Held 21-22 August 2000
Papers Presented at
the 2nd National NADEOSA Conference
Held 21-22 August 2000
Allow me to take two phrases from President Mbeki’s keynote address to the National General Council of the ANC on 12 July 2000 where the ANC committed itself to "…ensure a decent and continuously improving standard of living for all our people without discrimination." and to "respect …. cultural and linguistic diversity of our nation and to construct a caring society, sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable, including children, the youth and the disabled".
This is the basic premise that underpins my address tonight. This is the basic premise that drives the response of the education and training environment as a whole.
Numerous observations indicate that a global revolution is taking place in education. This is driven by the changing nature of work, the arrival of the information age, new global partnerships and an awareness of the need for an equal distribution of educational opportunities - within South Africa and among global partners.
It is possible to identify the following trends as characteristic of this global transformation:
- The emergence of a new open and yet not fully defined teaching/learning paradigm,
- The blurring of the distinction between face-to-face and distance learning to the emergence of the concept of flexible learning systems and
- The innovative application of technology to the delivery of education.
Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa is no exception to these trends. We realised that we can’t maintain a ridged education and training system inherited from centuries of colonialism and apartheid – we need to move towards an open learning environment – an environment that embraces:
- learner-centredness,
- lifelong learning,
- flexibility in learning,
- removal of unnecessary barriers to access,
- recognition of prior learning experiences and current competencies,
- learner support,
- expectations of success,
- cost-effectiveness and
- quality.
We also acknowledge that the translation of these principles into practice is by no means a simple procedure or, indeed, one that would ever be fully accomplished - no learning system or programme or course is ever fully open.
This brings me to my first point tonight – open learning is not a synonym for distance education, open learning is not for adults alone and I want to make even a stronger point – OPEN LEARNING IS NOT A BUZZWORD TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Open learning is an educational concept. Open learning principles can continually inform all educational practices with the aim of improving them. Flexibility and quality are the key words.
Tonight we are gathered here to specifically look at quality in an open learning environment. The organisers assured me that the courses presented tonight are truly developed in an open learning approach. The importance of flexibility in courseware must be emphasised, and the importance of quality is non-negotiable. I am encouraged to see such high quality courseware materials presented, and I am proud to say that this is a product of our country – MADE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
I want to take you back to the legacy of the education system that we inherited. Within this system various research projects have pointed to the growing problems in maintaining a ridged systemic distinction between distance and contact education. My second point - I don’t want to see a shift in the educational system from contact to distance education – many people believe that this will solve many problems of access and cost effectiveness.
Will it solve our real problem in education?
I doubt it, we must shift towards an integrated, networked model that gives the learners the ability to construct knowledge and to contribute meaningfully to the environment he/she is standing in – only then are we constructing a caring society, only then can we improve the standard of living of our people, only then can we end poverty.
To provide distance education – to increase access and to lower cost is a myth that kills quality. Distance education is not a cheap alternative to contact education. Distance education methodology can however address the issues of access and cost-effectiveness, if applied correctly. Our commitment to the principle of inclusion in education is that "everyone, everywhere should be able to participate in and no one should be excluded from education".
What are we offering our learners? I don’t want to see a shift towards distance education, to second best, to an alternative - I want to see that distance education methodologies are getting their rightful place in the movement to an open and flexible education and training system in South Africa.
This brings me to my last point of the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. For several decades some universities and vocational institutions have tried to serve students who are not able to take part in traditional campus-based studies due to their place of residence, work or other reasons. Distance education, which started in the form of correspondence courses, has acquired new forms thanks to the development of information and communications technologies (ICT). The amount of information available, and the number of universities and other organisations involved, emphasises that this is a booming and exciting business.
Using a wide variety of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in open learning is still in its infancy – here and abroad.
If we look at the South African situation, we realise that printed material will still form a part of many courses and programmes. We have a situation where the most marginalised communities of our society still lack access to basic the infrastructure such as water and electricity, not to speak of Information and Communication Technologies. How can we make choices on the use of ICT? We need to analyse the needs of our learners and create a learning environment suitable for the individual learner, wherever he/she is, and still consider the first form of Information and Communication Technology, that is the good old book – the printed medium.
The interest in using the Internet for actual learning rather than for simply providing information about courses or teaching through volumes of typed notes delivered by electronic means is clear and possible in the future of education and training in South Africa. I can see the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the development of courses like these presented here tonight. But even more important is that we keep realism in developments – the Internet can do a lot of things, but can it solve all our challenges in education? I like the balance that is kept between the use of printed material and electronic material. This shows that while developing the materials the developers kept the situation in our country in mind.
The strategic document published by the European Union called "The White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment: The Challenges and Ways forward into 21st Century" presents the opportunities offered by digital data networks, among other things, as one of the most important tools for social and educational development. It sees in-service flexible and distance study as an important basis for lifelong learning - and this is possible in South Africa.
Thinking about social development in South Africa, the recent changes in teaching and learning views, educational goals and the idea of knowledge as well as the rapid development in information technology, provide both the needs and the possibility of the development of new open learning environments. We need to keep abreast of developments to ensure economic and financial stability in our country, to invest in people and to promote global participation and competition.
In the G8 Summit in July 2000 in Okinawa, Japan, the wealthiest nations in history endorsed the Global Campaign for Education’s main principle. They agreed that no government seriously committed to achieving education for all would be thwarted in this achievement by lack of resources.
While this is a victory for the Global Campaign for Education, what is needed is a global initiative that mobilizes the resources and backs the efforts of poor countries to meet the 2015 goal of education for all.
As the transformation of education proceeds in South Africa there is a tendency to put considerable time and energy into issues of governance and structure. While this is very important and necessary, the on-going global transformation of education is focussing on the provision of relevant and cost-effective learning opportunities to a broad spectrum of learners. I am proud to say that South Africa is a leader in the fields of open learning thinking and our continuous efforts to make it happen in practice is encouraging.
A function like the Award Ceremony on Courseware Development is an effort to build on the good practices in South Africa. I want to congratulate every participant in this evening's programme. Congratulations also to the developers that will walk away with the award of the Best Distance Education Courseware for 2000. I want to encourage you to build on this success.
I want to encourage NADEOSA to actively play a continuing role in this global transformation of education – focusing on South Africa.
To conclude, I want to take you back to Zurich, Switzerland in early July where a decision was taken that shattered the hopes of our people and the peoples of Africa. As a soccer nation, I suspect you all know what decision I am referring to. A public comment was made in an attempt to explain the unexpected decision, that Africa was not yet ready to host the finals of the Soccer World Cup.
But we all know that Africa and South Africa is ready to take the challenge of open learning and ready to host the Soccer World Cup Finals. In short, to compete with the best in the world.
South Africa illustrated readiness when the Commonwealth of Learning announced that South Africa will host the Second Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open and Flexible Learning in 2002.
I am proud to announce that NADEOSA, the Department of Education together with the Commonwealth of Learning will co-host this prestigious event that brings together open learning experts, practitioners, policymakers and leaders from all over the globe.
The real question to answer is not if South Africa is ready to take the challenge of open learning, but if the world is ready to accept that Africa, and South Africa in particular are part of the global human family, and not an irrelevant appendage whose marginalisation is an acceptable outcome.
As President Mbeki said: Our country is fully, an integral part of this Africa and of this World!
Ngiyabonga, Ke a leboga, Thank you and Goodnight!
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