Since its inception in 1997, a World Bank Institute-sponsored program called World Links has linked students and teachers from secondary schools in developing countries with their counterparts in industrial countries for collaborative learning. Working in close collaboration with the World Bank Institute’s WorLD program, the World Links organization, created as an independent non-profit in 1999, is operational in 912 schools in 22 countries, with an additional seven countries joining in the coming months. The program involves approximately 180,000 students and teachers. WBI started the program as a response to requests from developing countries to prepare youth to succeed in the global knowledge economy.
"Because of our participation in collaborative projects and Internet access, our teachers have to do a better job," said a female student from Senegal. "They carefully prepare their lessons before coming to class. We challenge them; we are no longer passive receivers of information. We analyze and question things. Their quality of teaching has been improving a great deal."
In 2001, the World Economic Forum voted World Links that year’s top educational program among those that bridge the global digital divide. Today, the program continues to be on the cutting edge of technology due to its January 2002 launch of a wireless satellite network for 15 rural schools in Uganda. External evaluations have shown that World Links improves educational results, increases economic opportunities, and benefits girls slightly more than boys.
A recent study in Uganda showed that of 72 people who identified themselves as World Links alumni, 100 percent were computer literate, compared with 57.5 percent in the control group, who did not participate in the World Links program. Eighty percent have taught computer skills to others, compared with a paltry 27.5 percent in the control group. Seventy to 80 percent of teachers indicated that the program has had a "large or great impact" on students’ communication skills, attitudes toward technology, and attitudes toward school. Seventy-six percent of teachers indicated that the program has had a similar impact on their own knowledge of subject matter. Seventy-seven percent of students reported much higher employability.
A female student from Mauritania expressed her enthusiasm for the Internet when she said, "We get our freedom from the Internet, since in our society girls are not allowed to go wherever we want. The Internet takes us out to other people, places, and realities ... it is our way of escaping from our closed society.
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