Investments in ICTs to improve the quality of education in our schools, colleges and universities requires vast sums of money in hardware, software, content development and skills enhancement of both teachers and learners. Such huge investments require not only careful planning but also thoughtful implementation. Both at the national and institutional level, policy makers and implementation managers must have a clear vision as to the purpose, outcomes and impact for making such huge investments. They also need to understand the contextual complexities of the educational ecosystem of the communities into which the introduction high technology is planned. In his book, ‘The End of Education', a social and educational commentator called Neil Postman (1995, 192) said that "Technological change is not adductive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything."

As more and more sophisticated technologies come into play, their disruptive tendencies have to be acknowledged and provisions must be made at the planning stage to ensure not only that countries receive substantial return on their investment through the generation of social goods but also that individuals benefit through personal development

A balanced and sustainable road map towards ICT for education is very dependent on a nation's ICT ecosystem. We are very fortunate in our country that we developed a clearly defined roadmap for such a purpose (see Unit 1.2). This ICT roadmap seems to have provided for the orderly introduction of ICTs in all of the social sectors, including education, on a planned basis. In this section we will consider the various parameters that must be addressed as governments and institutions embark on developing policies and implementing plans for the use of ICTs in educational systems.

Section 5.1 will focus primarily on ICT policy planning and implementation:

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

1. Explain ICT policy planning for education.
2. Describe concerns that must be factored in to ICT policy planning.
3. Discuss the challenges in implementing ICT policies.