Working Group on Distance Education/Open Learning

---

The WGDEOL Web site : http://www.adeanet.org/wgdeol/

In most African countries, the demand for education continues to grow as the population grows. Yet these countries cannot afford to provide all children, adolescents, and adults with a good education.

Governments’ need to limit spending has restricted the flow of resources for training new teachers and building new schools. Ministries of education have increasingly relied on local communities to finance their schools. But families cannot always afford the full cost of their children’s education.

Educators must look for alternative responses to the constantly expanding demand for education. The rapid development of new information and communication technologies opens interesting opportunities for distance education strategies, which may be well suited to geographically vast countries, where long distances between communities adds to the cost of the educational infrastructures.

What is the Working Group on Distance Education?

The Working Group on Distance Education (WGDE) was created in 1997 to help ministries of education, training institutions, and NGOs in Africa improve access to, quality of, and equity in education, and, in particular, to strengthen the capacity of the education system.

The lead agency for WGDE is the Mauritius Ministry of Education and Research, through its Commission for Tertiary Education. It is the only ADEA Working Group to be led by a Ministry of Education (development agencies or bilateral donors direct all other groups). A Steering Committee composed of representatives of the Ministry of Education of Mauritius, agencies funding WGDE, distance education organizations, and the ministries of education in Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, South Africa, and Uganda are responsible for follow-up and evaluation of the Group’s activities.

WGDE works in close cooperation with the Commonwealth of Learning and the francophone distance learning network RESAFED (Réseau africain de formation à distance).

What are the objectives of the Working Group?

The general objective of the Working Group on Distance Education is to improve the access to and quality of information and training in the education sector through the use of modern distance education technologies.

The Working Group has the following specific objectives:

• To create an environment in which distance education can play a significant role in improving education in Africa.
• To create better awareness of distance education and reinforce national capacities to use it.
• To promote research in distance education.
• To establish the scientific basis necessary for the supply of distance education at the local or regional levels.

What does the Working Group do?

The Working Group plans to achieve these objectives through advocacy, capacity building and research activities. It will:

• Establish a coordination unit within the Tertiary Education Commission in Mauritius, which will launch Working Group activities and operations.
• Take stock of current experiments and activities in distance education, establish and periodically update an inventory of existing databases, and disseminate this information to member countries and agencies.
• Organize two seminars (for anglophone and for francophone countries) in order to advocate legislation and operational strategies for distance education and help establish policies on distance education at the core of education systems. The end result will be a mixed form of education (on-site and distant), leading to an “emancipated” system that is in step with rapidly changing modes of communication and education throughout the world.
• Develop courses that can be delivered throughout the continent (wherever possible, the Group will make use of existing modules and courses).
• Organize two or three workshops each year on particular aspects of distance education. These will respond to expressed interests and will help countries choose the technologies most appropriate for their specific situation.
• Conduct comparative studies, the first on the learning environment and learning strategies of students using distance education.
• Set up small-scale pilot projects on a regional basis in order to promote the application of new technologies.

How to contact the Working Group on Distance Education/Distance Learning

WG Coordinator
Mr. Sanjai Kumar PARAHOO
Director,
Consultancy and Contract Research Center,
University of Mauritius
Réduit, MAURITIUS
Tel: +230 454-1041, extension 1527
Cell Phone: +230 793-0497
Email:parahoos@uom.ac.mu

WG Leaders

Hon. Mr. Dharambeer GOKHOOL
Minister of Education and Human Resources, Mauritius
Tel: +230/ 686 2402/ 686 2403/ 601 5200
Fax: :+230 698/ 3601/ 2550
IVTB House, 3rd floor
Phoenix, MAURITIUS
http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/education

Ms. Lalla Aïcha BEN BARKA
Director of UNESCO Regional Office in Africa (BREDA)
12 Avenue L. S. Senghor BP 3311
Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: +221 8/ 49 23 23/ 49 23 35
Fax: +221 8/ 23 83 93/ 23 61 75
E-mail: la.ben-barka@unesco.org
http://www.dakar.unesco.org/index.shtml