Mongolia/OER

Policies Survey notes:

In 2010, Mongolia conducted a feasibility assessment for establishing an open learning system/open university in Mongolia, with financial support from UNESCO.

Overview

Mongolia ( Mongolian: Монгол улс, literally Mongol country/nation) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles (38 km) from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. The population of Mongolia is around 2,900,000. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest city, is home to about 38% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic. At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the nineteenth largest and the most sparsely populated independent country in the world. It is also the world's second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan. The country contains very little arable land, as much of its area is covered by steppes, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Approximately 30% of the country's people are nomadic or semi-nomadic. However, Mongolia has become more urbanized. About 40 percent of the population lives in Ulaanbaatar, and in 2002 a further 23% lived in Darkhan, Erdenet, the aimag centers and sum-level permanent settlements. Another share of the population lives in the sum centers. In 2002, about 30 percent of all households in Mongolia lived from breeding lifestock. Most herders in Mongolia follow a pattern of nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism. The predominant religion in Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism, and the majority of the state's citizens are of the Mongol ethnicity, though Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west. Mongolia is divided into 21 aimags (provinces), which are in turn divided into 315 sums (districts). The capital Ulan Bator is administrated separately as a khot (municipality) with provincial status. The official language of Mongolia is Khalkha Mongolian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, and is spoken by 90% of the population. A variety of different dialects are spoken across the country. In the west the Kazakh and Tuvan languages, among others, are also spoken. The Russian language is the most frequently spoken foreign language in Mongolia, followed by English, though English has been gradually replacing Russian as the second language. Korean has gained popularity as tens of thousands of Mongolians work in South Korea. Interest in Chinese, as the language of the other neighbouring power, has been growing. Japanese is also popular among the younger people. A number of older educated Mongolians speak some German, as they studied in the former East Germany, while a few speak other languages from the former Eastern Bloc. Besides that, many younger Mongolians are fluent in the Western European languages as they study or work in foreign countries including Germany, France and Italy.

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Mongolia/OER.

Education in Mongolia/OER

For a general description of education in Mongolia/OER see Education:Mongolia/OER.

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see E-learning:Mongolia/OER.

Our correspondent in Mongolia says:

E-learning is very important for Mongolian education. There are 100 universities and almost more 700 secondary schools. Our top 6 universities are implementing e-learning but we have still many problem to develop it. The Mongolian National University, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, University of Education, University of Agriculture and University of Health Sciences are using different Learning management system to support e-learning.

E-Open school of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology

The E-Open school of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology offers advanced training courses (as well as bachelor and master courses) through distance education. (1)

Vision-2010

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (MOECS) has used Vision-2010 as a model to implement ICTs in the education sector, developing an action plan which was approved in 2001. MOECS’s vision for ICT in education had four major components, covering areas of:

- Training - the full utilization of ICT in each educational level’s curriculum and contents in order to introduce ICT possibilities and gain knowledge and skills in using it.

- Hardware - Supply of hardware allows the conduct of training according to different level of modern ICT development and provides possibilities of free access to information.

- Teaching staff - Supply of teaching staffs which have the capabilities to develop themselves in terms of their own knowledge and skills in line with rapid development of ICT.

- Information ware - Creation of possibilities of available and accessible information service by establishing educational information database and network. (1)

E-Mongolia Program

Within the E-Mongolia Program, the E-education axis include the following goals:

Goal 1 - Development of the mechanism for the management of information technology policy and the administration of effective education.

- Create an administration system and the shared application of educational resources in order to reduce duplicate investment, and use educational resources efficiently and for the maximum benefit of students.

- Enhance the capabilities of organizations and agencies involved in the development of education technology, whose duties are to promote and support student centered learning. (1)

Goal 2 - Development of an equitable information infrastructure for education.

- Expedite the development and provision of equitable telecommunication infrastructure service.

- Develop an effective IT network for education at a reasonable price.

- Provide complete IT utility in every school in order to move into e-school. By 2012 every 10 student in a high school will have a PC. By 2012 every teacher will have a PC (10% of them notebook).

- Transfer all content to electronic means. (1)

Goal 3 - Development of the human resources.

- Develop and train personnel and education related human resource at all levels to increase their ICT knowledge and skills.

- Accelerate the production of graduates.

- Improve the quality of training and develop advanced ICT labor in order to support the rising demand.

- Increase the production of postgraduates (masters and PhDs).

- Develop programs for training and life-long learning for knowledge workers.

- Extended utilization of distance learning centres to develop public ICT literacy.

- Establish multimedia centres in order to develop human resources.

- Introduce international standards of ICT education.

- Increase the production and training of ICT engineers, qualified specialists in order to success in the world software market.

- Develop and improve educational curriculum that supports students in the use of ICT in order to increase knowledge.

- Establish a model e-school to support e-schools through Mongolia.

- Extended utilization of ICT in “English as a second language”program to obtain world recognized education in Mongolia.

- Promote and support R&D which focuses on the development of knowledge, learning processes, and achievement trough knowledge. (1)

Goal 4 - Development of public ICT literacy

- Introduce International Computer Driving License for public ICT literacy.

- Create internet access in the public (community) areas: library, post office, recreation centre etc.

- Support private sector investment in the development of e-education. (1)

The principal limiting factor in integrating ICT into education in Mongolia has been that the focus has been on the teaching of ICT as a subject, rather than the way in which it can be integrated to enhance the teaching/learning process. (1)

Internet in Mongolia/OER

Internet broadband connection is not yet diffused in the country, especially out of the capital. (1)

Internet in Education

Internet Based Distance Education Project - In 2001 the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) funded the Internet Based Distance Education Project in Mongolia. The project initiated selected Mongolian institutions into the processes of research, development and experimentation with web-based instruction methods and technologies for distance education. In particular, the project aimed at introducing internet-based distance education methodology and experiemet it to selected mongolian learning communities. The project offered experimental web-based instructional courses on specific subjects such as English language, IT and computer skills, gender issues and legal rights. A parallel aim of this project is to encourage and facilitate the educational authority within the country to formulate a vision and strategic plan for technology-based distance education, within the national education policy framework. This project was aimed at benefiting the following categories of people in Mongolia:

- People learning English, gender education, Information Technology

- Grade five to ten school children

- Pupils passing math and English based entrance exams

- Self-learners on above mentioned fields

- School dropped children and others (1)

References

1. ReVica/VISCED page for Mongolia (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Mongolia)

Reports

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