| An overview of Distance Education in Zimbabwe
Country Visit: 09 to 11 June
DISCRIPTION
Distance and Open Learning have been in existence in Zimbabwe from
as far back as the 1930s. Among some of the institutions that claim a long history in the
provision of distance and non-formal education is the Government Primary Correspondence
School. This school, which today runs from grade 1 to 5 and is planning to introduce grade
6 next year, began as an experiment sponsored by the Education Department in 1930.
According to information available, the school is the brainchild of Mr. Tait of Australia
who had visited Zimbabwe on an educational commission. He suggested a Correspondence
School as means of meeting the needs of outside (rural) pupils who were either too young
or whose parents were not able, financially to place their children in a boarding schoo1.
To this date, the school still operates along the same principles.
Students send in application forms to register for the same pre-packaged curriculum as
offered in formal schools (i.e. students register for Maths, English, Environmental
Studies, Social Studies, Religious Studies, Shona, Ndebele, Art and Physical Education).
Such students are then required to have supervisors who may be their parents. Supervisors
are not employees of the government but the school employs qualified and experienced
teachers whose responsibility is to develop learning material, mark students’ work
and give them detailed feedback. In 1998, the school had registered 129 students in Term
1, this number rose to 283 in Term Three. Of the 283 students 144 were male and 129
female, 192 were White, 86 Black, 3 Coloured and 2 Asians. According to Mr. Kawadza the
total number also included 2 students from Botswana, 2 from Mozambique, 1 from Malawi and
3 from Zambia. Statistics for 1999 could not be confirmed because unlike formal schools,
student intake in the school takes place any time throughout the year.
Another non-formal education programme which is run by the Rapid
Results College in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture is the
Supervised Study Group. The Study Groups Programme was formed in 1981 after the war.
Apparently, after the war, many people had dropped out of school and there was no enough
money to build schools for everybody. As a response to the situation, Supervised Study
Groups were established with the purpose of making education accessible to young and old
people who had been destabilised by war. To date, the study groups are still running
successfully and the RRC prides it self on the achievements of the programme without
forgetting the financial assistance it got from the government by way of paying the study
group mentors and offering capitation grants to correspondence colleges. However, because
of lack of enough financial resources, the government has had to reduce its contribution
by stopping (i) the establishment of new Study Groups, (ii) the appointment of new mentors
and (iii) the replacement of mentors who might have left the programme. The inability of
the government to continue its financial contribution in the programme is regarded by
people at the RRC as a major blow which is seriously going to impact on the success of the
Study Groups.
In addition to the non-formal education programmes mentioned above
there is also a growing number of public and private institutions offering secondary and
tertiary education by distance. Among such institutions are the Rapid Results College,
Central Africa Correspondence College (CACC), Zimbabwe Distance Education College (ZDECO).
Rapid Results and Central Africa Correspondence Colleges are mainly tuition providers
which do not administer exams. Its students are required to register with examining bodies
where they will sit for exams.
The survey of distance education programmes in Zimbabwe shows that in
addition to the institutions mentioned above, there is a number of other institutions
which have been registered with the Ministries of Education and of Higher Education
respectively. These include; the Institute for Personnel Management (IPMZ from South
Africa), International Correspondence School, Distance Education Centre and Open Learning
Centre (from UK). Because of time, these institutions could not be visited. Programmes
operated by the University of Zimbabwe included the Centre for Distance Education and
Litraid from UK. In fact, the Centre for Distance Education has recently been converted
into a full-scale university known as the Zimbabwe Open University.
This University is set to revolutionise the provision of distance
education at tertiary level in Zimbabwe. It is already striving to establish meaningful
relationships with South African and Botswana DE providers such as Vista University and
Technikon South Africa and to literally compete with institutions such as UNISA for
distance education students in Zimbabwe. To this effect, ZOU is already offering a good
number of undergraduate diplomas, undergraduate and post-graduate degrees including MBA
and Ph.D. in Educational Administration, Planning and Policy Studies.
Distance and open learning has been going on for quite some time in
Zimbabwe and that new distance education institutions continue to be established. Despite
this, it was somewhat, disappointing to notice that there has not been an umbrella
organisation that could lead the way for distance education and its providers in that
country, by way of research and bringing together DE providers for purposes of sharing
ideas. The Zimbabwean National Association for Distance and Open Learning (ZINADOL) which
was launched in June 1997 and was suppose to be the mother body of all DE providers in
Zimbabwe is facing serious lack of resource to even begin to do its work. Among other
things, this organisation had aimed at; liasing with government and local and
international agencies in advancing D&OL, develop and promote the capacity of members
in D&OL through staff development Programmes; provide and promote forum for
interaction among users and providers of D&OL, and organisations with common goal;
promote acceptable standards; encourage the adoption of modern techniques and technologies
in D&OL etc. Though the organisation claims to have achieved some of its goals, it is
faced with serious problems that could undermine its very existence.
In my observation, some of the distance education providers have more
resources which give them an edge over ZINADOL. As a result, some of them do not bother to
give this supposedly mother body organisation the recognition it deserves, despite the
fact the that the Deputy Minister of Higher Education (Dr. S. Ndlovu) had urged all DE
providers to join the organisation. The situation is so serious that the chairperson,
secretary and other members of the executive committee of the organisation have to work
else where to earn a living and this impacts negatively on the smooth running of the
organisation.
DELIVERY MODES AND THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY
All the institutions discussed above use both distance and face to
face delivery modes but the degree to which they use the latter differs significantly from
one institution to another. For example, face to face interactions at the Government
Correspondence School takes place between the learners and the supervisors and not
teachers based at the school. The supervisors are also not the responsibility of the
school the school only advises parents to find supervisors for their kids if they
(parents) can no help their children. Institutions such as Rapid Results and Central
Africa Correspondence College also rely very much on correspondence and there are no face
to face interactions.
All the institutions that were visited still rely very much on printed
media. The only advanced technology used in some of the institutions, particularly those
supported by the government is radio. For example, the Correspondence School has their
different subjects broadcast on Radio everyday from 10H55 to 11H10. Teachers at the
school, write scripts which they sent to the audio-visual Centre for recording. The
recorded lessons are then sent to the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation for broadcast.
Students registered with the school are also allowed to bring empty cassettes to record
lessons. The school also has lessons on video cassettes but these are used to a limited
extend because though parents were told about the availability of such services, few of
them have come forward to either borrow or record the lessons. This is thought to be
caused by the fact that many parents might be having access to video machines.
Like the Correspondence School, The Open University, particularly their
B.Ed. programme also has access to radio. Tutors and students have topics which they
discuss on radio for purposes of those who are in remote areas and sometimes tutors
literally give lectures on radio. Students are given a timetable indicating times at which
a particular topic will be discussed. The management of the University, particularly the
Vice Chancellor has also been on radio to market their institution and courses and to
motivate students.
On the other hand, private colleges, whose purposes include not only
educating people but making money as well, neither use radio nor any of the advanced
technologies except for telephone which is mainly used for administrative purposes.
Reasons for the limited use of sophisticated technologies such as
television, audio-visual cassettes, video conferencing, computers etc, are cited as lack
of adequate financial resources which is exacerbated by the poor exchange rate of Z$ to
currencies such as US$ and SA Rands. As a result of such technologies are extremely
expensive and therefor difficult to purchase. The other problem is that even if the
institutions could try to purchase such technologies, most students particularly those in
rural areas would not have access to such facilities. Nevertheless, most institutions
particularly the indicated strong willingness to use all these technologies and some of
them, particularly the university, already have good plans in place for the use of
technologies for teaching and learning purposes which they hope to implement in the near
future.
LEARNER SUPPORT STRATEGIES
The issue of learner support seems to be taken seriously in most of
the institutions that were visited. The Government Correspondence School and the
University use radio broadcasts as some form of support. Their teachers/lecturers prepare
material that can be understood easily by distance students, they mark students work and
give detailed feedback to guide the students. Students are also allowed to telephone their
teachers/lecturer/tutors if they have problems. The University has taken learner support
further by opening the Department of Student and Extension Services headed by a director
and staffed with counsellors who advice students in matters relating to their education,
health, career opportunities, employment and family life. The RRC and CACC are also using
these learner support strategies except for radio. The CACC has appointed three student
advisors who handle all student administrative queries and give advice where needed. The
Rapid Results College, has also established the Tutorial Department, whose role is to
facilitate the production of learning materials and interaction between tutors and
students. The Tutor/Students liaison officer is also there to handle students’
administrative queries.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
As indicated earlier, the RRC, CACC and the Government
Correspondence School do not administer examinations, instead students have to register
with examining bodies to write the same exams that written by students in the formal
schooling system. Nevertheless, this institutions, do give learners tests and assignments
to guide their learning. At the RRC, students are given two types of exercises. The first
type includes assignments which they have to complete and send to the college to be
marked. The second type includes assignments which they mark on own. Tutors are advised to
mark the assignments according to the standards of the examining body the student is
registered with.
According to the Vice Chancellor, the University uses continuous
assessment strategies. These include assessing students through presentations,
assignments, observations portfolio etc. Such assessment is usually conducted by a panel
which may include experienced teachers, school inspectors etc. Surprisingly however, in
terms of the university policy exams still count for 60% while other forms of assessment
count for 40%.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
All the institutions are confident that their work is of good
quality. At the university, experts are used to review the modules every year modules.
Students and the heads or chairs of departments are also used to evaluate
tutors/lecturers. The Correspondence School ensures quality by pre-testing the materials
they produce before they are given to learners and the RRC and CACC also commission
experts in certain filed, e.g. Law, Accounting etc. to produce their learning materials.
This is done because everybody wants their work to be accredited by other learning
institutions. The RRC, CACC and the Government Correspondence School also indicated the
performance of their learners in the common tests which they write with formal students
and the fact that their learning materials are also used by students who attend formal
schooling assure them that their work is of good quality.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development has always been needed because most of the
people working in these institutions were not trained in distance education. The problem
is that to send people away to universities has proved very costly hence, most
institutions have resorted to internal workshops and seminars to keep their staff abreast
with the developments in distance education and to enhance their skills in dealing with
distance education. Such workshops are enough thought not to be sufficient.
NATIONAL POLICY
Based on the annual reports of the Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture’s Non-Formal Education Section, there seems to be enough evidence of
government involvement in and support of distance and non-formal education. Apparently,
various ministries have at one point or another used distance education to train their
staff and the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture has itself established a number of
non-formal education Programmes including the Correspondence School, Study Groups,
Vacational School Courses. Despite all these, is said that the government does not have a
clear National Policy on distance education.
ENABLING AND HINDERING FACTORS
It is very difficult to say what factors enable institutions to
succeed mainly because institutions themselves are not clear on this one. Responses have
included, brand name, experience and commitment of staff, quality of learning materials
and government support as the enabling factors. On the other hand all institutions are
very clear that lack of financial and material resources including proper infrastructure
are the main factors that hinder their expansion, use of technology, professional
development and quality assurance. |
