This overview draws mainly from interviews with
people from the institutions and programmes visited and from some of the documents given
to us.
Description
Distance and Open Learning in Zambia has a long history dating as far
back as the 1940s, when many Zambians were studying for post primary qualifications
through commercial colleges in South Africa and Britain. When Zambia got its independence
from the British colonial rule in 1964, there was a shortage of educated and trained
personnel in both the public and the private sector. This prompted the government of
Zambia to adopt Distance and Open Learning as viable strategies to enhance access to
education. These strategies were particularly important because the government did not
have enough money to build sufficient schools. For this reason, a number of programmes
offering education by distance and non-formal ways were introduced. These included:
- National Correspondence College, and
- University of Zambia, which also started offering small-scale distance learning
programmes and technical education and vocational training.
Distance and non-formal programmes continue to grow. Evidence of this
is the establishment of Youth Resources Centres and Community-Based Youth Resources
Centres. Besides skills training, courses offered in these programmes have included topics
like family life education, environmental sensitizing, and democratic leadership. In
addition to these institutions and centres, which are initiatives of government, there are
also private distance education providers such as the Central Africa Correspondence
College and Rapid Results College. These private colleges operate merely as satellites for
branches in Harare.
Target groups in all these open learning programmes and other distance
education providers have included out-of-school youth, adults, and professionals wanting
to pursue further academic education leading to certificates, diplomas, and degrees. The
purpose of providing distance education has mainly been to train personnel and to help
them to take up responsible jobs in both the public and private sectors.
Statistics were not available to show the total number of people
registered in all the institutions and programmes providing distance and open learning in
Zambia. Nevertheless, if estimated statistics for the National Correspondence College of
about 21,000 students are reliable, we can postulate that there are large numbers of
students enrolled in distance education. This may be attributed to its affordability.
Delivery Modes And Technologies
Most of the institutions mentioned above use both distance and
face-to-face modes of delivery. On registration, students are given packages of printed
learning materials to do the work on their own. They complete assignments and send them to
the institutions for marking. In some of these institutions and programmes, for example
Departments of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, the courses include short
residential face-to-face interactions at the university.
The distance and open learning institutions in Zambia rely very much on
print media. The use of other technologies has been very minimal. Apparently, some
institutions used radio, but they stopped using this service years ago because the Zambia
Broadcasting Services became autonomous (The government allowed it to run its own affairs
including finances) and started charging for the use of broadcasting services. Educational
institutions could no longer afford this. However, plans to start using radio to educate
out-of-school youth are already at an advanced stage. The committees to steer and
implement this project have been set up and are waiting for the Minister of Science,
Technology and Vocational Training to look at the terms of reference for the project and
to approve the names of members of the two committees.
The use of television and computers has not been seriously considered.
The major problem is that, even if institutions were to try and use these technologies for
teaching and learning, most students do not have access to these technologies.
Nevertheless, there are some external interventions aimed at helping to enhance the use of
computers for teaching and learning. For example, the Directorate of Distance Education
has received computers from Germany to be put in regional centres in all the provinces.
According to Mr. Chola, the World Bank has offered to help in setting up satellite centres
in rural areas and to connect people to the Internet. These are good initiatives, which
may help institutions but not necessarily learners because the question of access to such
technologies will remain a thorny issue.
Learner Support Strategies
Most institutions concur that distance education students need proper
support structures to give them confidence and enable them to do their work properly. As a
result, some of them have established departments specifically for advising students on,
for example, courses or subjects to be taken and how to go about studying on their own.
Such departments also handle students’ administrative queries.
Since some of these institutions produce and use their own learning
materials/modules, as a way of supporting their learners, they produce materials that are
easy to understand in terms of language and content. Students are also allowed to
telephone the institution and talk to the administrators, tutors, or lecturers if they
have problems.
Assessment
Assessment differs from one institution to another depending on the
nature of that institution or programme. For example, institutions such as the Central
Africa Correspondence College, The National Correspondence College, and the Rapid Results
College, whose role is to offer tuition only, give students’ tests and assignments
but do not administer examinations. On the other hand, programmes such as the Department
of Adult Education and Extension Studies (AEES) and the Department of Educational
Administration and Policy Studies (EAPS) at the University of Zambia claim to be using
continuous assessment and shifting away from examinations. Surprisingly, while in AEES
other forms of assessing students count for 50% and the examination counts 50%, in the
EAPS, other forms of assessing students (assignments, presentation, tests etc.) count for
40% and the examination counts for 60%.
Quality Assurance
It appears that many institutions have some mechanisms to ensure
quality. Attempts are made to make use of external experts to evaluate the institutional
learning materials and the performance of students. The university departments that offer
education through distance also make full use of students in evaluating their lecturers.
Though colleges such as the NCC, CACC and RRC do not formally use students to evaluate
their work students are allowed to comment on the materials.
Professional Development
It has been a major requirement for most of the institutions to have
ongoing professional development for training staff to deal with distance learners and to
produce material relevant for such learners. Because of lack of financial resources,
institutions have been forced to resort to internally run workshops and seminars, which
are cheaper in comparison to having external experts. The feeling is that such workshops
are not enough but institutions are constrained by finances.
Policies: National And Institutional
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 recognizes 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 ministry also pledged to promote open learning, lifelong education,
and a wide of mechanisms for continuing and distance education. Some of the mentioned
institutions do not have their own policies but by providing education to the
out-of-school children, youth and adults, these institutions clearly operate within the
policy of the ministry of education.
Enabling and Hindering Factors
Skills, experience, and commitment of staff have been identified as
some of the factors that enable Zambia’s distance education institutions to succeed.
On the other hand, lack of resources seems to be the main factor that hinders all the
institutions from training their staff properly, or using advanced Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning. |
