The Cambridge-based International Research Foundation for Open Learning (IRFOL) recently became an affiliate of The Commonwealth of Learning. COL and IRFOL will together determine an agenda for research that will enhance COL's capabilities in this aspect of its work. Priority research areas for the next three years include the use of open and distance learning in basic education (including the development of alternative forms of schooling), teacher education, higher education and vocational education and training, as well as the changing use of information and communication technologies in education. The research will have a policy and applied orientation and will be evidenced based. There will be five critical themes: cost effectiveness, political economy, pedagogy, curriculum and organisational and structural issues in effective delivery.
IRFOL was established in 1995, following a proposal made a year earlier by the late Lord (Michael) Young (see "People" section, below), then Director of the Institute of Community Studies and inventor of the name "open university". In a speech for its 25th anniversary he argued that, while open and distance learning had grown dramatically in the last quarter century, research had lagged behind. He called for a research foundation that would serve as a lookout tower for open learning.
Dr. Hilary Perraton, former Commonwealth Secretariat Chief Education Officer, was IRFOL's founding Director. Later this year, Terry Allsop, currently Senior Education Adviser, Central Africa, for the British Department for International Development, will take over as Director. Dr. Perraton will continue to be associated with IRFOL as a Senior Research Fellow. www.col.org/irfol
UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Africa - better known by its French acronym, BREDA - and COL have signed a collaboration agreement on a joint programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, which focuses on open and distance learning (ODL) initiatives. The programme will include work in the areas of advocacy for open schooling, in-service teacher training for West Africa, recognition and transferability of higher education qualifications, non-formal health education through community radio and institutional staff training and development in ODL. COL is also assisting UNESCO with the development of a regional strategy in distance education.
A Ceremony of Completion was held for the second cohort of students in the Canada-Caribbean Distance Education Scholarship Programme (CCDESP) at Church Teachers' College in Mandeville, Jamaica on 16 December 2001. The students were all participants in Athabasca University's Bachelor of General Studies programme: Eleven received degrees and University Certificates in Computing and Information Sciences; the remaining 14 are continuing their studies. All of the students are working teachers.
Representatives from the Government Jamaican included The Honourable Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Education and Culture and Mr. Wesley Barrett, Chief Education Officer. The Government of Canada was represented by Mr. Robert Richards, Counsellor (Political/Economic), from the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica. Athabasca University Vice President, Academic, Dr. Alan Davis, and Associate Professor Mahmoud Abaza were also in attendance along with Mr. Brian Long, Vice President, and Ms. Helena Fehr, Governance and Programme Officer, for COL.
CCDESP's Jamaican component was offered by Alberta's Athabasca University in conjunction with the Jamaican Ministry of Education and Culture. COL administers the distance education-based CCDESP, on behalf of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (International Academic Relations Division), as a new dimension for the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Programme.
Building on the success the CCDESP (see above), the U.K.-based Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) has engaged COL to assist with developing the policy direction and implementation strategies for a new category of Commonwealth Scholarships by distance learning. As implementers of Britain's Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme, ACU was provided funding and endorsement by the British Secretary of State for International Development to introduce a distance-learning component. COL will advise on the selection of the initial courses and identification of themes and issues to be considered in the development of long-term policy and strategy for the distance learning awards.
Samoa Polytechnic is developing a special distance education pilot programme to improve the earning power of its beneficiaries and could form the basis for small business studies in the Pacific. The aim is to prepare a self-instructional package that can be adapted locally to teach would-be entrepreneurs how to set up their small businesses.
The programme is designed for students who are illiterate or barely literate such as people who have had little time or opportunity to study, school leavers and small-business owners. It will target individual communities and reflect their specific needs.
At the Distance Education Association of New Zealand's conference in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 2002, Samoa Polytechnic's senior business lecturer, Tertia Stunzner-Ryan, presented a paper detailing the pilot programme, which is supported through a joint initiative of COL and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The project has its origins in a COL workshop in September 2000 where delegates from Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, New Zealand, the Pacific and the U.K. gave COL the task of producing the "Learning About Small Business" materials. COL commissioned the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand to undertake the work in collaboration with COL and UNESCO. The product was a three-part package consisting of a participant's workbook, a tutor's pack and an adaptation guide for the delivering institution.
"We are working with small business owners involved in retail, handicraft, fishing and agriculture. The materials will be tested in the villages and we will adapt the content of the course further to suit the needs expressed by potential and small business people," explained Ms. Stunzner-Ryan.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) signed a Protocol on Education and Training that calls for the establishment of various Technical Committees to develop regional programmes. The Technical Committee on Distance Education (TCDE) has been charged with implementing the provisions of the Protocol in the area of open and distance learning (ODL).
COL has participated in all the meetings of the TCDE and supported the development of an online course that focuses on developing and improving the skills and knowledge of distance education policy makers from Ministries of Education and educational institutions. Working in the first instance with a service provider, the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), and in collaboration with TCDE, COL has provided an online educational experience for policy makers in Southern Africa. A five-day, face-to-face pilot training session (in Mozambique) ensured that the best educational strategies are combined to create a training course for distance education policy makers. Two regional experts, Dr. H. Manthoto Lephoto (Institute of Extra Mural Studies, National University of Lesotho) and Ms. Judith Kamau (Distance Education Unit, Centre for Continuing Education, University of Botswana) teamed up with Mr. Neil Butcher (SAIDE Project Manager) and others to construct and deliver the course.
The first offering of the course commenced in September 2001 and lasted four and a half months. Eighteen participants from Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe enrolled and 10 completed the course.
An evaluation was then conducted by Professor Cisco Magagula (Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Swaziland). The following comments can be found in his report:
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The online course was well conceived and managed. The layout was simple and easy to follow. The hyperlinks were clear, very directive, simplified and easy for participants to follow. The learning activities were challenging, stimulating and relevant to the social context and work environment of participants in the SADC region. At the same time, the activities depicted real-life situations and attempted to tap, enhance and build on participants' work experience.
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Most participants found the instructions on the CD-ROM about the purpose, content, structure, expected outcomes and mode of delivery of the online course very helpful. The comments they received from colleagues and/or course facilitators were also helpful, encouraging, supportive, constructive and confidence building. The online system was very user-friendly. However, online discussions were not fully used as expected, despite facilitators' efforts and encouragements.
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Concerning the face-to-face workshop, most participants felt that facilitators clearly stated the workshop objectives. The quality of the content and the extent to which facilitators presented it was quite good.
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Overall, participants were satisfied with the online course and it met their expectations. The course content, handouts, supplementary readings, assigned activities and course delivery format (i.e., online and face-to-face workshop) were critical features to the success of the course.
Encouraged by the positive evaluation results, COL is now working with SADC, its TCDE and educational institutions in the region to develop another online professional development course for practitioners, which is expected to be available by 2003. The online course for ODL policy makers will be offered again and is also being reviewed with the view of adapting it for delivery in other Commonwealth regions.
The Honourable Susan Whelan, Canada's Minister for International Cooperation, has released Canada's plan to help achieve universal primary education in developing countries. Speaking at the National Press Club in Ottawa, Minister Whelan outlined Canada's plan in response to the goals set at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000, which include free access for all children to basic and primary education by 2015.
"Despite significant progress over the past decade, approximately 130 million children, two-thirds of them girls, have never seen the inside of a school," Minister Whelan said. "Lack of basic education prevents people from realising their full potential as productive members of society - education is a human right and an essential element of sustainable development and poverty reduction."
The Action Plan on Basic Education was developed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In the five-year period between 2000 and 2005, Canada is investing $555 million in basic education programming, representing a quadrupling of CIDA's spending on basic education. The Action Plan incorporates feedback received by Canadian and international stakeholders who responded to an earlier draft during a wide-reaching consultation process, much of it e-mail based. COL and COL's stakeholders appreciated the opportunity afforded by CIDA to participate in this way, are encouraged to see that the Action Plan recognises a role for both distance education and non-formal education and stand ready to collaborate with CIDA on the execution of its plan.
At last year's Genoa Summit, the G8 reaffirmed its commitment to help developing countries meet the goals set in Dakar. CIDA President, Dr. Len Good, is chairing the G8 Task Force on Education - a group that is preparing recommendations, in co-operation with developing countries, international organisations and other stakeholders, on how the G8 can best support achievement of the Dakar goals. www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/education-e/plan
The Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF) was officially launched in March by British Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, to mark Her Majesty The Queen's Golden Jubilee year. It aims at helping Commonwealth developing countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in education so that every child in the Commonwealth completes a primary education by 2015.
In addition to the £10 million Government commitment to the fund, money raised by business will be matched pound for pound by the U.K. Government. The Government will also match pound for pound funds raised for education in Commonwealth developing countries by Sport Relief, the joint venture programme run by Comic Relief and BBC Sport.
ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children will jointly administer the majority of CEF resources through a strategic fund. The Government will also expand its work to develop links between schools in Commonwealth countries and the U.K., to raise children's development awareness.
At present, 75 million primary school-age children in the Commonwealth do not attend school.
About 7,000 people have already enrolled with the new Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL), revealed The Honourable George Kgoroba, Botswana's Minister of Education, at a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a P18 million (US$3 million) BOCODOL headquarters in Gaborone in January.
Mr. Kgoroba, who also officiated at another ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a P33 million (US$5.4 million) building of the examinations council, said the facilities will improve service quality and support once they are completed. Enrolments will be high, he added, due to the on-going social demand for education.
Senior secondary examinations are being run in partnership with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES). The Minister noted that the new examinations council building is designed to enhance the security of all operations associated with examinations.
Both buildings are slated for completion by mid-2003.
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