Peter Knight and Michael Moore worked with a team in Peru's Ministry of Education and with World Bank staff over the period 24-28 April 2000 to help prepare the Second Peruvian Education Quality Improvement Project (MECEP II). 

The project as presently conceived includes two major technological components -- the use of distance education in rural areas, and the use of computers in schools.

The rural distance education component has two sub-components. 

The largest and most technologically complex provides secondary education with the support of video and print materials (in the pilot phase), with an increasing use of satellite delivery of video over the next three years, starting with standard analog video, and moving toward an increasing use of digital television signals with return feed of telephony, fax, and data (Internet) using VSAT terminals beginning in the year 2001. 

There is also a rural radio education for parents of young children intended to provide basic instruction in early childhood care and development. For this purpose programming is regionalized and put into local languages, and traveling teams of trained extension agents visit local community groups.  The objective is to support the most remote dispersed and hard-to-reach population.

The computers in schools component involves the use of stand-alone computers in primary schools, with an existing pilot program involving the Lego-Logo system (InfoEscuela). For secondary schools, networked computers linked to the Internet and involving collaborative projects, within the schools, and between schools at both the national and international levels are planned. There is an existing pilot program for secondary school program, EduRed, which also includes a number of schools participating in the World Links for Development and GLOBE programs.

Peter Knight and Michael Moore served respectively as technology and distance education specialists to review existing project preparation, and to make recommendations for completing project preparation. The World Bank team included Livia Benavides and Isabel Segura. Project staff made presentations on the existing state of project preparation, and arranged visits with key units in the Ministry as well as schools in the greater Lima region where pilot projects were observed. 

At the end of the mission Peter Knight and Michael Moore made a PowerPoint presentation to the project team reviewing their findings. They also conducted a session on economic analysis of projects, the definition of learning objectives, and their integration of learning objectives into the national and regional curriculums defined by the Ministry of Education. Key recommendations included a greater attention to economic analysis of project costs and benefits, more systematic analysis of different alternatives for achieving project objectives, and better integration between the introduction of advanced educational technologies and learning objectives. 

The mission findings were presented in a written report which, together with the PowerPoint presentation may be available here if approval is obtained from the World Bank and the Peruvian Ministry of Education. 

Here are some photos taken during the mission.

Jorge Ferradas, Project Leader, opens a discussion session	Maria Elena Vattuone and Carlos Renzo present the conceptual framework for use of new technologies in the classroom
Peter Knight learns from a Peruvian student in the WorLD project at an EduRed school in Chorillos, south of Lima	César Hidalgo presents the Rural Distance Education component
Isabel Segovia, Michael Moore, Livia Benavides, and Zorobabel Cancino watch a presentation	Michael Moore and Peter Knight leave an InfoEscuela School
Jorge Gutiérrez of the World Bank Institute's WorLD Links program with Peruvian primary school students  participating in the InfoEscuela program	Peter Knight and JorgeGutiérrez look at a networked computer and router in an school participating in theEduRed program
Irene Bär presents Rural Distance Education component	Michael Moore, Jorge Gutiérrez, Livia Benavides, and Zorobabel Cancino listen to a presentation