It is common knowledge that the South African economy was built on systematically enforced racial discrimination in every sphere of our society, including education, during Apartheid. This has left deep scars of inequality and economic inefficiency in our society. Economic reconstruction and re-entry into regional and world markets are largely dependent on building a broader skills base and increasing the quality of education and training. Distance education is central to access to the education and training system, and therefore pivotal to the growth and development of our country. Moreover, distance learning is a strategy whereby learners can retain their jobs while furthering their skills and knowledge.

While distance education is a crucial strategy for those who cannot, or do not wish to, enter traditional education, many distance learners have particular problems needs. Most of these stem from their isolation from the institution of learning, from other learners, and from educators. Broadly speaking, it could be said that the needs of distance learners fall within the following categories:
•    physical facilities;
•    academic support (generic and specific);
•    administrative support;
•    counselling support; and
•    financial support.

A key to supporting distance learners and starting to meet the identified needs of learners is the establishment of community learning centres (CLCs). There is broad consensus woven throughout various policy proposals on the crucial role that CLCs might play in opening access to education and training, redressing structural imbalances and inequities in the system of provision, and, more specifically, enhancing the quality of distance education provision.

The Ministry of Education sees CLCs as a 'network of facilities usually pre-existing, which offers regular support and service to students of all varieties in pursuing their learning goals'.

The National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) argues for 'urgent stops to maximize the use of the large number of educational facilities in the country by establishing a national network of learning centres that would be focal points for learner support activities associated with distance education programmes'. There is no one agreed upon definition of learning centres, but common understandings include notions that CLCs:
•    should be relevant to the expressed needs of the community;
•    could be any public building, school, church or community hall that is easily accessible to the local community;
•    should be geared towards supporting and servicing learners in pursuit of their learning goals;
•    should be aimed at the need to redress the inequities of apartheid education; and
•    should be based on principles such as open learning, learner-centredness, lifelong learning, and flexibility of learning provision.

The Student Concultancy and Information Network Centre is one example of a student-driven initiative which aims to establish a CLC in Qwa Qwa. Qwa Qwa, in the Free State, is one of the former homelands of South Africa and is characterized by poverty and lack of resources.

Mbovana Johannes Sithole, currently a student at the University of the North, Qwa Qwa campus, was disturbed to discover that, although most distance learners in the Free State are concentrated in Qwa Qwa, there is inadequate support and resources for learners in this area. He is concerned that the lack of distance learning facilities in Qwa Qwa means that learners have to rely entirely on telephone and facsimile communication with their institutions. In addition, when distance learners write examinations, they have to travel out of Qwa Qwa to examination venues. This is time consuming and expensive.

In 1994, he was instrumental in initiating community forums of distance learners. These forums were a popular platform at which distance learners met annually to share common concerns and voice their grievances. It was in these forums that the idea of a satellite centre in Qwa Qwa emerged and grew into the plan for the SCAINC.

The following issues were identified by distance learners in Qwa Qwa as impacting negatively on their studies:
•    lack of regular tutorials to prepare learners for assignments and examinations;
•    lack of relevant information and career guidance;
•    unsatisfactory communication between students and learning institutions because of inadequate funds to make enquiries through telephones, facsimile, and e-mail;
•    absence of mechanisms to facilitate team work, cooperation, and group work for learners registered on the same courses; and
•    high attrition and failure rate.

After consultation with various organizational structures - including community-based organizations, the business sector, government, and institutions of higher learning - an interim steering committee was set up, as well as a technical committee comprising representatives from SAIDE, NADEOSA, COLISA, the Correspondence College Council, the Free State Higher and Further Education Trust and co-opted experts.

Informal dialogue with the Free State Department of Education indicates that in principle they are willing to support this initiative. The committee is waiting to set up a formal meeting with the Department and is also hoping to get the Free State Department of Technology and Communication involved. The interim steering committee has actively started fundraising to make the dream of the SCAINC a reality and has received promises of support from various companies, though these still need to be formalized.

The interim steering committee agreed that the motto of the centre should be 'the fruits of teamwork are knowledge and understanding, but the wages of individualism are ignorance and destruction'. Mobovana says that this motto is meant to emphasize that open learning can only be successfully achieved through unity. Through his consultations, he hopes to persuade various players that, even if they have different philosophies and ideologies, unity is strength and they should join forces in order to give practical expression to their educational ambitions.

The centre has a range of aims and objectives. Some of these are to:
•    recruit students for different institutions;
•    promote communication and cooperation between learners and their distance learning institutions, as well as between different institutions and members of local communities;
•    encourage team work and group discussions among learners;
•    help institutions with recruitment of new students; and
•    provide learners with information services and educational resources.

The centre promises to be a valuable initiative, not only in improving communication and providing educational resources and information to potential and current learners, but also in advancing moves towards lifelong learning through distance education and open learning.

Ultimately Mbovana hopes that the SCAINC will contribute towards the improvement of distance learning. In this way, education can be brought closer to the door posts of the people so that South Africans can upgrade their education and contribute usefully to the growth and development of South Africa and its reincorporation into the international society.

Mbovana Sithole may be contacted at 083 736-6746

RDP Policy Framework 1994. p. 2. (Ministry of Education, February 1995, Education and Training in a Democratic South Africa: First Steps to Develop a New System).