Telecommunication infrastructure for the digital inclusion in schools

According to the Global Information Technology Report 2016 from the World Economic Forum, Peru, based on the networked readiness index, is in the 90th position out of 139 countries (World Economic Forum, 2016). Regarding education, the schools are to connect to the optical fiber network by means of a wireless access net thus enabling the inclusion to the worldwide Internet and the access to online educational material. This infrastructure will enable access to public services such as tele-education, telehealth and electronic government in order to improve the country competitiveness and make basic services available to the citizens (Ministry of Transport and Communication, 2016). This investigation aims at analysing the current infrastructure available in the schools to make use of the broadband advantages. For analysis purposes, the San Martin region was chosen as a study case due to its low academic achievement and high cultural and environmental diversity. The methodology used consists of two parts. The first one focuses on the infrastructure of the educational institutions in the context of the national optical fiber backbone network of Peru installation. This infrastructure implementation will allow schools in the San Martin region to have access to new educational possibilities coming from digital databases, TIC platforms, several kinds of educational material with multimedia support, video conferences among others. This first part of the study assesses the connectivity infrastructure and the equipment with which the schools count on to make the most of this connectivity. Regarding the connectivity, key aspects such as the transmission medium and speed, service coverage and continuity are analysed. Regarding the school equipment, the recent transfers of access points, solar panels, servers, workstation, stabilizers, multimedia projectors, notebooks, laptop, tablets and PC are considered. As part of this analysis, the incoming and outgoing data traffic matrix is presented in order to know, at a regional level, the demand that the Optical Fiber Backbone Network installation faces. The second part of the methodology focuses strictly speaking on the correlational analysis between the teaching access to computers with internet at a national level and the teachers´ participation in development processes such as academic level improvement and trainings. In order to do so, the data base of the National Survey of Public and Private Teaching Institutions is used (National Council of Education, 2014). The results confirm the hypothesis of a high relation between teaching development and accessibility which is supposed to have a great impact on the academic experience of Peruvian students who need new mechanisms to surpass the digital inclusion and the academic achievement gaps when compared to similar international experiences.