Introduction
The quest to transform the global education systems that are requisite to reflect the real-world experiences required in different professional fields has raised an urgent urge for educational structures to embrace information and communication technologies (ICT). While efficient elementary education and relevant high are important for educational foundation, appropriate tertiary education is essential for career growth (Baker, 2012).
Considering the major transformations and global educational trends where computer studies and training are becoming compulsory for students as part of educational policies geared towards embracing ICT, the most developed and developing economies are increasing efforts in ICT integration in learning (DeGroff & Cargo, 2009). Policy development has been the framework of most institutions were members of education fraternity design strategies of integrating ICT in education. Fundamental to such issues, this essay discusses the concepts of policy, education policy, and reviews major issues concerning ICT in education policy in Australia and Pakistan.
Overview of Concept of Policy
Perhaps, there is a major reason as to why people work in an organized manner or through bureaucratic arrangements, which seem to enable the smooth running of activities and plans. Although there may not exist a specific definition of the word policy, in its natural sense the word may refer to a pragmatic process of decision-making that results in the development of strategies to address a problem (Paudel, 2009). The concept of the policy comes in two different phases that include policy development or policy formulation and policy implementation or policy accomplishment.
In policy formulation, members of an organization or any form of corporate entity or sector come together to design subjects, norms, practices, and regulations related to an aimed activity or a predetermined plan for a defined program. According to Paudel (2009), the contributions towards policymaking, formulation, or development is what makes policy members become known as policymakers due to their involvement in the process.
Policymaking is a pragmatic process that allows a subsequent process known as policy implementation or policy accomplishment. From such a viewpoint, one can define a policy as a strategy or plan of a predetermined program, guided by agreed norms and standards in its implementation process (DeGroff & Cargo, 2009). Policy implementation involves all the requisite activities under the stipulated conditions that allow the effective achievement of the predetermined goals and objectives of the strategized plan.
Policy implementers are the people involved in ensuring efficient achievement of the predetermined program or planned objectives in the most desirable manner and in accordance with the specified norms and conditions of the policy accomplishment. As DeGroff and Cargo (2009) postulate, policy development and implementation process often act as strategic guiding principles of achieving a desired plan or program in a department or sector related to an organization or institution. Policies are guiding plans in organizations that are both in public and private sectors around the world.
Overview of the Concept of Education Policy
Just like other organizations, schools are renowned public or private entities that form an important part of the professional growth of individuals within different areas of specializations. Formal learning to an extreme end has been a crucial process where direct government involvement in organizing and planning of school programs has been widespread (Bell & Stevenson, 2006).
Therefore, this means that the goals of school, fee payment processes, management, resourcing, and activities in schools have been within the control and planning of national governments. In the broadest sense, education policy may literally mean the government established guiding principles, strategies, and norms of running schools in a nation (Bell & Stevenson, 2006). Government controlled education policy covers a continuum of issues ranging from school leadership, school funding, school resourcing, and school programming.
Education policies across the world frequently act as frameworks of running elementary, secondary, and tertiary institutions, whether state-owned or private-owned and are practicable norms in most nations. Education policing in institutional leadership involves the direct engagement of governments in designing, regulating, and deciding school leadership placements, ruling regulations, and school planning.
Education policy in school funding entails the fee payment strategies, financing of infrastructural building, payment of school-related expenses, and settlement of teachers’ remunerations and purchasing of school resources. Education policy in school resourcing involves all the strategies of governments geared towards providing learning materials, curriculum development resources, school planning resources, and school infrastructural materials. Education policy in school planning and programming involves the principles and actions of governments that guide the planning of school activities, programs, curriculum, and other co-curriculum activities.
Constant restructuring and modification of public sectors and services to reflect modern transformations have prompted governments to indulge in making learning institutions as important facets of government sectors given the assumed educational benefits. Most governments saw the need to improve learning institutions, given the increasing demand for education as a paramount source of knowledge, skills, and competencies required within employment institutions.
From formally regulating simple administrative and funding capacities of schools from national to the regional level, the concept of education policy are currently proving to be fundamental in the entire management of schools. According to Bell and Stevenson (2006), “global pressures focus increasing attention on the outcomes of education policy and on their implications for economic prosperity and social citizenship” in the current world (p. 1). Education policy has become a continental agenda where governments are seeking to nurture young talents, enhance career development, improve institutional innovation, and permeate the desired professional competencies among the prospective workforce.
ICT in education policy of Australia & Pakistan
Education policy is an international issue that has manifested itself within the structures of most governments within the education paradigm. According to Jhurree (2005), due to increased demand for enhanced career competence and knowledge, modern education policies in developed and some developing organizations have sought for the integration of ICT in the planning and structuring of learning. The increased demand for technology has prompted governments to integrate ICT in education policy as a fundamental component necessary for improving learning (Tunio, Rashid, & Abro, 2014).
The dramatic growth of information and technology systems that seem to enhance efficiency has influenced educational policymakers in Australia and Pakistan and made them understand the manner in which technology is capable of reshaping learning and teaching processes (Khan, Hassan, & Clement, 2012). The use of ICT in the teaching and learning processes of Pakistan and Australia has been practicable, but the history of development, levels of progress, expansion techniques, government support, and involvement differ distinctively.
Origin of the ICT Education Policy in the Two Nations
ICT Education Policy in Australia
Australia is a giant economy whose government has initiated numerous technology programs and plans tailored towards improving government sectors, including the rapidly growing education system (Baker, 2012). In Australia, ICT Education Policy emerged after a series of transformations in the public education administration systems when computer lessons began dominating learning institutions. Early developments concerning the use of ICT in the Australian education system began when enthused educators independently decided to introduce computers as part of the school studies (Baker, 2012).
Subsequently, these educators devised approaches to ensuring that computer studies and programs form an integral part of the learning within learning institutions. As the interest for working and associating with computers grew steadily within offices and workplaces, the growing urge for computers in education also picked momentum gradually across Australia (Moyle, 2010). Independent learning institutions, supportive non-government organizations, and the Australian government intervened in supporting schools financially to elevate computer studies and develop appropriate policies to support ICT in schools.
The interest of the Australian government in integrating ICT in education and its pertinent policies and programs immediately began with ensuring that students sufficiently familiarized with computers and understood the main elements of computers (Baker, 2012). After making institutions function as small technological societies, the ICT policy development and school programming began expeditiously when policymakers and educators suddenly recognized the vigour of computers in learning.
According to Moyle (2010), towards the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, Australian education policymakers delved into ensuring that ICT acts as a mainstay for supporting learning through an ICT-based curriculum. As a strategy of transforming learning and teaching practices, policymakers formulated a plethora of guidelines, policies and regulations to stabilize the ICT integration into the education system of Australia (Simpson, 2010). The Australian government finally dominated the strategy of ensuring that ICT forms an integral part of learning by ensuring that effective policymaking strategies exist to guide learners and teachers in the use of ICT.
The ICT education Policy of Australia became a renowned aspect when efforts to amalgamate Australian education with global learning trends increased towards the end of the twentieth century (Moyle, 2010). Being a relevant member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the government has been supportive of issues regarding the Australian ICT Education Policy. Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education is a subset organization of UNESCO within the Asian-Pacific region that has placed great emphasis on policy formulation and implementation of ICT in education.
The government-mandated the Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to take charge of ICT policy formulation and implementation within learning institutions (Baker, 2010). The ACARA organization supports the government in ensuring that technology remains a vital tool in supporting almost all forms of learning and teaching activities in the learning institutions. The Australian government tasked the Australian States to oversee education progress, and it is supportive of the implementation of the ICT Education Policy.
ICT Education Policy in Pakistan
Comparatively, Pakistan is one among the swiftly growing South-East Asian countries that have lately discovered the rising impetus of education as an integral part of reinforcing a knowledge-based economy. Khan, Hassan, and Clement (2012) reveal that Pakistan has been relatively slow in establishing its education foundations until the emergence of technological advancements in the 21st century prompted a hasty need for ICT in education as a pillar of professional competence and innovation.
Towards the end of the 20th century, learning institutions with well-established infrastructure and knowledgeable educators decided to delve into offering computer-related studies (Nisar, Munir, & Shad, 2011). The use of ICT in education began with comparatively low student turnover in the 1980s through integrated ICT labs in a few schools across Pakistan. During this moment, Pakistan had begun realizing that education is a significant means of enhancing economic progress and reducing poverty. The urge to build a sustainable knowledge-based economy and knowledge societies increased with the increase in the awareness and adoption of ICT in major government sectors.
Given its perceived efficacy, the government educators and policymakers gained confidence in the integration of ICT within the education parameters. Hassan and Sajid (2012) state that, “information and communication technologies (ICTs) came out as a mixture of actually influential tools for the advancement, change, and reform in education” (p. 51). Pakistan began with ensuring that higher learning institutions such as universities and tertiary colleges consider ICT as a tool for driving major curriculum activities.
The national government of Pakistan has ensured that higher learning institutions have remained equipped with the required ICT tools, including the Internet, computer hardware material, and necessary computer software (Hassan & Sajid, 2012). Although there is considerable lack of confidence and experience amongst teachers and school administrators in using modern technology, the ICT education policy of Pakistan has struggled to provide frameworks of enhancing ICT knowledge through its primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum arrangements (Hassan & Sajid, 2012). Pakistan operates through a decentralized education administration unit.
Since the inception of ICT integration in education, the Pakistan education department has been in the forefront in establishing curriculum standards that partially reflect learning process, which supports the development of Pakistani knowledge-based economy (Mujahid, 2002). The ICT education policy of Pakistan regulates the integration of ICT integration and its implementation in elementary, secondary, and university levels, which are major foundations of establishing a knowledge-based economy.
Since the knowledge and confidence in ICT have been considerably low among instructors and school administrators, the education policymakers have ensured that the ICT education policy covers ICT teacher training within government institutions, research centers and in campuses (Asabere & Ahmed, 2013). Within the elementary and primary learning institutions, the Pakistani government has ensured that policymakers and implementers consider the effective use of computers, Internet, software, and other ICT learning instruments (Nawaz, 2012). Just as in distance learning, ICT policymakers in secondary and elementary institutions are nowadays seeking to expand innovation by guaranteeing the use of ICT in pedagogical planning of learning.
Significant Developments over the Recent Years
Recent ICT Education Policy advances in Australia
The Australian ministry of education has emerged with efforts to ensure that the implementation of policies for ICT in education have heightened within the government and private learning institutions (Bruniges, 2005). The Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) has sought numerous joint ventures with organizations such as the Education Network Australia (EdNA) and The Learning Federation (TLF).
Despite the fact that the Australian education system operates on a decentralized platform where individual states remain mandated to oversee learning in institutions, there is a considerable consistency in the manner in which the ICT education initiative is progressing (Bruniges, 2005). Policymaking concerning ICT integration and implementation in learning institutions has transformed from merely direct government involvement towards a unified system, where government-private joint ventures seem to collude. The curriculum development systems have advanced from teaching merely computer packages in secondary and colleges to a meaningful approach of delivering lessons and instructions through virtual classrooms.
As a pursuit to transform the learning system of Australia, education policymakers have reasoned out that technology is essential in the breakthrough of economic growth and professionalism (Bruniges, 2005). In nearly all public and private schools serving within most of the Australian states, computers are acting as educational resources in teaching and learning of subjects within classrooms. The Australian education policymakers have recently instigated educational reforms through transforming the manner in which instructors and educators create their pedagogies (Baker, 2012).
The Australian government has provided an incredible support to stabilize the restructuring, structuring, and new designing of the academic content that would support the use and implementation of the ICT education system across various institutional platforms. Baker (2012) states that a policy framework that controls pedagogical formulation, implementation of modern pedagogies, controls classroom ICT related activities, and ensures appropriate ICT lab practices is in place within the Australian education realm. A high level of constitutional responsibility concerning ICT education matters has increased considerably.
Recent transformations of Australian education to accommodate ICT education policy have been eminent through the efforts of government to transform the three resource elements of learning, namely, physical learning infrastructure, technological learning infrastructure, and the organizational resources (Moyle, 2010). To broaden the efforts of ensuring that ICT education is mandatory in learning institutions, the Australian national and state governments have renovated school buildings, constructed new learning institutions, increased classroom furniture, electrified classrooms, and integrated the required ICT laboratories to accommodate ICT networks and hardware (Moyle, 2010).
The Australian state governments have also ensured that computer hardware, computer software, ICT networking instruments, and other technological infrastructure are somewhat available. Organizational infrastructure involves the implementers and administrators of the ICT education policies, who are often the teachers and school leaders (Moyle, 2010). Although still posing a challenge, Australian state governments are promoting the idea of teachers engaging in regular in-service ICT trainings and staff development programs that seem vital to ICT education.
Recent ICT Education Policy advances in Pakistan
The Pakistani government has ensured that within a short span, the ICT education policy framework is at least transforming the ICT learning structures. Although lack of appropriate ICT skills, ICT unstable infrastructure, and inadequate time to integrate ICT, and inefficient implementation process of ICT education policy in Pakistan are major setbacks, recent developments are pleasing. Fatima, Shafique, and Firdous (2012) note that the government has been struggling to support institutions to increase the scope of ICT education policy from simply teaching computer package programs to a more complex process, which entails the inclusion of ICT in main programs and activities of learning and teaching.
Within the tertiary institution level, recent advancement in the policy on the use of ICT in education involves the government support information of modern state-of-art universities that support ICT use and implementation (Fatima, Shafique, & Firdous, 2012). The Foundation for Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) are profound ICT education providers honored for ICT technologies.
The Pakistani government has realized that the nation has a limited number of ICT technology workforces in both private and public entities, and thus, it has commenced an aggressive campaign earmarked towards reinforcing innovation through ICT knowledge acquisition is a plausible solution. Regarding ICT policy in secondary schools, the Pakistani government is struggling to ensure that teachers remain in the forefront in encouraging ICT adoption and use by incorporating ICT aspects in pedagogical arrangements (Mahmood & Khan, 2007).
The government is gradually advocating for teachers to embrace ICT in curriculum by ensuring that learners are capable of understanding the basic concepts of ICT and computer use. From the elementary levels, the government has increased its urge for teachers to acquire skills necessary in designing learning, instructional delivery, and assessment of learner achievement levels in certain aspects of education (Hassan & Sajid, 2012). Learners are receiving basic math computational techniques, uses of learning videos, emailing techniques, and other forms of ICT knowledge that build cognitive skills among learners.
Current Status and Content of the ICT Policies
Current Status of ICT education Policy in Australia
The Australian ICT education policy has progressed from small initiatives towards a national program where the aspects of integration and implementation of ICT have become constitutional. As per the report of national ICT progress in Australia, over 7.1 million computer users are Internet subscribers, with over 9 million people owning computers in Australia (Moyle, 2010).
The Australian formal education sector has witnessed an expansion of an upsurge in its computer and ICT infrastructure development with an estimated ratio of 3.3 computers per each learning student at school (Moyle, 2010). Under the foundations of MCEETYA, about 93% of students from different learning institutions have indicated that they possess computers at home, over 83% of the students with computers indicated to have internet access, while 67% were already using educational software by the fiscal year of 2010 (Moyle, 2010). Internet and network access tools have been quite available in schools and learning institutions within the arrangements of the Australian formal education sector.
In the same fiscal year of 2010, the Australian government report on the progress of ICT education policy revealed that over 65% of elementary and secondary schools had access to the Internet bandwidth of about 2 megabyte capacity (Baker, 2012). This was a significant progress compared to only 10 percent of schools that had the Internet connection in the year 2002, and only 40% of schools that remained networked during the year 2004 with a majority having less than 256 kilobytes bandwidth connectivity during that moment (Baker, 2012).
The 2008 Digital Education Revolution initiative has achieved immense ICT policy implementation, where issues regarding the use of ICT in educational pedagogy, social networking, ICT identity and learning e-portfolios, and student assessment are issues receiving great concern. The Australian government is in constant search for a global inventive and efficient learning environment that completely utilizes ICT in education delivery, creative thinking, and high-end training. The government is financing mega projects such as web 2.0 and related activities across its economic sectors.
Current Content of ICT Education Policy in Australia
There are two major institutions of ICT education policymaking mandated by the Australian government to oversee the content development of ICT policy, structure formulation, and implementation (Baker, 2012). These include the 2008 Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) and the Digital Education Revolution (DER). The policymakers have combined the ICT education policy document that reflects the needs and desires of the Australian government towards ICT adoption and implementation in the Australian learning institutions.
The Digital Education Revolution (DER) has its mandate in education ICT policy formulation as the Australian government has requested. The DER policy revolves around commanding schools to provide learners aged between 9-12 with computers and ICT resources such as high-speed broadband connectivity (Baker, 2012). The DER policymakers also encourage sustained expansion of online curriculum content, development of web portfolios, provision of ICT conferencing facilities, pre-service and in-service training, and professional development initiatives for teachers and instructors.
Australian National ICT Plans for Schools as stipulated in the national ICT policy is to reinforce the ICT elements that incredibly seem to relate to pedagogical planning and digital content necessary to achieve online learning (Baker, 2012). The national ICT policy states that Australia shall possess a technology enabled learning environment that is essential in enhancing students’ educational success for the betterment of society and national economy (Baker, 2012). The national ICT policy advocates for schools to support the development of ICT related skills.
In essence, ICT related skills that the national education ICT policy requires include social media and online social interaction through various academic-related social media platforms, innovation and cross-disciplinary critical reasoning, and skills in the use of digital media. According to Baker (2012), “high-quality and relevant digital content can be provided to teachers and students in technology-rich online learning environments, which enables new forms of learning, collaboration, innovation, and communication” (p. 2). This means that the Australian ICT policy is responsive to the dynamics of ICT in education.
Additionally, the Australian national ICT policy for schools believes that learners should have a chance to remain active contributors in knowledge development and should increasingly gain access to state-of-art tools that support modern means of learning, innovation, collaboration, and communication (Simpson, 2010). The Australian ICT policy for education in schools has advocated for increased and relentless expansion of ICT technology to all the learning institutions, regardless of their geographical positions, religious affiliation, or cultural association.
Current Status of ICT education Policy in Pakistan
Despite drawbacks in the integration and implementation of ICT education policies in Pakistan, a considerable achievement is slowly becoming renowned. The current adoption and ICT policy implementation in Pakistan learning institutions seem to improve greatly despite numerous challenges impinging the plans (Fatima, Shafique, & Firdous, 2012). From the secondary school level, Pakistan has currently achieved the target of ensuring that computer studies are mandatory in the curriculum.
By the year 2011, approximately 35% of 9,200 secondary and tertiary institutions met the standard requirements of science and ICT laboratories, although contrary to the expectations of the Education Sector Reforms (Fatima, Shafique, & Firdous, 2012). Since the government is mainly responsible for funding the national education department, the struggle to ensure that the construction of over 3,000 new science laboratories, including ICT labs has been an upheaval in the Pakistani national government. The education is under the central system of administration where the national government develops education policies and oversees implementations.
Although elementary schools and secondary schools seem slightly behind the use of ICT compared to tertiary technical and vocational colleges, students in the lower institutions have embraced computer related lessons through the curriculum (Fatima, Shafique, & Firdous, 2012). Elementary and secondary school teachers are slowly receiving the ICT curriculum development studies.
To boost ICT teaching competence in learning institutions, elementary teachers, secondary teachers, and lectures are regularly attending ICT training and development course in technical and vocational institutions. sA number of private and public universities with eligible ICT capacities have increased dramatically since the year 2000, with the majority of them receiving financial and resource support from the Pakistani government (Nawaz, 2012). The knowledge of university bachelor students in computer core areas such as computer programming, object oriented studies, database systems, computer communication networks, and software development have improved although at a slow pace.
Current Content of ICT education Policy in Pakistan
The Pakistani national ICT policy for education has a vision of harnessing the Information Technology as a contributor of economic development. Nonetheless, there is generally a great confusion between national ICT general policies and ICT policies meant specifically for the education system (Nawaz, 2012). Such intricacies are making it uneasy for education policymakers to create ICT foundations in most of the Pakistani development agendas. However, the Pakistani government has singled out certain specific ICT education policies that require national attention from educators.
The first national ICT policy for Pakistan states that the government should collaborate with like-minded ICT supporters, facilitators, and companies in ensuring that all learning institutions receive the desired support for integrating and implementing ICT platforms (Mahmood & Khan, 2007). The second ICT is the integration and the usage policy in schools, which aims to ensure that people become extremely involved in the ICT related programs and not merely advocating for technological options. The Pakistani government wants its scholars to act as contributors of ICT innovations.
The third ICT education policy requires teachers and instructors of institutions to undergo voluntary ICT training and development to acquire skills necessary for the integration and effective use of ICT in education (Mahmood & Khan, 2007). The fourth ICT policy requires teachers and instructors to increase their engagement with ICT related facilities and resources as a means of increasing familiarity with the technological instruments (Mahmood & Khan, 2007). The ICT education policy also encourages teachers to develop new models of learning using ICT and train in ICT curriculum developments if possible.
Comparison of ICT Policy Implementation in the Two States
The urge to acquire ICT as a means of driving education is almost equivalent in the two nations, although approaches of policy development and implementation differ to certain extents. The development of ICT learning policies and approaches towards implementation seem disorganized in Pakistan when compared to Australia. While the national government of Pakistan has endowed itself with the task of funding and implementing policies, the Australian government has empowered individual states to oversee ICT policy implementation.
The form of decentralized education system in Australia seems to allow a smooth transition of learning from traditional approaches to ICT-based learning. Comparatively, whereas the push to have trained ICT workers put Australia at a more advanced ICT education policy implementation, the national interests of seeing ICT as an economic breakthrough is hampering implementation efforts in Pakistan. Complete government sponsorship makes ICT education policy in Pakistan suffer expansion challenges given the slow pace in the construction of science and ICT labs.
The Australian government seems to lay better ICT accomplishment strategies than the Pakistani government. The setback of the Pakistani government is that it advocated for the establishment of state-owned ICT labs before ensuring enough access to computer resources. The entire interest of the Australian government in the underway ICT education policy is to understand the manner in which ICT impacts learning and innovation, while Pakistan have already viewed ICT education growth as an economic endeavor.
This explains the reason why the Australian government has ensured that ICT integration and implementation receives maximum support of elementary, secondary, and tertiary learning institutions compared to Pakistan, whose ICT adoption is greater in universities that in other lower learning institutions. What makes the Pakistani approach towards educational ICT exemplary is the support offered to foreign ICT investors, allied educational partners, and non-governmental organizations. Pakistan has remained committed to ensuring that serious ICT software and hardware investors receive the desired government support to establish their companies.
Possible Future Direction of ICT Policy in the Two Nations
The prospective future of ICT education policy in Australia and Pakistan is comparatively positive given the relentless efforts that the two governments have offered to ICT adoption and implementation. For Australia, the efforts of government to establish state-of-the-art learning centers within the lower learning institutions make the nation have a great possibility of ensuring an achievement of having a diversified ICT knowledge base with competent graduates and professionals (Simpson, 2010).
However, the use of ICT as a tool in instructional delivery and pedagogical development remains a key challenge in most learning institutions given the moderately low numbers of ICT skilled instructors and teachers. The future of the ICT policy implementation is brilliant as majority of learners and civilians have understood the importance of ICT and acquired the basic skills that they would probably impart to the upcoming generation during the transition period (Moyle, 2010). The well-established universities, ICT resource centers, and increasing ICT competence make Australia the future ICT hub.
Pakistan stands at a quandary with the possibility of having efficient ICT knowledge-driven learning institutions and workplace proving either successful or wanting. The foundations of developing ICT education policies in Pakistan are government-driven where the Pakistani government seems to have a domineering aspect of the ICT policy development and implementation (Tunio, Rashid, & Abro, 2014).
The interest of establishing ICT education policy frameworks has proven concentrated in higher learning institutions where undergraduates have probably already undergone the traditional training system in their elementary and secondary institutions. Without increasing efforts in establishing ICT in the elementary institutions where hope for developing fresh ICT knowledge exists, Pakistan may experience downbeats in its quest to make the nation a prospective knowledge-based economy. As the need for ICT infrastructure in learning institutions increases in Pakistan, the government is still struggling to construct ICT and science laboratories within state-owned schools (Nawaz, 2012). The Pakistani bureaucratic lethargy would probably make the ICT implementation costly and sluggish.
Conclusion
The quest to have ICT workforce that drives technological advancements has pushed governments globally to find means of integrating and implementing ICT education policies in learning institutions. The Australian and Pakistani governments are two economies that have recently realized the need to embrace and implement ICT education policies as strategies of enhancing ICT competencies in workplaces.
The two nations have demonstrated credible interest in adopting the ICT learning systems through the integration of ICT education policies within the most of their learning institutions. What places Pakistan on the verge of triumph is its support of foreign and local companies that are willing to invest in ICT resources, ICT infrastructure, and ICT human capital. However, a demeaning aspect is its bureaucratic lethargy compared to Australia where learning has remained highly decentralized to state governments that seem to relieve the national government from economic and development pressures that diminish ICT growth strategies.
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