Mulla Nasrudin went to see a rich man.

‘Give me some money.’

‘Why?’

‘I want to buy…an elephant.’

‘If you have no money, you can’t afford to keep an elephant.’

‘I came here’, said Nasrudin, ‘to get money, not advice.’

~ from The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah

That’s a funny tale that I have found to be true at different levels in relation to my experience as a consultant to schools.

I have come across schools trying to embark on ambitious projects that were currently beyond their means. For example, schools in Indonesia are scrambling to offer IGCSE to their students. Many do so without knowing fully the implications of such a move. For starters, doing the IGCSE means that the language of instruction has to shift to the English language. Most Indonesian schools simply do not have the teachers who can offer this prerequisite. I hope Indonesians reading this will not find this to be an attempt at disparaging their abilities. I have met many great Indonesian teachers. But all too often a TOEFL score of 500 is taken as an acceptable level of English language mastery for teachers. But surely, that is inadequate for those who want to use it as a language of instruction. Surely this is a serious hurdle that has to be overcome before trying to get on board the IGCSE train? Some schools have resorted to importing teaching staff from English-speaking countries like the Philippines and Singapore. But they are a lot more costly than Indonesian teachers and I will not advocate for, among other reasons, it will take away much needed jobs for the Indonesians. This has led to the “token native-speaker” in many such schools.

I also like that tale narrated above because when the Mulla was caught out, he seems to hesitate as he knew that he didn’t have a good reason to be given money. Then he came up with an excuse that he wanted to buy an elephant! This again is like how some schools behave. They need a marketing ploy to get the students, so they quickly jump on the first thing that perhaps comes to their mind, elephant-sized projects like the IGCSE.

Sadly, his concluding statement has a lot of truth about the situation with some schools. To give an example (and at the risk of sounding as if schools must accept the advise of those they consult), schools still go ahead with the IGCSE despite being advised not to do so by their consultants. So instead of ‘I came here to get money, not advice,’ what you get is the equivalent of ‘I came here to get IGCSE from you, not advice’. Of course if they seek the advice of the salesmen, they will encourage you to buy the elephant!

Think about it. There is much to learn from Mulla Nasrudin. If you like to read more similar tales from Mulla Nasrudin, click on the elephant.

Singapore’s reputation as a country with a very good education system has spawned many educational consultancies to meet the demand for Singapore-style education in neighboring countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and China. This is true in the light of the previous financial crisis that affected countries like Indonesia badly. The financial crisis has meant that where Indonesian parents once would readily send their children to Singapore for a “quality”, Singapore education, today they would prefer to have their children remain in Indonesia and experience the Singapore education system back home in Indonesia itself. This has led to the mushrooming of private schools in Indonesia and other neighboring countries that claim to follow the Singapore system.

Unfortunately, quite a few of these educational consultancies have also mushroomed quickly to meet this demand for Singapore-style education or schools. It is unfortunate because many of these only feed on the gullibility of the clients. Most of their foreign clients only have a hazy idea of what a good school is about except that since the schools in Singapore is regarded as good so they want something akin to that of Singapore. The educational consultancies from Singapore have resorted to the easy way out and sell their idea of Singapore-style schools as schools with international examinations and Singapore school textbooks.

What has happened is the transfer of these things with little thought to the prevailing conditions of the host country. Singapore textbooks are being used when they are more suitable for the GCE O levels examinations that Singapore’s students sit for rather than the IGCSE that students in Indonesia are more likely to sit for. It doesn’t matter if the textbooks are for students taking English as a first language rather than as a second language. The Singapore marking system is adopted although the requirements of the IGCSE differs from the GCE O levels. Singapore schools’ examination paper format is adopted rather than one more suitable for the IGCSE. Force fitting is the Singapore way it seems with some educational consultancies from Singapore.

This has resulted in great confusion. It shows also just how unprofessional such Singapore consultancies have been. They have not even bothered to find out the differences between the two countries. They remind me of Procrustes of Greek mythology who would either stretch his victims on a bed-like rack or cut off their excess length to fit the rack. The rack is always correct.

ICT for education is now a popular catch phrase. Schools use it to advertise the progressive nature and vendors of “educational” ICT tools also jump on the bandwagon to sell their products to schools. Some even promote themselves as consultants to schools to sell these ICT tools to schools. But ICT for education is not just about tools. It is also about how to use ICT tools in a very pedagogically sound manner. To be sure, ICT for education also includes its use for  the administration and monitoring of a school’s activities. However, here I will limit the discussion to the use of ICT for learning.The knowledge of the technical aspect of the ICT tool is important but for it to be used as an educational tool, great thought must be given to what learning is to take place with it and how that learning is to take place

Schools, therefore, have to be aware of this important element in using ICT for education, especially when they are dealing with vendors masquerading as consultants. Many of these vendors are only keen to sell their products to the school but cannot advise the schools on the quality use fo the tools for learning. Schools keen to use ICT can fall prey to such vendors because often schools themselves have little expertise in the use of ICT for learning.

Among the questions that schools need to ask vendors or consultants are:

a) how the tools are to be used;

b) the frequency of use, the learning goals that can be achieved with the tools;

c) the limitations of the tools;

d) the kind of training that is required for the teachers;and

e) the learning curve for mastery of the tool

Consultants claiming to have expertise in ICT use for education should also be quizzed on their understanding of learning as a process and not only as an ICT platform. Schools owe it to themselves to do these because usually not only are the ICT tools relatively expensive but all too often it is being pushed only for its promotional and novelty value and not due to some real educational objectives.