Introduction

Background to and Scope of Research

This report emerges as part of an ongoing series of policy research reports commissioned by the Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education (CETDE) of the South African Department of Education. The research project, in many ways, has its origins in various informal policy discussions that have taken place around the policy of establishing an open school in South Africa. These discussions were prompted, in part, by scale of educational problems facing the country in the fields of General and Further Education and Training, as well as by growing awareness of a range of open school projects running in different parts of the world. 

Many previous research projects have, however, pointed to growing problems with maintaining rigid systemic distinctions between distance and contact education (for example, the recently completed study on The Feasibility of Establishing a Dedicated Educational Broadcasting Service in South Africa. Likewise, there has been an awareness that large quantities of money are currently being spent on mainstream educational systems, and it is critical that this expenditure be made to work as productively as possible. For this reason, the goal of this policy research exercise grew from exploring the potential of establishing an Open School in South Africa to undertaking a full policy review of General and Further Education and Training from an open learning perspective. 

The broad objective of this project was, therefore, to conduct a research exercise into open learning in General and Further Education in South Africa. This is not, however, intended to be an abstract or theoretical research activity. Thus, in seeking to make a constructive intervention that responds to the challenges articulated above, we have noted the following broad goals for this project:

•     Develop a detailed understanding of what open learning entails, and its practical policy implications for South Africa;

•     Produce a report that identifies, in practical and concrete terms, strategies for facilitating an open learning environment throughout all General and Further Education and Training;

•    Through analysis of the policy environment and current practices in General and Further Education and Training, identify implementation strategies to foster greater openness in these sectors;

•     Develop strategies to coordinate the work of identified role-players and to build appropriate facilitating roles for the Department of Education; and

•     Identify plans to raise awareness and understanding about open learning.

Research Themes

The broad scope outlined above indicates the enormity of the task set for this research exercise, particularly given its overall budget and time-frames for completion. Our response to this, developed in consultation with the Department of Education and a broader reference group has been to focus our work on a range of core themes, each of which explores aspects of General and Further Education and Training from an open learning perspective. We decided to allow individual researchers some degree of latitude in interpreting their research tasks, encouraging them to explore their themes in innovative ways and with a strong focus on practical solutions to current problems. Thus, each individual report contained selective analysis of its theme, often integrating the required outputs of the project as stated above. Thus, reports have not only focused on describing the field, but also often on identifying key players, as well as wide-ranging recommendations for further action. Based on advice we received from the reference group, the research themes we pursued were outlined below:

•      ABET and open learning;

•      Barriers to education in the school system (including detailed primary research work undertaken in Mpumalanga);

•      Policy related to schooling;

•      Further education and training policy;

•      Rural education;

•      Learners with special educational needs;

•      Learnerships;

•      Open learning and distance education;

•      A case study of the Technical College of South Africa; and

•      International case studies, taken from India, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, and Belgium (the focus of case studies was set by the researchers we were able to identify and contract at short notice).

We have used all of these diverse inputs to construct our final, main chapter. We have attempted to draw out what we considered to be the most important recurrent themes emerging from all of the above work, as well as from a range of completed policy research processes with which we have engaged.