, development and transfer. Testing includes 16 simple, average and complex tasks, which should be accomplished in two academic hours. Learning tasks are alternated with tasks from real life. A student uses a wide range of digital technologies including word processing tools for creating presentations, spreadsheets, graphics, database, multimedia, e-mail and social networks.

The ICL Test was translated into Armenian and adapted to the linguistic and cultural characteristics, goals, objectives and specific content of the national system of secondary education. It has been used to test around 2,500 students from all 11 regions of Armenia. -- 0-