Giga Connectivity Centre
Geneva
Switzerland
- Alex Högback
- Gustavo Fonseca Ribeiro
- Carolina Anselmino
- Arianna Jater
Intermediate
Event Organizer(s)
Initiative
Description
Expanding school connectivity is not only a technical challenge, it is a governance and ecosystem coordination endeavour that underpins the digital transformation of education systems. This intensive, four-day hands-on training explores how countries can design, govern, and scale school connectivity initiatives as part of broader digital public infrastructure (DPI) and e-government service reforms.
Over four days, participants will examine key components of digital governance from policy and institutional frameworks to multi-actor coordination, financing, and change management. Through a blend of theory lectures, interactive sessions, co-creation activities, and site visits, participants will engage with real-world examples of how digital infrastructure, leadership, and collaboration models can enable inclusive and resilient digital societies. The course will also introduce the role of DPI in education and the growing importance of public digital learning platforms, offering practical tools to design and implement locally relevant strategies for sustainable school connectivity, bringing examples from successful programmes worldwide.
Participants will leave with a shared understanding of how to align connectivity efforts with national digital strategies, strengthen inter-ministerial and public–private cooperation, consider the needs for DPI and digital learning platforms in the education context, and translate global principles into actionable local roadmaps.
Government/public sector officers, ICT policy makers, education ministry officials, and stakeholders responsible for designing and delivering national school connectivity projects.
Qualifications or experience needed to participate in this training course:
- Experience with public sector policymaking or digital infrastructure planning, understanding of education systems, digital literacy
- Proficiency in English
Selection criteria:
- Selection will be conducted by the course organizers, who will consider the above entry requirements along with an analysis of the application questionnaire and the recommendation/motivation letter of each applicant.
Number of available places for the cohort: 30
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Apply key principles of digital governance relevant to education and connectivity, including institutional coordination, policy coherence, and leadership models.
- Analyze the ecosystem of actors involved in planning and implementing digitalization of education systems from government ministries to telecom operators, regulators, and local communities.
- Assess national readiness using multidimensional frameworks and identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
- Design effective change management strategies to drive digital transformation in schools, including stakeholder engagement, communication, and capacity-building.
- Explore and leverage Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for education services, using modular, interoperable building blocks.
- Plan and operationalize change-management strategies for adoption and impact of digitalization initiatives.
- Co-create context-specific roadmaps for achieving school connectivity that balance technical, institutional, and human elements.
- Draw lessons from global good practices and site visits, applying insights from successful digital reforms to their own contexts.
- Strengthen collaboration and peer learning across countries and sectors to promote inclusive, sustainable, and resilient school connectivity initiatives
This course will use a highly interactive and experiential learning approach, combining theoretical input with practical exercises, peer learning, and real-world case-study analysis. The methodology is designed to help participants internalize digital governance principles and apply them to their own national contexts for scaling school connectivity.
Delivery of key concepts and tools:
- Instructor-led sessions will introduce the foundational concepts of digital governance, ecosystem and change management, and digital public infrastructure (DPI) for education.
- Demonstrations of frameworks and tools (e.g., digital maturity models, stakeholder mapping templates, and DPI building blocks) will give participants a concrete foundation for practical application.
- Guest lectures by policy leaders and technical experts will provide insight into real-world governance challenges and success factors.
Interactivity and applied learning
- Problem-based learning activities will place participants in realistic decision-making scenarios, such as coordinating multi-actor connectivity initiatives or designing monitoring frameworks.
- Co-creation labs will engage teams in drafting reform pathways and connectivity roadmaps tailored to their national contexts.
- Case study analysis will be presented in a STAR format (Situation–Task–Action–Result), allowing participants to compare their proposed solutions to actual outcomes.
Knowledge reinforcement and reflection
- Guided (self-)reflection prompts will help participants connect insights to their institutional realities and identify concrete next steps for implementation.
- Peer learning will be emphasized through regional groupwork, cross-country discussions, and plenary syntheses, enabling mutual learning and exchange.
- Tutoring and mentoring by subject-matter experts will provide targeted support for reflection and feedback throughout the training.
Experiential Components
- Site visits
- Participant groups will develop a draft Connectivity and Governance Roadmap country integrating policy, institutional, and digital infrastructure dimensions for their chosen country.
Attendance and Participation = 20%
Full attendance is required. Active contributions during plenary discussions, workshops, site visits, and peer exchanges will be observed and noted by facilitators
Applied Groupwork and Co-Creation Labs = 40%
Conducted progressively across the four days. Groups will work on a realistic multi-stakeholder school connectivity scenario. Exercises include:
- Day 1: Mapping the Education Ecosystem and the Role of ICT (As-Is Mapping)
- Day 2: Designing DPI-Enabled Initiatives/Policies for School Connectivity
- Day 3: Change Management: Driving Adoption and Measuring Impact
- Day 4: Designing a Scalable Connectivity Roadmap
Outputs (worksheets, drafts, flipcharts) will be reviewed using a light rubric emphasizing collaboration, relevance, innovation, and sustainability.
Final Roadmap Presentation / Synthesis Exercise = 40%
On Day 4, groups will present their Connectivity and Governance Roadmap in plenary. Presentations will be assessed on clarity, feasibility, application of digital governance and DPI principles, change management principles and contextual relevance. Peer and expert feedback will be provided.
Total = 100%
Module 1 : Digital Society Principles and Education Systems’ Role in it
- Introduction to Principles of Digital Society
- Introduction to DPI for Education
- Global Digital Ecosystem and Governance Dimensions.
- Mapping the Education Ecosystem and the role of ICT currently (As-Is mapping)
Module 2: Digital Public Infrastructure and Governance for Scalable School Connectivity
- Digital Public Infrastructure in Practice: Global Case Studies (DPIs in practice)
- Case Study: Estonia’s Tiger Leap and AI Leap
- Designing DPI-Enabled Governance Models
Module 3: Change Management and Building Multi-Level Buy-In
- Change Management for Digital Transformation Initiatives in the Education Sector
- Local Government and Community Engagement
- Change Management in Action: Driving Adoption and Measuring Impact
Module 4: Roadmap to School Connectivity
- Designing a Scalable Connectivity Roadmap
- Final Co-Creation Lab: Presentation Preparation
- Final presentations & feedback
- Closing and Certificate Ceremony
Financial support available
The training is offered free of charge. Travel and daily subsistence allowances will be covered for selected participants from countries currently engaged in the Giga Initiative:
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eswatini, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Panama, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Applicants can apply to both the course and the fellowship by clicking on "Apply Here" at the top right part of this page.
Nationals from countries not included in the list above are welcome to apply, but they must commit to self-finance all of their costs if selected.
Tutors
Registration information
Unless specified otherwise, all ITU Academy training courses are open to all interested professionals, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, economic status and other diverse backgrounds. We strongly encourage registrations from female participants, and participants from developing countries. This includes least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries.
