REPORTS

REPORT OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN REGIONAL DISTANCE EDUCATION CENTRE SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF ODL INSTITUTIONS IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES: 

1                  BOTSWANA

2                  LESOTHO

3                  MOZAMBIQUE

4                  NAMIBIA

5                  SOUTH AFRICA

6                  SWAZILAND

7                  TANZANIA 

FROM 10^TH JULY 5^TH AUGUST 2005

Abbreviations

ADB              ………………..          African Development Bank

AVU              ………………..          African Virtual University

BOCODOL     …………………          Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning

CCE              …………………          Centre foe Countinuing Education

COL              …………………          Commonwealth of Learning

DE                …………………          Distance Education

EFA              …………………          Education For All

IDM              …………………          Institute for Development and Management

IEMS            …………………          Institute of Extra Mural Studies

ISPU             …………………          Instituto Superior Politecnico e Universiterio

LCE              ………………..          Lesotho College of Education

LDTC            ………………..          Lesotho Distance Distance Teaching Centre

MDGs           …………………          Millennium Development Goals

NAMCOL       …………………          Namibian College of Open Learning

NIED            …………………          Namibian Institute of Education

NOLNET        …………………          Namibian Open Learning Network Trust

O.U.T           …………………          Open University of Tanzania

ODL             ………………..          Open and Distance Learning

SADC           …………………          Southern African Development Community

SAIDE          …………………          South African Institute of Distance Education

SARDEC        …………………          Southern African regional Distance

UB                …………………          University of Botswana

UNAM           ………………..          University of Namibia

UNISA          ………………..          University of South Africa

UP                ………………..          University of Pretoria

REPORT OF THE SARDEC ODL SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Southern African Distance Education Centre (SARDEC) has been set up by The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Ministries of Education in the SADC region, to be a hub that promotes collaborative initiatives in capacity building towards regional best practices in ODL for accelerated human resources development.  The Centre started its operations from 1^st June 2005 and is housed at Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL) in Botswana. 

The establishment of SARDEC followed an extensive consultation process that can be traced to the February 2004 Cape Town Ministers of Education conference that explored distance education in more depth.  The conference concluded with the adoption of an extremely positive statement highlighting the importance of collaboration in realizing the potential of distance education.  In May 2004, senior education officials from the SADC member states converged in Gaborone, Botswana where they formed a Consultative Forum that drew the framework which guides the operations of SARDEC.

Pursuant to the above noble vision, the following principles underpin the SARDEC work ethos and as such define its value statement;

• Sensitivity to diverse needs of the Southern African member states
• Sensitivity to differing levels of development of the Southern African member states
• Sensitivity to partners and other stakeholders
• Ensuring a common vision/purpose within the Southern African ODL fraternity
• Ensuring collaboration of government ministries of education, international development agencies, civil society, and non governmental organizations
• Researched educational needs of the region to form the corner stone of SARDEC action plan
• Collaborative sharing of resources to avoid duplication of efforts
• Use of existing structures and expertise to address the Southern African ODL needs
• Ensuring synergy within the ODL fraternity in the region. 

Although the Consultative Forum has outlined the road map of the Centre, SARDEC has had to embark on a fact finding mission to have a bird’s eye view of the ODL landscape in the SADC region as well as to map and categorise the expertise available that may be tapped in capacity building programmes and initiatives.   This report therefore summarise the findings of the situational assessment and highlights the needs identified with a view to inform decision making.

Methodology/Approach

The situational assessment was conducted in two phases; the first phase involved reviewing available reports, research documents and directories while the second involved some face to face interviews with ODL providers in the visited Southern African countries.   The interview scheduled used is attached as an appendix.

Seven out of fourteen countries have been visited, these are: South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Botswana.  The other countries: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mauritius, and Madagascar will be visited at a later date.   The first three may be visited before the end of 2005 while the rest may be visited early 2006.

Purpose

The purpose of the mission was to assist SARDEC to fully appreciate the terrain in which the Centre will be operating within as well as to identify the various expertise available in the region that may be utilized to build capacity in different aspects of ODL.  Furthermore, the mission was to ensure that the Centre draws programmes and projects that are relevant to the needs of the ODL sector in all the visited countries in Southern Africa by establishing the challenges that ODL providers encounter in their endeavour to deliver according to their mandate. This situational assessment was conducted between 10^th July and 5^th August 2005.   Below is a table that shows the countries and institutions visited in the period of the;

Observations/Findings

Southern Africa like the rest of the world is moving towards consensus on the importance of striving to achieve Education For All (EFA) by 2015.  In addition, the sub-continent is indeed a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).   To attain the EFA goals, the Southern African countries are compelled to train a large pool of primary school teachers through in-service programmes and pre-service. This then widens the capacity of primary schools to graduate even more pupils, creating a dire shortage of secondary school places for successful graduates of the enlarged primary school sector, as well as of the necessary secondary school teachers.   This is the challenge that most Southern African countries are dealing with presently.

 Access to tertiary education in Southern Africa still remains a challenge as the region continues to have the lowest enrolment rates in tertiary education in the world, including the developing world.  Given the centrality of EFA to educational activity in Southern Africa, capacity building in ODL offers a pragmatic solution to increase education access in an environment where the increase of education demand is a norm rather than an exception.  It is however pleasing to note that

Southern Africa has a lot of expertise that can be utilised in the capacity building initiatives. 

 A report completed for the African Development Bank (ADB) identification mission for capacity building in distance education in the SADC Region entitled; Distance Education In Southern Africa: A Situational Analysis of June 2005 suggests that  many organizations and individuals in Southern Africa are using certain distance education methods and cheap versions of resource-based learning to increase student numbers and/or income with little or no concern for impact on the quality of that provision. 

 This trend is observable some institutions in the region. When quizzed about critical components of ODL such as; procedures and manuals for materials development, learner support systems and quality assurance policies, many responded by saying that their concern was to reach out to as many learners as possible and would address such issues at a later stage.  The results are usually high drop out rates and very little throughput compared to the annual enrolments (where figures are available).  In some instances, ODL graduates have to wait for longer than six months to receive their results and even longer to receive certificates.  These are worrisome developments which SARDEC and the ODL institutions have to work together to reverse, as they only serve to entrench stereotypes that suggest that ODL programmes and qualifications are sub standard.

 Another note worthy development in Southern Africa is the growing trend of institutions that embrace distance education and ODL methodologies in which provision of contact and interaction opportunities between educator and student and student and student are integrated into programme design, shedding off correspondence tendencies.  SARDEC fully concurs with the findings of the ADB  identification mission for capacity building in distance education in SADC that it would be misleading to assume that Southern Africa is moving towards the distance education pole continuum away from the face to face pole as the reality is that all educational provision exists somewhere on this continuum, but cannot be placed strictly at either pole.  The greater use there is of educational methods that assume temporal and/or spatial separation between students and educators, the more this provision will tend towards the distance education pole of the continuum. The more direct contact between educators and learners, the more it will tend towards the face-to-face pole.

 Quality Assurance

Quality assurance in ODL remains an elusive concept in Southern Africa.  SARDEC observed however that some noteworthy developments are beginning to take shape.  Many institutions still depend on monitoring and evaluation exercises as the sole measures of quality and quality indicators.  However, in South Africa, the National Association of Distance Education Organisations of South Africa (NADEOSA) has drafted some ODL quality assurance standards and indicators to be included in the national quality assurance framework of the entire education sector.    In Botswana and Namibia, individual institutions have taken the lead in addressing quality assurance issues in ODL.  At the beginning of August, Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) and Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL) conducted inter institutional quality audits and came up with a draft inter institutional quality assurance framework.  This first inter institutional audit followed extensive work in both institutions of developing the quality assurance policy and conducting several internal quality audits.

 Collaboration

SARDEC noted that there are three levels of collaboration in the region;

1) Inter institutional collaboration within a country

This type of collaboration by institutions within a country is extremely rare.  The result is a lot of duplication of efforts and unnecessary stretching of resources.  In countries where there are one or more ODL institutions such as; Botswana, Tanzania, Lesotho, and South Africa, to mention a few, each institution has its own centres throughout the country where learners access services such as; enrolment,  face to face contact, marking, e-mail and internet facilities and guidance and counselling.  More often than not, the institutions receive some subvention from one source, government.   SARDEC has a big responsibility to promote this kind of collaboration.  Although it is not a panacea to all the problems facing ODL institutions, it will bring in an element of maximized utilisation of available resources as well as some cost sharing measures as institutions will share the costs of running centres.  Perhaps the starting point should be inter departmental communications as discussions with different sections of one institution often revealed that lack of communication between departments or worse still some kind of empire buildings.

 The model of collaboration between institutions in Namibia is an approach that Southern African countries may need to explore.  All the Distance education institutions are collaborating in the running of centres through the (Namibian Open Learning Network Trust) NOLNET project.  In this project; the Poly Technique of Namibia, NAMCOL and University of Namibia (UNAM) and National Institute of Education Development (NIED) have pooled their resources together to provide a service to their learners in the regions and towns/villages of Namibia and share costs for the running of the centres.  The rest of Southern Africa will definitely do well to learn from Namibia and SARDEC will do everything in its power to promote the Namibian experience of inter institutional collaboration.

 2) Inter institutional collaboration between countries

SARDEC observed that this type of collaboration is very minimal in Southern Africa.  It is however the type of collaboration that needs to be seriously marketed particularly if institutions are to benefit from the developments that have already taken place in sister institutions to avoid reinventing the wheel.  This type of collaboration will also promote the sharing of learning materials and programmes by the region.  Already two institutions have signed a Memorandum of Agreement; BOCODOL and NAMCOL, to collaborate in a wide range of issues in ODL while two other institutions; University of South Africa (UNISA) and Instituto Superior Politecnico E Universitario (ISPU) of Mozambique have started a dialogue, facilitated by SARDEC, that will lead to ISPU offering some UNISA courses in Mozambique after translation to Portuguese.  SARDEC is very much interested in this project as it can act as a flagship of how collaboration can increase access to programmes and courses that otherwise may not have been accessible to millions of the citizens of the region.  This kind of collaboration clearly legitimises some of SARDEC’s identified projects such as; copyright issues, translation of some study materials into all the three regional languages, Portuguese, French and English.

 3)            Collaboration with Associations

Most institutions are collaborating with the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA) as indeed may are DEASA members.  DEASA seems to be a very useful partner as many institutions cite some positive developments which they attribute to participating in DEASA meetings and workshops.  Furthermore, the membership of DEASA is growing steadily as more and more Southern African countries are applying for membership. 

 A worrisome factor at this point is that very few countries have national associations of ODL or DE institutions.  What is however gratifying is that many are currently working towards the formation of such association.  At present, only South Africa and Botswana have the national associations.

 National ODL Policies

Almost all Southern African countries do not have an ODL policy except Mozambique.  In some countries the existence of the policy is a subject of debate with some recalling a document drafted some years back and was never used while in other countries attempts to draft the policy seem to have lost some momentum.  SARDEC believes that this scenario greatly disadvantages ODL and indeed the majority of the regional citizens who would benefit immensely from clearly articulated ODL policies.

 Although COL has previously run a Policy Development Course for 24 key ODL personnel in the region from 7 countries, only one country expedited the formulation of the ODL policy, Mozambique.  SARDEC believes that the idea of offering a Policy Development Course to ODL practitioners is a worthy development but will however have to adopt a strategy of acting as a catalyst in the process of ODL policy development in the region.  This could take many forms but could primarily be convening of an ODL stakeholders conference/workshop in a given country with a facilitator who will drive participants towards drafting an ODL policy by the end of the conference/workshop.  The draft would then be left with the stakeholders to push through the official channels until it becomes a policy document. 

 Research in ODL

Documentation and perhaps lack of basic research skills seems to be a major problem in the region and it affects the region’s capacity to conduct research and the ability to generate knowledge commensurate with the levels of activities in ODL.  Best practices are simply narrated and it is very difficult to share them as they are not documented.  Since there is so much happening in all the institutions, data is available that can be used to conduct action research but very few people take advantage of that to conduct research. This is another area where SARDEC may have to make an intervention in the near future.

 Information Communication Technologies

The printed material remains the principal technology of educational delivery in ODL in Southern Africa.  Observations revealed that the print is usually supplemented by some form of face to face contact, varying in length from institution to institution, and assignment marking.  At UNAM, video conferencing is also used to reach some far flung places where there are no tutors for certain courses.  This is however more costly as it requires the use of more bandwidth for clarity of both audio and video.  The use of audio is extensively used by BOCODOL to supplement its printed materials, other institutions are planning to trial it.

 It is interesting to note that some countries/institutions have begun thinking about the introduction of e-learning in their programmes.  The rationale that is being used here is a departure from the traditional position of lack of access to computers and the internet to that of availing the facility to those who have access to computers and the internet as well as to make the services available to even more people.  SARDEC noted that UNESCO and the African Virtual University (AVU) are playing a very important role in this area in the region.  It is worth noting that the region has many computer laboratories in different institutions with internet connectivity except for Lesotho and Swaziland where internet connectivity in some institutions such as Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre (LDTC) and Lesotho College of Education (LCE) is still largely limited to management while Emlalatini Development Centre in Swaziland is not even on e-mail.  Tanzania and Namibia seem to have progressed further than the other countries in this area because most of the study centres for the Open University of Tanzania (O.U.T) and the Namibian NOLNET have internet connectivity and students are allowed to use the internet for research and study purposes.

 Teacher Education

In all the countries and institutions visited by the SARDEC officials, namely; South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique and Botswana, teacher training and up grading featured prominently.  The region seems to be facing a teacher training deficit, particularly in primary schools, with varying reasons in each country.  In South Africa and Namibia the deficit seems to be a result of the stranglehold of apartheid, while in Mozambique it appears to be a result of the civil conflict.  In Lesotho, Botswana and Tanzania the deficit seems to be a result of policies aimed at closing public service vacuums left by the colonial masters.  Whatever the reasons that led to the deficit were, the region has to deal with a large pool of Para teachers who should be trained or upgraded.  This scenario has the potential to compromise the attainment of EFA goals as well as goal number 8 of the MDGs.

 SARDEC opines that empowering institutions that are already involved in the training of these teachers will accelerate the efforts of addressing this teacher training backlog.  It is clear from the information gathered that SARDEC should endeavour to come up with projects that would enhance the capacity of institutions that are conducting teacher training or teacher upgrading in delivering teacher education programmes by distance and appropriate as well as cost efficient and effective learner support systems. 

 Staffing

It appears that some ODL practitioners in Southern African believe that their institutions are understaffed and that as a result they are unable to do more than just the basics of producing study materials and sending to the learners.  SARDEC has a responsibility to re-skill many ODL practitioners so that they can be multi skilled to function effectively.  But the perception has the potential to cancel the mileage that ODL has gained in the recent past and as such needs some attention.

 Identified Needs

1            National ODL policies have to be developed in the region

2          Some capacity in developing e-content is essential

3          A regional quality assurance framework needs to be developed to guide quality development of ODL materials and its delivery

4          Staff development as a capacity building initiative needs to be strengthened to promote multi - skilling within the region

5            Supporting/empowering Teacher Education initiatives in the region is very essential

6            Supporting collaborative promotion of research and publication in the region

7            Supporting the development of documentation that will facilitate the sharing of study materials/courses etc

8            Development of systems that will promote the mainstreaming of ODL at secondary school level with a view of attaining EFA goals in the region

9            Promotion of inter institutional collaboration, local and cross border.

10            Develop cost effective and efficient learner support systems in the region

 Institutions Commitment to SARDEC

The SARDEC Coordinator and Deputy sincerely thank all the institutions visited for pledging their support to SARDEC.   It is important to note that most institutions did not just pledge to support SARDEC activities and initiatives but, they even committed to undertaking tracer studies of their distance education graduates so that SARDEC can put them on a pedestal in its web site with a view of reversing the stigma associated with DE that is still a major problem in the region.  What is pleasing about this project is that almost all institutions had plans to start it, some had already started, and SARDEC’s proposal simply acted as a catalyst.  SARDEC will be making some follow ups to institutions around December 2005 and January 2006 to check on the progress of the tracer studies.

 Publication date: 21^st September 2005

Report prepared by;

1            Thulaganyo T. Thutoetsile, SARDEC Coordinator

 2            Topoyame D. Mogotsi, deputy SARDEC Coordinator

 References

ADB (2005). Distance Education In Southern Africa: A Situational Analysis:

                                    Gaborone, Botswana

 BOCODOL (2003). BOCODOL quality Assurance Policy. BOCODOL: Botswana

 BOCODOL(2004) BOCODOL Learner Support Policy.  BOCODOL: Botswana

 Bialobrzeska M and Cohen S (2005). Managing ICTs in South African Schools: A                       

guide for School Principals.  Braamfontein:

                                    Department of Education and South African  

                                      Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE).

 CHE (2004). Enhancing the Contribution of Distance Education in South Africa:

                                    Pretoria: CHE.

 Government of Namibia ( 2001 2006). ICT Policy for Education. Ministry of

Education, sports and Culture and Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Employment:  Windhoek.

 Lingua Services (2003-04). Annual Report: Namibian Open Learning Network

Trust: Windhoek.

 Welch T and Reed (2005). Designing and Delivering Distance Education: Quality

Criteria and Case Studies fro South Africa.  Braamfontein: NADEOSA

 The Open University of Tanzania(O.U.T.) (2004) Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) Policy Plan 2004/5 – 2008/09. O.U.T: Tanzania

BRIEF NOTES FOR SIR JOHN DANIEL, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF COL DURING HIS RECENT VISIT TO BOTSWNA IN AUGUST 2005

 Following its establishment on the 1^st June 2005, the Southern African Regional Distance Education Centre (SARDEC) embarked on a projects identification process that culminated in the SARDEC work plan for the next twelve months. 

 A)    The first project that SARDEC undertook was to conduct a situational assessment of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions.  The purpose of the project was to ascertain and comprehend the ODL landscape in the region so as to focus the identified projects to be legitimate and relevant to the needs of the Southern African region.

       The terms of reference for the situational assessment project were as    follows;

 1        To appreciate the context under which Open and Distance Learning              (ODL) institutions in the SADC         region operate

 2        To ascertain the needs of the ODL institutions in the region

 3        To determine training needs of ODL practitioners

 4        To establish the expertise available in the region that may be used in capacity building ventures

 5        To brief the regional ODL institutions of the intended projects and ask for immediate feedback.

        To date SARDEC has visited twenty five (25) distance education institutions in seven (7) countries.  This represents more than half of the total number of countries in the SADC region.  The information collected is adequate to inform implementation of some projects and as such the remaining six (6) countries will be visited at a later date after at least three identified projects have been implemented.

B)        SARDEC is currently busy on its second project which is to develop a policy development course for ODL policy makers hereafter referred to as the SARDEC Policy Development Course.  The project, which is going to be offered on behalf of SARDEC by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) is aimed at empowering ODL policy makers in Southern Africa with the skills of policy formulation.  It is important to note that many countries in Southern Africa do not have ODL policies.  Such an empowerment, it is hoped, will ensure that policies that guide the implementation of ODL are formulated by knowledgeable and competent individuals in the process of policy formulation bearing in mind the unique circumstances of each Southern African State. 

      COL has offered a similar course in 2003, the SARDEC Policy Development Course will be an updated version of the COL course and will focus on the following areas;

1)     An introduction to open and distance learning

               This section would focus on understanding open and distance learning in terms of policy requirement, operational issues and structures, course planning and development, course delivery, learner support, quality assurance and research and evaluation.

2)     Designing open and distance learning materials

               Focus would be on instructional design and curriculum development processes. This will include knowing your target audience, developing materials, incorporating interaction, feedback and assessment.

    3)       Planning and management of open and distance learning

               This section would focus on issues that impact on open and distance learning. These would include the policy environment, structures of open and distance learning, managing programmes; learner support systems; staffing and finances, research and evaluation.

4)     Use of media and technology

           This would focus on understanding instructional design processes and applying the most appropriate media and technology to support the learning outcomes. The issue of delivery, interaction and learner support systems is also included.

5)     Quality Assurance

This section would focus on the concept of quality assurance with emphasis on the techniques, policy and related issues in constructing quality assurance policies and processes.

          6)     Learner Support

               Emphasis would be on various methods of learner support and       understanding the institutional requirements. These would include tutorial support, counselling, administrative, media and technology support for learners.

 C)      A lot of spade work has been done on the development of the SARDEC web site, the purpose of which is to be the repository of information for the Southern African countries.  This project will ensure that the region does not re-invent the wheel but rather builds on what exists to create innovative ways of ensuring wider access and provision of quality ODL programmes and learner support systems.

        The launch of the SARDEC web site, www.sardec.org.bw is something that  is now a question of when will it be done and not if it can be done.  Content is ready and companies have already submitted their quotations for the development of the site.  SARDEC is still however exploring the possibility of collaborating with UNESCO Harare office to have the SARDEC site hosted on the UNESCO site, www.africaodl.org, to reduce costs and to avoid re-inventing the wheel.  Discussions between the two institutions are nearing completion on the logistics of the collaboration.  This project will be the third SARDEC project.

 D)      Bearing in mind the challenges that ODL institutions come across whenever they venture in offering some e-learning programmes, SARDEC has identified another project that will focus on attempting to circumvent issues of the narrow and yet costly bandwidth.  This project will be facilitated by experts that COL will assist SARDEC to identify.

       The project is anticipated to be a workshop/seminar for participants, mainly technicians and IT specialists, from Southern African ODL institutions who will be guided in alternative platforms that may not require a lot of money and yet offer some broader bandwidth.  The workshop is expected to come up with a model that Southern African may use to address issues associated with a narrow and yet expensive bandwidth.

 E)  SARDEC has also met the African Development Bank fact finding mission working on the SADC capacity building in ODL within the region and briefed them about what the office is about; its vision, area of focus, and shared its planned projects (immediate) and some long term ones (2006/07).  The mission was very interested in what SARDEC does and wanted clarity on why there seems to be duplication of efforts as the SADC project covers what SARDEC is already doing.

 F)  SARDEC, through the office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of    

      Education, is working towards convening the first SARDEC Board meeting

     before December 2005.  The meeting may discuss among other things;

                                                             i.      SARDEC work plan/project proposals

                                                          ii.      the launch of SARDEC

                                                        iii.      way forward on SARDEC and SADC – ODL activities

                                                        iv.      modalities of seconding officers to SARDEC for various projects

                                                           v.      future board meetings

G)    SARDEC has not yet experienced any challenges in the implementation of the identified projects except an intimation that the budget of ($100 000.00 Cdn) may be too low to meaningfully engage in activities which can transform the ODL landscape into an environment that can support the Southern African countries’ initiatives aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals and as such improve the lives of the majority of the citizens of this region.

Thank you.

Report prepared by Thulaganyo Thutoetsile

SARDEC Coordinator

18^th September 2005

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