Rationale and Background

Education is a potent mechanism available to Africa for tackling the multiple scourges of social dislocation, poverty, conflict and marginalisation and for achieving the continent’s human development goals. In particular, NEPAD has highlighted three key education goals:

• to work for improved curriculum development and quality, and for better access to information and communication technologies;

• to expand access to secondary education and improve its relevance to Africa’s development; and

• to promote networks of specialised research in higher education institutions.

Open learning approaches and distance education strategies undoubtedly have a major role to play in achieving these and other continent-wide educational goals.

 

The idea of the first ever all-Africa conference on open learning and distance education was put forward in Durban in 2002, when, in his opening address at the Second Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning and Distance Education, the Minister of Education of South Africa, Professor Kader Asmal, MP, offered to host a similar all-Africa conference. 

Subsequently, the MINEDAF VIII Meeting in Dar-es-Salaam (2 to 6 December 2002) highlighted the importance of open learning and distance education in addressing educational challenges facing African countries. It took note of Professor Asmal’s offer and agreed that "a pan-African meeting on distance education will be held in South Africa”. 

Thereafter, plans for the all-Africa conference on open learning and distance education were put in motion. In June 2003, a team was established to conceptualise and organise the conference.  The team comprises representatives from the South African Department of Education, UNESCO (Dakar), the Commonwealth of Learning and two South African resource people representing the University of South Africa and the South African Institute for Distance Education.

This document highlights issues often raised by ministers of education, identifies key themes for the conference and proposes particular outcomes, and thus serves as the rationale for the proposed programme.

Open Learning and Distance Education in Africa

The Dar-es-Salaam Statement of Commitment from the MINEDAF VII meeting agreed ‘to include open and distance learning in all national education plans and policies, especially in the areas of teacher training and access to basic education, and to improve the quality of teaching and learning’.

The statement further noted the need to ‘design and implement effective strategies for developing,

 disseminating and  mainstreaming the use of information and communication technologies and

satellite, audio and multimedia broadcast services in

collaboration with media professionals and institutions’.

Much has been written about the vast, and often untapped, potential of distance education in providing access to students who are unable to take advantage of traditional full-time face-to-face education opportunities.  This can be on account of work or family commitments, geographical distance, or various other impediments.  Indeed, given its flexibility, many students prefer to study by means of distance education.

Furthermore, the importance of distance education has grown as countries strive to increase educational opportunities substantially as part of ‘education for all’, as well as to meet the growing demand and need for lifelong learning. Attractive claims, sometimes with detailed substantiation, have been made about the lower unit costs of large-scale distance education programmes and about their potential for maximising the use of scarce resources within or across countries. There is also growing evidence of good quality, cost-effective distance education, both within Africa and abroad.  Finally, the emergence of new technologies and their increasing availability provides exciting possibilities of innovative programme delivery, with concrete examples illustrating the realisation of this potential.

However, in using distance education methods to address the challenges of African education, the following issues need to be explored:

• Are there still distinctions to be drawn between distance education and face-to-face education? What should be made of the idea of convergence of the two?

• Is distance education appropriate only for higher education (universities)?

• Is distance education applicable to universal primary education, adult basic education and lifelong learning? 

• How can distance education be regulated across a wide range of providers?

• What is the relationship between e-learning and distance education?

• How can e-learning be regulated, especially with regard to foreign providers?

In the light of the above, the All-Africa Ministers' Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education will consider  -

• notions of open learning, distance education and e-learning, with due consideration to the many terms used in the field and to the blurring of distinctions between distance education and face-to-face education;

• African and international examples of the range of applications of distance education to different sectors of the education system, e.g. basic education, teacher training, secondary and post‑secondary education, adult education, etc.;

• how open learning approaches and distance education methods can be applied to support the Ministers of Education in achieving their developmental goals on poverty alleviation, universal primary education, gender equality, health and sustainable development;

• the broad requirements for quality in distance education and how to encourage and ensure quality provision;

• the costing and financing of distance education programmes;

• national policy frameworks for open learning and distance education covering the recognition of qualifications, the necessary quality assurance and regulating mechanisms, the appropriate structures, funding etc.; and

• ways of collaborating to assist in the achievement of goals.