Information society course Comparing Afghanistan to EU (Greece and Finland) Pekka Makkonen Lecturer of information systems University of Jyväskylä (JyU) FINLAND 1

NIMA NIMA (National institute of management and administration) in Kabul – Established in 2007 – Got funds from WB (World Bank) – For young people who like to learn business or ICT, but who can not become students at universities – Three schools Management (300 students) Accounting (300 students) ICT (200 students) 2

Educational development Generally, it is needed because mid-class without problems is important for welfare and the smooth development of countries Important, because it will stop joining extreme groups – Young people have hope Infrastructure of the country can be improved In the ICT sector Afghanistan can follow the Indian way – It requires more peaceful environment 3

NIMA as a project (1/2) NIMA project was started on August 2009 under World Bank funding There are firms like Maxwell Stamp Plc (MSP), which are focus on development projects in developing countries NIMA project was led by MSP (JyU was a subcontractor) JyU provided ICT school management and accreditation – The accreditation means that Afghans can get certificates from both countries after completing educational program The client was the Afghan ministry of education 4

NIMA as a project (2/2) Agile methods were applied – The representatives of the client – The director of NIMA was from the ministry He was available all the time for different kind of approvals and negotiations – Teacher training program The idea was that these trainees would take over teaching at NIMA after the project World Bank was reviewing – Check points at NIMA 5

First phase of NIMA project Curriculum development – Focus on technical skills – Based on the India scenario Programming fundamentals(C++, Java) Operating systems Networks Databases – (SQL, Oracle) Web engineering (JavaScript, JavaApplets, PHP, MySQL, ASP.NET, VB.NET) Project skills In Finland ICT curriculums are many-sided – Because of the needs of the society and business – At JyU we have three lanes after basic studies Systems development Digital media E-commerce 6

First infrastructure development activities at NIMA At the beginning (August, 2009) four computers for the staff In September and October all the classes were on a chalkboard basis In November four lab were started – No LAN or Internet was available – We needed to download required software on DVDs first, where Internet was available From DVDs we installed software on the single computers – We utilized open-source software 7

Semester 2 (September 2009-January 2010) Semester 1 was given by NIMA itself earlier in 2009 E-commerce and web site building – We used Notepad and web browser since late November Operating systems – Course exercises on paper basis C++ programming – Free environment Bloodshed C++ was in use since late November Database fundamentals – SQL queries on the paper Swine flue closed the school in Afghanistan from Nov 1. to Nov. 21 – NO vaccination program in Afghanistan for that Problems also included some corruption between students and teachers 8

Semester 3 Java programming –course – For exercises Java Development Kit Command-prompt based PHP and MySQL –course – Wampserver Enabled testing server-based web-applications locally Computer and network maintenance –course Management information systems –course We develop plans for the LAN, Internet connections, library and placement (after semester 4) 9

Semester 4 VB.NET –course ASP.NET –course Advanced course on datebases – Oracle and database administration Project management After that semester placement in other words practical training 10

Exercise 2-5 students in one group (you can select other group members freely) Use 20 minutes for next reflective exercise Think about previous issues in Greece context – What kind of guidelines are needed for developing ICT education? What are the main professions after this education in ICT generally? ICT professionals´ positions in the future of Greece (after 5-10 years) – What are the good areas in Greek information society and what are the bad areas from individual perspective and corporate perspective? – What efforts are needed for improving Greek information society? What gives competitive advantage for Greece 11

References Faculty of IT at the University of Jyväskylä – About Finland – About Afghanistan – 12