Open and distance learning – Making transformation happen
In a Times Higher Education report dated 19 November, a panel discussion on critical emerging issues in higher education evolved into thinking about ways that universities should modify their approach
12 Aralık 2019 - 14:18
In a Times Higher Education report dated 19 November, a panel discussion on critical emerging issues in higher education evolved into thinking about ways that universities should modify their approaches to learning, teaching, technology and employability. These are the new realities of education.
Education in Africa must respond to technological changes and new behavioural patterns of students and society. It must also lead to employability and the creation of value for its people and make its graduates globally capable and confident.
For example, when HIV surfaced, some African herbalists claimed they had found a cure. Our scientists did not have the courage and confidence to challenge the naysayers, and make the claims a reality. We seemed to believe that if the developed economies had not found a cure, how could we? Which scientist in Africa has inventions that we wish to emulate? Are we fully awakened and confident?
One other reason why Africa’s education is not providing the transformation we need is the fact that for far too long a time, Africa has been led to focus on primary and secondary education, which only perpetuates semi-literacy. We have laid very little emphasis on higher education as reflected in the tertiary gross enrolment ratio of just about 10% or less for the continent.
The purpose of higher education is not to address the immediate needs of the people; rather, higher education is seen as a tool for preparing people for white-collar jobs bequeathed to us by our colonial masters.
‘An awakening and capable people’
A report I came across in Ghana mentions a conversation that ensued between Mr W H Baker, the first headmaster of the first post-secondary school in Ghana, the Accra Teacher Training College, and His Excellency Sir John Rogers, the then governor of the Gold Coast Colony shortly before the opening of the college in 1909. According to Baker, “the conversation turned at once, not to the immediate question of the college but to the general problems of an awakening and capable people”.
Baker added: “His Excellency envisaged a West African University with constituent colleges in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria.” Baker further notes that the college at Accra was “but a small beginning in the mind of Sir Rogers of a great educational scheme which would give Africans a full and adequate place in the scholarship of the world” (1959, Accra College of Education, 50th Anniversary brochure).
Prior to the conversation between Baker and the governor, Baker had maintained that, “Concerning education of the African, the best attempt of the white man to educate the black would only be a makeshift, until some Booker T Washington arises who, having a grasp of the fundamental principles underlying the growth of education in Europe, is able to adapt them to the needs of the people.”
What could we learn from Booker T Washington?
Booker T Washington was an American educator, author, and advisor to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Booker T was the dominant leader in the African-American community known as the Black elite. He believed that blacks should progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than focus on the politics of the time.
Born in a slave community, poverty ruled out the possibility of regular schooling for him but he worked and schooled at the same time. After graduation in 1875 he went into teaching and made his mark. He taught children in the day and adults at night.
In 1881 Booker T was selected to head a newly-established school for African Americans at Tuskegee. The institution had two small rehabilitated buildings, no equipment, and very little money. Booker transformed the institution into the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. At his death 34 years later, the institute had more than 100 well-equipped buildings, some 1,500 students, a faculty of nearly 200, teaching 38 trades and professions, and an endowment of approximately US$2 million.
How did he do it?
Booker T mastered the nuances of the political arena in the late 19th century, which enabled him to get the media on his side; he raised money and developed a strategy and networks to realise his goals.
Education for all, not some
Booker believed that the best interests of black people in the post-Reconstruction era could be realised through education in the crafts and industrial skills, and the cultivation of the virtues of cooperation, enterprise, and thrift. These ideals were similar to those of the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity, Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, who long saw the need to educate all, not only some of the people, and founded this university.
Booker T argued that economic security would break down the inequality gap and lead to equal citizenship in the end.
Booker was a transformational and visionary leader. He looked beyond the repression and the fear of the powers that be. He knew he had to confront the situation and not the people repressing them at the time. He knew the power of collaboration, and he used it well to his advantage because he had the skill and power of collaboration. Booker knew he had to touch the heads and the hearts of the people he wanted the transformation for and do it with them and for them.
As leaders and members of the university community, like Booker T Washington, we must see education beyond what we do in the classroom or university environment. We should link education to jobs, empowerment and strategy towards the goals of Agenda 2030 and the transformation. We need the media to celebrate good examples which promote, protect and support the transformation.
For too long, Africa has blamed white supremacy for being responsible for our failures, without questioning how we contributed to the failures or our latent repression – neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism in my view is not an occupation of physical space but the taking over of mental spaces, the highest of all occupations.
Africa needs to devise its own strategies to earn its place in the scheme of global development, global politics and diplomacy. Our strategy towards Agenda 2030 and transformation should be the use of education to address the fourth industrial revolution and create wealth and a distinctive culture which will accord the African and Africans in diaspora the needed recognition and self-reliance. We need to focus on skills and learning.
That is exactly what open learning seeks to achieve because it is self-directed. In addition, when we combine open and distance learning (ODL) with integrated work environment learning, we can radically change the status quo. This is what Africa needs for transformation.
Role of open and distance learning
Today, it is evident that open and distance learning is a key vehicle to address access to education at all levels, particularly tertiary level.
Most importantly, ODL brings along with it quality of curriculum and content, educational resources that match changing behavioural and technological requirements, and the flexibility that allows a combination of work and learning. Let’s note that the emphasis is on learning and not mere schooling.
The combination of work and learning can drive the achievement of practical, useful and applied education that meets the needs of the people and the transformation we need. Schooling is only an organised means to learning but learning itself can take place in many ways.
In this regard, ODL can drive economic emancipation in a way that the traditional system of education has not yet demonstrated.
ODL can also contribute to the achievement of gender parity, one of the 2030 goals in higher education, because it can allow women to balance work and family life with learning.
ODL provides affordable options to education at all levels and has the inherent potential to enhance quality of instruction, particularly in the blended format. Clearly with a good investment in ODL, many can be reached, and both access and quality can be enhanced.
It is in this regard that I believe in the 21st century, to attain Agenda 2030, Africa must emphasise a pragmatic educational philosophy, powered by technology and the needs of society.
Skills have been described as the currency of the 21st century. Before the emergence of formal education, pragmatic education through apprenticeship did not breed unemployment. But today vocational, technical and technological education has been pushed to the periphery in Africa, and ODL can be used in an innovative way to revive skills-based education through competency-based learning.
Technological disruption
In the panel discussion mentioned earlier, the issue of higher education’s responsibility to maximise student success in an age of technological disruption, and how students can be prepared for the future, was raised. The panel identified the creation of new learning spaces through digital learning as the way forward. It also noted that students are engaging more on social media platforms, and to get their attention to learn, institutions need to reach them where they engage.
Ultimately, institutions can better engage students through technology, which is what open and distance education strives to do. The panel also concluded that universities are dealing with the challenge of digital transformation and that “a more personalised approach to learning will emerge in the coming years”.
Additionally they said that “students have expressed concern about the siloed systems of education and questioned why students should be put in silos and wait to be delivered at different destinations at the same time, when they naturally move at different speeds”. This too, open and distance learning seeks to address.
Finally, I will like to cite the Singapore model, the SkillsFuture project, which is a national movement to provide Singaporeans with opportunities to develop to their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points.
Singaporeans believe that through the SkillsFuture movement, the skills, passion and contributions of every individual will drive Singapore's next phase of development towards an advanced economy and inclusive society.
From a point of implementation, no matter where one is in life, whether in school, early career, mid-career or the silver years, one can find a variety of resources to attain a mastery of skills. For them, skills mastery is more than having the right paper qualifications and being good at what you do currently; it is a mind-set of continually striving towards greater excellence through knowledge, application and experience. The belief here is that Singaporeans can own a better future with skills mastery and lifelong learning.
The question is why should Africa be restricted to a 13th-century structure of education, which we borrowed and which is not working for us now, let alone in the future.
Undoubtedly, the philosophy of open and distance learning can contribute to the achievement of the aspiration enshrined in Agenda 2030 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. The achievement of Agenda 2030 should ultimately help us attain our Agenda 2063 which, for emphasis, is “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena”.
Like Booker T Washington and the Singaporean SkillsFuture example, let us take education to all the people, not just some of the people, and let’s make education work for the people so that we can find our long-lost voices somewhere in the global forest. One of the vehicles that could take us there is open and distance learning – the 21st century education concept.
Oil for the ODL wheels
In conclusion, the oil for the wheels of open and distance learning for the transformation Agendas of 2030 and 2063 are:
1. The awakening of capable, competent and confident Africans to embrace the vehicles for the transformation.
2. A paradigm shift from the traditional silos of brick and mortar educational concepts to one that embraces openness and technology mediation. This requires a lot of advocacy and regulation of ODL in Africa. This will safeguard both the practice and quality.
3. A focus on skills, competency, technology and entrepreneurial-based education.
4. Capacity-building and resource development for ODL in Africa. In this regard, capacity needs developed for all academic staff in blended learning delivery in Africa, not for only those in open and distance environments.
5. Need for a heavy investment in ODL to complement the traditional systems of education to respond to behavioural and technological changes.
6. Addressing the perceptual challenges of ODL with hard facts, to deconstruct the perception that ODL is inferior.
7. We must understand the global politics of education, and use the power of networks and collaborations to overcome the political barrier to ODL education in Africa.
Professor Joshua Alabi is vice-chancellor of the Laweh Open University in Accra, Ghana. This is an edited extract of a speech he delivered to the 29th annual general meeting of the convocation of the Open University of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam on 26 November on the topic of “Agenda 2030 and Open and Distance Learning – Making transformation happen”.
Education in Africa must respond to technological changes and new behavioural patterns of students and society. It must also lead to employability and the creation of value for its people and make its graduates globally capable and confident.
For example, when HIV surfaced, some African herbalists claimed they had found a cure. Our scientists did not have the courage and confidence to challenge the naysayers, and make the claims a reality. We seemed to believe that if the developed economies had not found a cure, how could we? Which scientist in Africa has inventions that we wish to emulate? Are we fully awakened and confident?
One other reason why Africa’s education is not providing the transformation we need is the fact that for far too long a time, Africa has been led to focus on primary and secondary education, which only perpetuates semi-literacy. We have laid very little emphasis on higher education as reflected in the tertiary gross enrolment ratio of just about 10% or less for the continent.
The purpose of higher education is not to address the immediate needs of the people; rather, higher education is seen as a tool for preparing people for white-collar jobs bequeathed to us by our colonial masters.
‘An awakening and capable people’
A report I came across in Ghana mentions a conversation that ensued between Mr W H Baker, the first headmaster of the first post-secondary school in Ghana, the Accra Teacher Training College, and His Excellency Sir John Rogers, the then governor of the Gold Coast Colony shortly before the opening of the college in 1909. According to Baker, “the conversation turned at once, not to the immediate question of the college but to the general problems of an awakening and capable people”.
Baker added: “His Excellency envisaged a West African University with constituent colleges in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria.” Baker further notes that the college at Accra was “but a small beginning in the mind of Sir Rogers of a great educational scheme which would give Africans a full and adequate place in the scholarship of the world” (1959, Accra College of Education, 50th Anniversary brochure).
Prior to the conversation between Baker and the governor, Baker had maintained that, “Concerning education of the African, the best attempt of the white man to educate the black would only be a makeshift, until some Booker T Washington arises who, having a grasp of the fundamental principles underlying the growth of education in Europe, is able to adapt them to the needs of the people.”
What could we learn from Booker T Washington?
Booker T Washington was an American educator, author, and advisor to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Booker T was the dominant leader in the African-American community known as the Black elite. He believed that blacks should progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than focus on the politics of the time.
Born in a slave community, poverty ruled out the possibility of regular schooling for him but he worked and schooled at the same time. After graduation in 1875 he went into teaching and made his mark. He taught children in the day and adults at night.
In 1881 Booker T was selected to head a newly-established school for African Americans at Tuskegee. The institution had two small rehabilitated buildings, no equipment, and very little money. Booker transformed the institution into the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. At his death 34 years later, the institute had more than 100 well-equipped buildings, some 1,500 students, a faculty of nearly 200, teaching 38 trades and professions, and an endowment of approximately US$2 million.
How did he do it?
Booker T mastered the nuances of the political arena in the late 19th century, which enabled him to get the media on his side; he raised money and developed a strategy and networks to realise his goals.
Education for all, not some
Booker believed that the best interests of black people in the post-Reconstruction era could be realised through education in the crafts and industrial skills, and the cultivation of the virtues of cooperation, enterprise, and thrift. These ideals were similar to those of the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity, Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, who long saw the need to educate all, not only some of the people, and founded this university.
Booker T argued that economic security would break down the inequality gap and lead to equal citizenship in the end.
Booker was a transformational and visionary leader. He looked beyond the repression and the fear of the powers that be. He knew he had to confront the situation and not the people repressing them at the time. He knew the power of collaboration, and he used it well to his advantage because he had the skill and power of collaboration. Booker knew he had to touch the heads and the hearts of the people he wanted the transformation for and do it with them and for them.
As leaders and members of the university community, like Booker T Washington, we must see education beyond what we do in the classroom or university environment. We should link education to jobs, empowerment and strategy towards the goals of Agenda 2030 and the transformation. We need the media to celebrate good examples which promote, protect and support the transformation.
For too long, Africa has blamed white supremacy for being responsible for our failures, without questioning how we contributed to the failures or our latent repression – neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism in my view is not an occupation of physical space but the taking over of mental spaces, the highest of all occupations.
Africa needs to devise its own strategies to earn its place in the scheme of global development, global politics and diplomacy. Our strategy towards Agenda 2030 and transformation should be the use of education to address the fourth industrial revolution and create wealth and a distinctive culture which will accord the African and Africans in diaspora the needed recognition and self-reliance. We need to focus on skills and learning.
That is exactly what open learning seeks to achieve because it is self-directed. In addition, when we combine open and distance learning (ODL) with integrated work environment learning, we can radically change the status quo. This is what Africa needs for transformation.
Role of open and distance learning
Today, it is evident that open and distance learning is a key vehicle to address access to education at all levels, particularly tertiary level.
Most importantly, ODL brings along with it quality of curriculum and content, educational resources that match changing behavioural and technological requirements, and the flexibility that allows a combination of work and learning. Let’s note that the emphasis is on learning and not mere schooling.
The combination of work and learning can drive the achievement of practical, useful and applied education that meets the needs of the people and the transformation we need. Schooling is only an organised means to learning but learning itself can take place in many ways.
In this regard, ODL can drive economic emancipation in a way that the traditional system of education has not yet demonstrated.
ODL can also contribute to the achievement of gender parity, one of the 2030 goals in higher education, because it can allow women to balance work and family life with learning.
ODL provides affordable options to education at all levels and has the inherent potential to enhance quality of instruction, particularly in the blended format. Clearly with a good investment in ODL, many can be reached, and both access and quality can be enhanced.
It is in this regard that I believe in the 21st century, to attain Agenda 2030, Africa must emphasise a pragmatic educational philosophy, powered by technology and the needs of society.
Skills have been described as the currency of the 21st century. Before the emergence of formal education, pragmatic education through apprenticeship did not breed unemployment. But today vocational, technical and technological education has been pushed to the periphery in Africa, and ODL can be used in an innovative way to revive skills-based education through competency-based learning.
Technological disruption
In the panel discussion mentioned earlier, the issue of higher education’s responsibility to maximise student success in an age of technological disruption, and how students can be prepared for the future, was raised. The panel identified the creation of new learning spaces through digital learning as the way forward. It also noted that students are engaging more on social media platforms, and to get their attention to learn, institutions need to reach them where they engage.
Ultimately, institutions can better engage students through technology, which is what open and distance education strives to do. The panel also concluded that universities are dealing with the challenge of digital transformation and that “a more personalised approach to learning will emerge in the coming years”.
Additionally they said that “students have expressed concern about the siloed systems of education and questioned why students should be put in silos and wait to be delivered at different destinations at the same time, when they naturally move at different speeds”. This too, open and distance learning seeks to address.
Finally, I will like to cite the Singapore model, the SkillsFuture project, which is a national movement to provide Singaporeans with opportunities to develop to their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points.
Singaporeans believe that through the SkillsFuture movement, the skills, passion and contributions of every individual will drive Singapore's next phase of development towards an advanced economy and inclusive society.
From a point of implementation, no matter where one is in life, whether in school, early career, mid-career or the silver years, one can find a variety of resources to attain a mastery of skills. For them, skills mastery is more than having the right paper qualifications and being good at what you do currently; it is a mind-set of continually striving towards greater excellence through knowledge, application and experience. The belief here is that Singaporeans can own a better future with skills mastery and lifelong learning.
The question is why should Africa be restricted to a 13th-century structure of education, which we borrowed and which is not working for us now, let alone in the future.
Undoubtedly, the philosophy of open and distance learning can contribute to the achievement of the aspiration enshrined in Agenda 2030 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. The achievement of Agenda 2030 should ultimately help us attain our Agenda 2063 which, for emphasis, is “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena”.
Like Booker T Washington and the Singaporean SkillsFuture example, let us take education to all the people, not just some of the people, and let’s make education work for the people so that we can find our long-lost voices somewhere in the global forest. One of the vehicles that could take us there is open and distance learning – the 21st century education concept.
Oil for the ODL wheels
In conclusion, the oil for the wheels of open and distance learning for the transformation Agendas of 2030 and 2063 are:
1. The awakening of capable, competent and confident Africans to embrace the vehicles for the transformation.
2. A paradigm shift from the traditional silos of brick and mortar educational concepts to one that embraces openness and technology mediation. This requires a lot of advocacy and regulation of ODL in Africa. This will safeguard both the practice and quality.
3. A focus on skills, competency, technology and entrepreneurial-based education.
4. Capacity-building and resource development for ODL in Africa. In this regard, capacity needs developed for all academic staff in blended learning delivery in Africa, not for only those in open and distance environments.
5. Need for a heavy investment in ODL to complement the traditional systems of education to respond to behavioural and technological changes.
6. Addressing the perceptual challenges of ODL with hard facts, to deconstruct the perception that ODL is inferior.
7. We must understand the global politics of education, and use the power of networks and collaborations to overcome the political barrier to ODL education in Africa.
Professor Joshua Alabi is vice-chancellor of the Laweh Open University in Accra, Ghana. This is an edited extract of a speech he delivered to the 29th annual general meeting of the convocation of the Open University of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam on 26 November on the topic of “Agenda 2030 and Open and Distance Learning – Making transformation happen”.
YORUMLAR