The National Correspondence College
SAIDE

Context:
While collecting information for this global distance education network, SAIDE held several interviews with organisations in Southern African countries. Impressions of each country were generated to give some introduction to distance education and technology use in the area. Each interview has also been written up separately as a case study.

Source:
SAIDE country visits conducted in 1999

Copyright:
Permission granted

Date of Interview: 24 June 1999

When Zambia got its independence from the British Colonial administration in 1964, few people were educated. Personnel in various sectors of the economy were depleted and there was need to educate people and to build up a pool of skilled manpower. Education became a priority but schools were insufficient and the building of formal school was going to take too long and costly. All these factors prompted the prioritisation and establishment of the National Correspondence College in 1964. As its name suggests, this college was to offer education by correspondence and by distance. Its major purpose is to increase access to education. Therefore its target groups have been people who have not been able to get into formal school or have suffered setbacks during their education and would like to improve their education while also working. Hence there are no age restrictions except that people who want to register with the college must have past grade 7.

Originally, the college was established to offer secondary education to: (a) Teachers with professional training but lacking the required academic qualifications (b) Offer adults wanting to pursue further academic education leading to certificates, mainly those in employment, and help them make responsible jobs in the public and private sectors. In 1972 the college started a scheme known as "Open Secondary Classes" for primary school leavers who could not secure places in conventional secondary schools . Subsequently, the college has two categories of students: The first category is comprised of directly enrolled students, mainly adults (employed and unemployed) studying at junior and senior secondary levels. The second group is made up of recent school leavers aged 14-17 who are expected to study under the supervision of seconded teachers using learning materials from the NCC. Such groups operate under the regional officers who report to the director. Although statistics were not readily available, it is estimated that enrolment could be around 30 000 and 21 000 for the two categories respectively.

The college was established by the Department of Continuing Education, in the Ministry of Education and it is fully funded by the government. As a result there have not been attempts to raise funds from other sources.

As said earlier, learning takes place by distance and the main delivery mode has been print media. Registered students are sent study materials containing instructions on how the work should be done. The study materials also include assignments, which students complete and send back to the college for marking. Students are allowed to visit the college for consultations and this is the only time there are face to face interactions.

Attempts to use both TV and Radio were made. Due to the fact that TV sets are expensive to purchase emphasis was later placed on Radio, which was a little cheaper and therefore affordable to most people including those in the rural villages. This service was also stopped about 3 years ago when Zambia’s Broadcasting Services became autonomous. The college and other educational providers had to pay for the broadcasting of their lessons. The college could not afford this.

Technologies such as telephones and email are available at the college but these are used mainly for administrative purposes because even if they were to be used for teaching and learning, most students would not have access to these. Nevertheless, the World Bank is apparently planning to help in putting satellites in remote areas and to connect people to internet. The problem with such an initiative is that it will still be excluding the majority of people.

Except for the support the colleges gives to the category of recent school leavers who are assigned seconded teachers to supervise their work, the college also has the Student Advisory Office whose responsibility is to handle students’ administrative quiries. They also have tutors who mark students’ work and give detailed feedback meant to help students in their learning process.

Learning Materials are themselves supportive in that they are learner friendly. The language is easy for students who learn on their own. The materials also contain sufficient exercises to allow self-assessment which also guide learners in the process. At the end of each learning material there are assignments which learners must complete and send to the college to be marked by tutors. The material is considered good in that even students who attend formal schooling use the NCC material.

Assessment

Assessment is done in two ways, firstly there are self assessment exercises which students have to mark by themselves to assess their own progress and the are exercises to marked be marked by tutors as indicated earlier. The self-marked assignments do not count to help a learner progress to the next level but they are mainly for guiding the student. Although the college does give learners assignments and tests, it does not administer exams, students are expected to register with examining bodies where they will to sit for exams. In fact, their students sit for the same exams with the students in formal schools.

QUALITY ASSURANCE.

Quality is ensured in the entire process of developing a lesson or learning materials. The college makes sure that people involved in the production of materials are well trained and skilled to write materials for distance education students. The process includes checking and rechecking in which a draft lesson is circulated among the lecturers and heads of departments for comments and suggestions. The editorial board then sits to critique the lesson and develop it further. Well trained typists with good experience are also used for typing the lesson before the editorial board sits again to look at spelling, general language errors and to look at whether the content is appropriate for distance education learners.

The college can not afford to give substandard education because their learners compete in the same exams with students who attend formal school. The fact that formal students also use the NCC material in their studies is also evident that their material is of good quality.

Professional Development

Some lecturers are not trained in distance education, as a result, there has been need to train such people but this has been constrained by resources. Internal workshops and seminars are however organised from time to time in an attempt to train the staff.

National and Institutional Policy

Although we could not get National Policy documents, some reliable documents show that national policy on education provides for the development of open and distance learning. The policy states that: The ministry recognises the central importance of continuing and distance education for personal development, for updating knowledge and skills, and for overcoming disadvantages suffered during initial education. The college does not have its own policy but by providing education to the out-of-school children, youth and adults, the college clearly operates within the policy of the ministry of education.

Enabling and Hindering Factors

The enabling factors include the fact that they have human resource that has knowledge and experience to a run a distance education institution. They have an infrastructure and also enjoy government support in terms of its policy and funding. Hindering factors include the fact that the resources it has are not sufficient for an institution that deals with the entire country. Equipment for printing and the operational costs are very high and there are no enough resources to train staff.