Tertiary Distance Education and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa

Tertiary Distance Education and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa (pdf)

English BC. 78 pages. Published September 1999 by World Bank ISBN: 0-8213-4572-9 SKU: 14572

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Overview

On the eve of the 21st century, tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa confronts unrelenting pressure to expand access in spite of declining educational quality and stagnant funding possibilities.¹ The symptoms of this fundamental imbalance between enrollments and funds are multiple: overcrowded classrooms, poorly equipped learning facilities, brain drain of academic staff, declining research output, frequent strikes and campus closures, outdated and irrelevant curricula, and high graduate unemployment. Fueled by population growth and increased access to primary and secondary education, the number of African students seeking entrance to tertiary programs will surge during the coming decade. But under present circumstances, only a tiny percentage of them will be successful. Consequently, where democratic societies offer channels for anxious parents and expectant students to voice their frustrations, tertiary education appears poised to become a volatile political issue. Now, then, is the time for governments to anticipate the rising chorus of such demands, and to take steps which will ease the pressures for access while upholding the national interest in good quality tertiary education and responsible stewardship of national resources.

This paper addresses the question of how African nations might improve the balance between tertiary education access and funding without further sacrifices in quality. In brief, the answer lies in the use of distance learning complemented, in some cases, with a selective applicationof new information and communication technologies. The following discussion provides an overview of tertiary level distance learning and technology experience throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and the world at large. It highlights the relevance of these experiences for African nations that are committed to achieving increased participation in the global knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. It concludes with various suggestions as to how distance learning and technology use at the tertiary level might be adapted and gradually expanded within Africa.²

¹ Adopting the precedent established by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in its recent report Redefining Tertiary Education (OECD 1998:14), "tertiary" is used in preference to "higher" education because "higher" often connotes university. Use of the latter term runs the risk of excluding tertiary-level alternatives to universities, including distance education programs, where many of the more innovative developments are now taking place.

²Interestingly, the World Bank’s 1988 policy paper, Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policies for Adjustment, Revitalization and Expansion, barely mentions distance education beyond the need to develop alternative delivery modes for post-primary education in order to accommodate expanding enrollments (World Bank 1988:99). The Bank’s update of this strategy, currently nearing completion, gives the topic much more attention.