The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Polycarp Machira
13 July 2011
Dar es Salaam — Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Africa is still struggling with credibility issues as governments have put very little policies for quality assurance, it has been observed.
There is seemingly lack of interest in establishing national quality assurance systems by the authorities to improve education in the continent.
However, like the rest of the world, the continent also needs to have a flexible tailor-made delivery of instruction taking advantage of emerging technological changes.
The observation was made yesterday by the Association of African Universities (AAU) secretary general, Prof Olugbemiro Jegede, during the 3rd African Council for Distance Education annual conference in Dar es Salaam.
He said open universities across the continent were trapped in national education policy environments designed for conventional universities.
“Tension between legal and social legitimisation of ODL programmes and products in addition to inadequate funding is evident within the governments,” he said.
Prof Jegede, who was presenting a paper on ‘Quality Issues in ODL’ warned that the continent will continue to produce many unqualified graduates if quality assurance is not given priority.He said ODL has curved out a niche as the major answer to higher education issues worldwide though it suffers from ignorance and neglect in the continent.
Its major challenges, according to the Nigerian Professor, are the infrastructural deficiencies. He singled them out as low bandwidth, high cost of internet access and lack of study centres which lead to a myriad of problems.
Similar sentiments were made by the Vice President, Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal, during the inaugural session of the conference yesterday.
He said African countries should adopt new strategies capable of propelling the continent along the path of sustained and equitable social-economic transformation.
The continent, he observed, cannot continue to rely on models developed for her as prescriptions for sustainable development, and thus accept the ODL among other technological changes.He noted that without this there would be no reason to expect radical changes in favour of Africa in the current system of international economic relations.
Dr Bilal said countries need to have national science and technology policies which have clear sectoral priorities.
According to him, the strategies ought to integrate science and technology in national plans and provide adequate resources for strengthening scientific and technology capacity.
“African countries will have to rely on their own exertions both individually and collectively. Whatever initiative they take, it must be driven by the spirit of self-reliance,” he said.
Clarifying, Dr Bilal argued that the idea that Tanzania needed an institution to provide higher education through distance learning came out after realization that conventional modes failed to attain expanded access to university education.
He said the government was committed to support ODL, explaining: “We in the government look forward to the support of the intellectual community in Tanzania to join hands with their colleagues in natural research and development institutions.”
Earlier, the minister for Education and Vocational Training, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, told the meeting that the ministry was finalizing a policy on ODL and would mainstream the programme to entire education system.
“Blending the two systems of education will boost the educational level in the country and allow learners to pursue studies through systems of their own choice,” he said.
The minister noted that Tanzania has set the pace in open education in the region with great success. He added that at least 38,000 students have achieved education through ODL.
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