Commonwealth of Learning

Third Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning

Dunedin, New Zealand
7 July 2004

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

by:

The Honourable Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta
Secretary of State for Education, The Gambia

THEME:  Building Learning Communities for our Millennium:  Reaching Wider Audiences through Innovative Approaches

Preamble

Worldwide the demand for education is outstripping facilities and resources available.  It is, therefore important to create and use innovative ways to provide education.  For this purpose Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has proven to be an option in many parts of the world.

The future of ODL is largely dependent on the state of physical resources, financial resources, technological resources, human capacity and an enabling policy environment, all well coordinated in an innovative manner. To move information to people at their doorsteps rather than move people to information sources requires a great deal of innovation which demands close working relationship between all stakeholders to harness all available resources, physical, financial and technological resources.  It also requires an effective enabling policy environment. In other words for ODL to work well excellent materials and excellent infrastructure are necessary or the “hard and soft technologies”.

 

Physical resources

Distance education systems demand substantial capital investment at the initial stages in order to establish specialist facilities for the design, production and delivery of programmes.  This requires maximum coordination and use of existing resources and facilities wherever they are to be found in the country.  This needs to include the development of an effective and flexible learner support system through various support services at convenient locations throughout the country.  For example, in The Gambia, the Government is addressing expansion of this sector through a decentralization plan where all government services including education services are being decentralized to the community level to give the community more opportunity to participate in national development.  This will however require, innovative approaches.  The new education policy of 2004-2015 puts special emphasis on one such innovative approach which is delivery by distance.  This is however, limited to the tertiary and higher education levels.  Distance Education strategies have not been introduced to the pre-school, primary, adult education or secondary levels yet, although Distance Education methods have a potential in these areas as well especially for early school leavers from the primary or secondary levels, vocational programs and others.

In this regard and in all other areas, The Department of State for Education’s overall strategy includes collaborating closely and facilitating cooperation, partnership and networking with all stakeholders within the country (other government units, non-government organizations, parents, the community), as well as encourage and participate in sub-regional and regional partnership efforts at governmental levels and through inter-institutional collaborations (such as The West African Consortium for Distance Education, other associations, etc.) to share resources and best practices.  The Department also collaborates closely with multi-lateral organizations and institutions working in the development of Education (UNESCO, COL, The World Bank, ADB, ADEA, DFID, UNICEF, World Space, UNDP, AVU, Peace Corps, UNFPA, and others).  Such collaborative efforts have produced dividends in the continuous development of education in the Gambia.  Focus and some gains have been made in the area of access, gender equity and quality of delivery although some of the gains are minimal.

The department realizes that in its strife for poverty reduction (both poverty in resources and in poverty of ideas) in an era in which technology advances at unimaginable rates and information circulates at an exponential rate, that there is a need to adapt to and influence these changes.  To do so, structures and methodologies or approaches may need to change and a new culture developed to anticipate, produce and manage the required changes.  Technology-mediated learning helps in this respect by providing accelerated access to larger masses and thus creating much needed capacities to meet demands in all socio-economic sectors.

 

Financial resources

Starting a new distance education programme from scratch may require considerable cost up front.  However, many of the costs are fixed costs and with the growth of enrolments against these fixed costs, the output of the investment and its economic efficiency can be realized over time.  Distance institutions that have been started without adequate initial funding quickly witnessed rapid growth and expansion that outstripped the available resources which introduced constraints that affected both quantity and quality of services.  Therefore, careful financial planning is necessary, among other things, if distance education institutions are to maximize benefits.  For example, The African Virtual University (AVU), though a good initiative, with huge capital outlay facilitated by the World Bank, fell short of meeting the anticipated goals as a result of lack of adequate consultation to meet the needs of the tertiary needs of Africa.  There would therefore be a need to refocus this institution to serve Africa better, to justify the huge cost that went into setting it up in the first place.  Another example where some gains have been made could be seen in the effort of the Nigerian experience in Open and Distance learning in Teacher Training which again fell short of careful planning for the capital outlay that was required for its sustainability.

 

Technological resources

There have been a whole series of technological developments that have profound effect on education and training in general and certainly on the delivery of open and distance education programmes ranging from the traditional print, audio to present day electronic ones. 

As is often the case when technologies are introduced, the technology is available, but people may not emotionally completely embrace it from the onset. People seem to need to take the time to experiment, develop their own comfort level, and adopt technologies in whatever way suits them, not the other way around. This obviously has posed a huge challenge for e-learning and other technology-based media of delivery of education. With third world and small nation states even where there is the will the means pose the biggest bottle neck for sustainability.

 

Policies

New technologies can be implemented for open and distance learning only as far as policies, social acceptance, individual and institutional costs permit. With new technologies, there is always the risk of using digital ICTs to replicate the past. How should we then go about generating the future? How can ODL and IT help alleviate our nations’ development constraints?   Should governments be spending more of the limited resources on IT for ODL considering other pressing needs such as eradication of hunger and disease or should ODL be seen as an integral part of the fight against poverty reduction?  These and others are pertinent questions that need to be addressed in government policies to provide the necessary guide and environment for the use of technology in ODL. Policies should also provide guidance in the ability to integrate public funded distance learning centres to provide learning outcomes to private sector organisations and vice versa to help establish a strategic partnership between the two for continuous improvement of learning and quality service delivery. This is partly linked to the fact that the private sector is far quicker on the uptake of new technologies primarily as a potential cost reduction mechanism, and as a timesaver. The considerations for use of  ODL become even more critical for developing countries especially small states doubly affected not only by weak economic systems but the size of their populations. How  can such states maintain the balance of keeping abreast with the opportunities and challenges of technological advancements while keeping pace with the demands of other pressing basic needs of its people. While the danger of being left behind is apparent the threats of  political unrest as a consequence of unmet needs of the population pose an even greater dilemma.

 

Latest Developments

Developments in the area of technology have been progressing rapidly in the past few years. However, these "latests developments"  in technology need to be closely associated with appropriate “new” pedagogy/teaching paradigms and management of learning. Emergence of a "new" pedagogy that will radically transform opportunities for reaching the EFA goals is necessary to complement new technologies. Although the opportunities exist to vastly increase access and quality, it does not mean that it will necessarily happen. The increased power of technology with diminishing unit cost of production and dissemination of knowledge may not translate into reduction of cost.  How then may the cost factor be addressed?  In the case of the Gambia’s experience where rapid increase in enrollment at the teacher training college put a strain in the quality of delivery, the student:lecturer ratio increased three-fold.  In addition, the same college staff is responsible for both the face-to-face sessions, as well as the Distance Education component.  The college staff develops the Distance education modules with limited training in content development and delivery of distance education materials.  The support of the Commonwealth of Learning in this venture must be highlighted.  Although the education sector has expanded and remarkably improved in the past nine years, there are still a lot of children out of school.  This, combined with an increase in attrition of qualified teachers create pressure on the sector for the need to build more schools and train many more teachers.  Currently, over 50% of teachers in the secondary school system are non-Gambians from the sub-region: Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria (DoSE statistics, 2002).

The department’s current plans include the establishment of regional level resource centers equipped with computers connected to a server at a central location and to World Space.  Planning for implementation is at an advanced stage.  The resource centers will serve multiple purposes, which include:

• Serving and expanding the already existing distance education program by providing the print modules in electronic form for teacher trainees in the field to readily access them in more technology enabled interactive form;

• Expanding access to reference materials to teachers in the field, students preparing for the WASC exams and in general to serve as virtual libraries for the purpose of all forms of training (ECD, Adult Education, Teacher training, University education, sensitization campaigns), and to enrich the curriculum and lesson design and teaching;

• Enabling teachers and administrators to routinely collect and analyze data for the purpose of effective academic, student, staff, physical infrastructure, resource and other information management to inform the decision making process and improve quality of learning;

• Improving by simplifying access to in-service professional development programs;

• Producing a more ICT literate society

• Empowering and enabling teachers, students and administrators to engage in snap surveys, action research and even academic research to inform short-term, mid-term and long-term prevention and intervention approaches;

• Improving gender balance in teacher education and in education in general by improving access to more females who traditionally have less opportunity to travel out of their community or may prefer to do less traveling.

We are witnesses to latest developments in ODL delivery, which blends distance education with conventional face-to-face institutions. The question though is--can the two modes of delivery co-exist within the same institution? The issue of choice compounds the problem. In my view especially for developing countries one needs to move away from questions of ‘either/or’ to considerations for ‘both/and’. What is required here is reaching out for the best of both worlds, which calls for a definite paradigm shift. Conventional institutions will have to review their internal operations and management to support the “openness” as practiced by many distance-only institutions to becoming blended-learning institutions.

 

Best Practices 

It is well accepted that the teaching of skills or ideas consists of instruction and demonstration and of providing students with opportunities to practice their skills and have their work monitored.  Therefore, to achieve best practice in any distance education programme each of these has to be catered for.  This means choosing the right media and pedagogy for the right program.  For example, instruction and demonstration can be easily done through video. While language and interpersonal skills can be taught by audiotapes. These, supported by proactive intervention systems will help produce best practices in general and for a local community. However best practices can be replicated or scaled up where the situation both economic and physical permit. In small states in particular, the many constraining conditions lead to missed opportunities. Limited or uneven distribution of electricity supply, high Internet connectivity cost, low tele-density, high poverty levels conspire against the best political will to adopt and adapt innovative or best practices.  For example, the initiative by Ministers of Education from small Commonwealth states supported by the Commonwealth of Learning gave birth to the proposal for the establishment for Virtual University for Small States.  It is anticipated that when successfully established it will serve the needs for bigger states.  The current President of COL should be commended for his promise to quickly take this proposal to the next level of implementation as soon as possible.  It is anticipated that greater collaboration would be forged with the NEPAD Secretariat and UNESCO for the realization of this goal.

 

Research and Evaluation

The place of research in ODL is indispensable. However the challenge is enormous especially in developing countries. Access to research materials either in terms of books or electronically obtained materials remains difficult. Where they are available, the cost is prohibitive, where they are finally obtained and used transforming research findings into development agenda is not common. Infact, in some cases research is seen as waste of time and resources.

In other cases the quality and quantity of research and evaluation in ODL has been criticised and the need for improvement is widely acknowledged. One consequence is that research and evaluation are making a limited contribution to the understanding and improvement of educational practice on ODL. Given the international expansion in the use of distance education and the great expectations it has inspired, situation needs careful addressing if it is to change.

The experience shows that a huge opportunity exists for capacity building in research methodologies and good studies have been conducted.  Stakeholders need to be supported through education, training, mentorship and "peer-to-peer" supervision to develop research skills for systematic collection and dissemination of information through an efficient system of cataloguing.

 

Emerging Issues

With new technologies, there is always the risk of using digital ICTs to replicate the past. How should we go about generating the future? Will innovations in digital communication technologies trigger a new form of delivery that did not exist prior to the onset of the knowledge society?  Will technology enhanced face-to-face teaching be different from enhancing ODL delivery through technology and a new “mutimedia pedagogy” as the demarcation between ODL and face-to-face teaching becomes more blured?  These issues and others need to be researched and resolved for ODL as it becomes more popular as a tool for delivering education to large numbers of people worldwide. While these will remain global considerations some more pertinent issues relevant to developing countries should also be reflected upon. Will adequate support be provided to bridge the digital divide and reduce global poverty levels especially in developing small nation states?

 

Implications for Small Nation States

It is clear that small nation states cannot go at it alone without pulling resources together in keeping pace with present day technological advances.  There is the need, therefore, to galvanise support from all the interested development partners to work together for economies of scale.  It is through greater collaboration and partnerships that the survival of small nation states will be guaranteed.  Partners on the other hand, must not allow small states to be left behind because of issues of affordability and sustainability.

 

Conclusion:

•     Innovations to provide effective distance education largely depend on effective coordination of physical, technological, financial resources guided by the enabling policy environment

•     The effective combination of these resources will require research, practice and developments in ODL

•     ODL with the blend of other approaches can help to ensure that the education related MDGs and EFA goals are attained in record time. However this will require seeking solutions not only within the confines of the education sector alone and by educationalists. It calls for an international response to go beyond paying lip services to the issues of development and to more seriously address the imbalances in the distribution of wealth globally. A consensus must be reached on balancing the equation on trade relations between developing and the developed nations and on overseas development assistance (ODA) which has not recover from its decline inspite of the many agreements and promises made and broken.

 

References

Daniel, J. (1999). Mega-universities and Knowledge Media:  technology Strategies. London, UK.

Hones, B. (2000) sleepers Wake! Technology and the future of work (rev.ed.). Melbourne, Australia, Oxford University press.

Odiourn, G.S. (2000).  Management decisions by objectives.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall.

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