Distance education for small countries
Janet Jenkins

Context:
The author of this article notes that there are many well-known examples of distance education showing that it is well suited to large systems and large populations of learners. But she also shows ways in which it can be effective for small countries and small populations of learners.

Source:
Jenkins, Janet. 1993. "Distance Education for Small Countries." In Kevin M. Lillis, ed., Policy, Planning and Management of Education in Small States. Paris: UNESCO/International Institute for Educational Planning, pp. 97-109.

Copyright:
Reproduced with permission.

Distance education is critically important for small countries with small populations. It offers a means of expanding educational provision to an extent impossible for a small nation if it were to rely instead on conventional methods and resources.

In order to understand this, it is necessary to understand the nature of distance education. Ten years ago people said 'distance education—what's that?' Today, at least in the United Kingdom, they say 'Ah! You mean the Open University'. So let us begin there. No doubt we can all visualise a student of such a university, typically a housewife in her thirties or a non-graduate civil servant in his/her late twenties, at home and sitting in front of a television set with a note pad in the lap. From this picture we can derive some idea of the characteristics of an open university:

An open university is usually also

and

Much, but not all, open learning takes place with learners at a distance from their teachers. In an open university

The attraction of distance education at university level as a complement to traditional universities is evident. Distance education is also widely used for pre-university or professional studies. But in what conditions can it work?

The argument goes something like this. For over a century people have been studying by correspondence. This is a satisfactory mode of study for some but many are unable to cope with the stringent condition of postal communication alone. Distance education differs from correspondence education in that:

All this improves performance. Figures are hard to come by, but a rough indication is that about half the students of some open universities complete their degrees—acceptable figures for part-time students, whether in the distance or conventional mode—while correspondence institutions may achieve completion rates of 25 per cent or even less.

But distance education works at a cost. It is normally assumed to be cheap', that is, it costs less per student than conventional education. This is often, but not inevitably, the case. The development of high quality materials in a variety of media demands a high initial investment. There are then the costs of providing tuition and counselling both at a distance and in study centres. If a course attracts large numbers of students, then the costs of materials are shared and the cost per student usually drops below the cost of providing similar education by conventional means. This suggests that distance education is most suitable for mass education. If it is used for small numbers, the consequences are:

and

Thus, on a small scale, distance education has high unit costs and may be of poorer quality than if it serves larger numbers. We have apparently established that distance education is suited to large systems in countries with large populations. Let us see if we can prove otherwise.

1. Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre (LDTC)

We start in southern Africa. In its early days in the 1970s the International Extension College was asked to help Botswana, Lesotho and Mauritius, to develop national distance education institutions. Let us consider what happened in Lesotho.

Lesotho is a small country, a little over 30,000 square kilometres in area. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is mountainous, with its lowest point 1,500 metres above sea level and rising to 3,000 metres. In the early 1970s when the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre was established, the population was about 1.2 million. The people all speak one language, Sesotho, with English used in secondary schools. The main occupation is subsistence fanning, with agriculture in the southern lowlands and pastoral farming in the western mountains. At the time, about 25,000 people were in paid employment in Lesotho, while about half the adult male labour force worked in South Africa.

In education, the two major problems were the quality of primary education and access to secondary education. By the mid-1970s primary education was already available to all, but schools were overcrowded, classes often had over 100 pupils, and many teachers were underqualified or unqualified. Only about a quarter of the children who started primary school completed all seven standards, and only about a third of these entered secondary school. By 1979 there were only 60 secondary schools with 16,000 students and 600 teachers.

In 1973 the Chairman of IEC, Michael Young, visited Lesotho. The Ministry of Education was concerned about growing numbers of children and adults who were studying secondary courses privately with expensive foreign correspondence colleges. Michael Young and the Permanent Secretary for Education drew up a plan for a distance teaching institution. The Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre was established in 1974. The two planners:

In its first five years the Centre launched an ambitious programme. A project for rural adults aimed to help improve the quality of life. After initial research, the Centre developed a series of self-instructional booklets on practical topics. Booklets were chosen because of the high level of literacy. The first were on cookery, first aid and crochet. They were used in groups and by individuals. Evaluation showed both methods to be effective, and several further booklets were developed.

Another project was literacy and numeracy for herdboys, young people whose duties prevented them from attending school. The Centre developed workbooks and games which could be used in groups with the help of a trained leader. The project took several years to develop and eventually received the recognition of an international award.

On the formal side, the LDTC developed courses for Junior Certificate (normally taken after three years of secondary school) and 'O' level (taken after 5 years). By 1979 the Centre had produced six courses at Junior Certificate and four at 'O' level. Each course consisted of correspondence materials with a series of radio programmes. More than 700 students enrolled between 1975 and 1979, including 360 teachers. The latter enrolled as part of an in-service training programme offered for underqualified teachers by the (then) newly established National Teacher Training College.

Five years after the LDTC started Paud Murphy, who was its Director through most of that period, wrote:

The vision of the potential of distance education to draw together education in and out of school was a powerful one, and hopes of success were perhaps not totally unrealistic in a small, compact country. What actually happened? A recent report Curran; Murphy (1989) has looked again at secondary level education at a distance in Lesotho and five other African countries, in the context of a study for the World Bank of distance education at secondary level. The study aimed to discover whether distance education had widened access to secondary level education in Africa. If so, has it been cost-effective and educationally effective?

In Lesotho, the answer to all these questions was negative. Since 1980, conventional secondary education in Lesotho has expanded considerably, although it is still not available to all. The LDTC continues to offer secondary level courses, but still caters for small numbers. The current report notes 500 new enrolments. It looks in detail at performance on courses for adults in four of the six countries, and concludes that:

A cohort analysis in two of the four countries shows that fewer than 5 per cent sat for examinations after 5 years of study, and up to 75 per cent had stopped studying completely by then. In Lesotho itself, candidates taking the JC examination achieve results no better than those of private candidates as a whole, many of whom study without any support. The low recurrent costs of the courses is little compensation.

In contrast, the same courses, or adaptations, have been used since 1978 to provide in-service training for unqualified teachers in Lesotho. Trainees follow correspondence courses, attend an annual four week residential course in teacher education colleges, listen to weekly radio programmes, and conduct supervised lessons. Between 300 and 500 teachers annually study the progranune. The graduation rate reported in 1984 was 87 per cent.

Sixteen years after it began, the LDTC still survives. It was designed to have several functions, to meet the needs of a small country. Its results are mixed. The correspondence courses have done little to improve access to education in Lesotho, but have had a substantial indirect effect in that they have helped to train the nation's teachers. The institution as a whole lacks resources, is unable to develop and morale is low. The innovative vision of linking in school and out-of-school education has come to nothing. The idea itself remains one with potential. How could the LDTC better realise its potential? One possible route is through collaboration. The teacher training programme shows the value of inter-institutional collaboration within the country. Could international collaboration bring further benefits? We shall explore this theme in discussing university level distance education.

2. University of the South Pacific (USP)

Let us turn first to the University of the South Pacific (USP), see also Teasdale (Chapter III). The USP serves 11 countries on many islands, with its main campus in Suva, Fiji. It offers courses in the conventional mode, with students attending on campus, and it also offers some of the same courses by distance education. This system, where the same courses are offered both internally and externally at a distance, is often referred to as dual mode.

The USP was established in 1968 and as early as 1971 decided to introduce an external version of the non-graduate Diploma in Education. Soon after, it began to teach some of the regular undergraduate courses through distance mode. All the distance courses are for credit, and are mostly at foundation and first year level. Students usually complete their studies on campus, in order to benefit from the full choice of courses available. There are, however, several second and third level courses now available. The University aims to allow students to complete a B.Ed. degree entirely at a distance. Currently 160 courses altogether are available through distance mode. Registration in the Extension Services programme has increased by 115 per cent between 1983 and 1989, and now account for 38.6 per cent of the overall enrolment. This is achieved on a modest share of the overall recurrent budget of the university Matthewson (1990).

Courses consist of centrally produced correspondence courses, many with audio tapes or radio programmes. Distance students study at home and also attend local centres. Nine of the eleven countries have regional centres which are used as local study centres. Until 1985 voice-to-voice communication for downloading the radio, for administration and for student tutorials was available via an old American satellite; new satellite communications are now installed. Local support supplements teaching from Fiji. Some countries make their own radio programmes. Local centres also have resident lecturers who provide tuition and counselling.

The USP's Extension Services Programme demonstrates how one distance education system can serve several small countries. Because the University is a single body it is easy to forget that it is a regional, international university. Most individual countries in the Pacific region are too small to sustain a separate university. In the USP they have an international university and, through the Extension Services Programme, each country has a part of it that is locally based, its own. People who cannot easily travel abroad to Fiji, to study, can now study at home. Distance education makes this possible by preparing materials centrally and providing some teaching from the centre through the satellite. Each country can then add its own teaching and counselling. Even if numbers for many courses remain small, how else could these students receive education? The USP's Extension Studies Programme is now facing the consequences of success, with more students than it can comfortably handle seeking admission.

3. The University of the West Indies (UWI)

The University of the West Indies (UWI), another regional university, has more recently entered the field, with its Distance Teaching Experiment (UWIDITE). Nine of the 14 countries in the University use a telecommunications network to teach students located at these sites. Jamaica and Trinidad are linked by INTELSAT satellite, while Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent are linked by microwave or UHF. Local extra-mural centres are linked to the international gateway on each island by leased four-wire telephone links. Centres are equipped with microphones, speakers, telephones, a switching unit, slow-scan television and a telewriter for on-line use, and audio and video facilities for off-line use. Resident tutors manage the centres, and their responsibilities include the development and maintenance of educational programmes appropriate to each particular country. Over 20 courses are now offered through distance mode. Examples include a specialist Certificate of Ed ucation for practising teachers, with six options available, first year undergraduate courses in some subjects, a course for nurses in reproductive health and a nutrition course for community workers.

Prior to the introduction of UWIDITE students had to study on campus, with campuses only in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad. People from the 11 other countries served by the university therefore had limited access. UWIDITE enables people to study an increasing variety of subjects in their home country.

The UWI Certificate of Education courses offer further training for practising non-graduate teachers. Studied full-time, the Certificate takes one year. It consists of a common core and one specialism chosen from about a dozen. Taught at a distance, it enables practising teachers from non-campus countries to participate and gain a qualification. The Certificate was first awarded in 1954; the distance version was introduced in 1983, with four specialisms, and already by 1985 Dominica had produced as many certificate holders as in the previous 30 years put together.

Numbers look small. In the first three years 178 students were enrolled from six countries. Costs are less than half those that would have been incurred if the teachers had registered for the courses on campus and had to be replaced in the classroom while they studied. The programme director concludes:

Distance education is the best means of providing these scattered teachers with training. Some graduate teachers have now chosen to study the Certificate programme in preference to going to Jamaica for full-time study. UWIDITE's great strength is in its provision of specialist courses for upgrading professionals. Its communications system allows several countries to offer the same programmes. The project office in Jamaica acts as the coordinating centre for materials production and as the communications centre. Resident tutors in the islands publicise the courses available at a distance, recruit and advise students and also offer conventionally taught non-formal courses, according to local needs. Thus, UWIDITE enlarges the range of courses that the University can offer in non-campus countries.

The regional collaboration in UWIDITE has brought other benefits. Regular discussions between students from different islands leads to a greater sense of connectedness. The governments of the islands feel they have a greater stake in the University. The number of courses offered through UWIDITE continues to grow by popular demand.

4. Advantages of regional collaboration

International collaboration, as we have seen in the USP and the UWI examples, can enhance the benefits of distance education. Even if numbers remain small and costs high, the very fact that education is available and accessible in people's home countries can justify the existence of distance education. But can it be viable in a small country without such collaboration? In the case of Lesotho, we saw that one programme, again teacher training, is successful and to some extent shores up others. But Lesotho, like many other small African countries, suffers from serious economic constraint and without adequate resources its distance teaching centre has been unable to develop and fulfil the promise of the seventies, The potential of the method to promote rural development remains largely unrealised.

Could a greater degree of collaboration help? LDTC made two attempts at collaboration in its early days. First, it brought in a British course for local use. But its director preferred the expensive route of producing its own courses. Murphy (1981) gave four reasons:

1. the course produced in Britain was giving students problems;
   
   
2. some of the syllabuses were unique to southern Africa;
   
   
3. courses produced elsewhere have examples designed for that country;
   
   
4. adapting a course implies accepting the format and learning design-we had seen few good courses elsewhere .

Today this version of 'not invented here' looks rather cavalier. Most of us have used 'foreign' textbooks in our studies, and many of us have studied in a 'foreign' university, without any apparently harmful effects. Reservations about use of materials from elsewhere are justified, but not wholesale rejection.

A little later, the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre developed two courses collaboratively, under an agreement with Botswana and Lesotho. Institutions in each country were to develop courses which the others could then use. But even this scheme has not been successful, as today's completion rates show. How can this be explained?

There are two elements of successful collaboration in distance education. One is the exchange and sharing of materials, the other their actual use.

The sharing of materials is vital for small countries. The three collaborative schemes discussed above all depend on inter-country use of materials. If small countries do not have the resources to teach a subject—whether at a distance or by conventional means—then materials prepared elsewhere can do the job.

The case for collaboration is usually supposed to rest largely on the materials themselves and their potential transferability. But what constitutes transferability? 'Examples designed for other countries' may, to some extent, inhibit learning, but the importance of such cultural relevance may often be overrated. Transferability depends not only on what is taught, but also on how it is taught-that is, how the materials are used. A more balanced view suggests that transfer may be easier if adequate attention is given to the local support system. At the University of the West Indies (UWI), for example, the resident tutors arrange tutorials, counselling and library services to support the teaching materials. A good local support service can compensate for any inappropriacy or inadequacy in the materials. The relative ineffectiveness of collaboration at the LDTC could be attributed to the college's lack of resources and consequent skeletal student support system. However, the collaborative model itself remains valid.

5. Conclusion

Open Universities gave distance education credibility. But for many countries, particularly smaller ones, different forms of distance education are more suitable. Such distance education systems may share with Open Universities many of the characteristics of open education described earlier, but will have to look at different, less costly, ways of exploiting the resources available. Models of international collaboration, particularly in the provision of course material, deserve careful examination. In Asia there has been some pioneering work with institutions which offer complete distance programmes with no locally produced courses. Hong Kong now has its own Open Learning Institute, a degree granting body, which operates on this model. It creates degree programmes by putting together several courses from institutions in countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Some adaptation is provided and some additional material is prepared locally. The providing institution gives advi ce where necessary. The tuition and advisory services are entirely local and greater attention is paid to the quality of student support. The Institute is unique. It has the characteristics of an open institution described earlier, but it explores fully the possibilities of resource sharing through international collaboration.

The establishment of the Commonwealth of Learning in November 1988 gave further credibility to the concept of collaboration. The idea came from the Commonwealth Standing Committee on Student Mobility. As it became more and more difficult for students to move around the Commonwealth to study, it looked attractive to take learning to their homes. Many Commonwealth countries are small, and the picture of mass education using mass media that we began with is inappropriate. But we have seen that in small countries, carefully targeted distance education can cost less than the conventional equivalent, even if numbers remain small. Teaching materials should not generally be locally produced in small countries, apart from a few courses. They can be prepared by a central body serving a region, or be selected from materials available internationally. A sensitively developed local tutorial system can compensate for any inappropriateness and also reduce the sense of isolation that any distance student i s likely to experience. The USP, the UWI and the Hong Kong Open Learning Institute also demonstrate some of the benefits of international collaboration.

This chapter has argued that distance education holds considerable potential for small states, and that there are additional benefits where countries work together, as the examples of the two regional universities demonstrate. International co-operation is apparently easier where there is regional affinity. The existence of an institutional framework also helps; co-operation between separate institutions in Southern African countries has so far worked less well. The challenge now is to develop on two fronts: first, to strengthen existing co-operative schemes, encouraging greater commitment between partners and more active collaboration; second, to encourage more collaboration on the wider international stage. We should not underestimate the difficulties of international sharing, and the level of commitment and resources it requires, but we have looked at some of the models of distance education which may make it possible on a wider scale. The long-term aim of the Commonwealth of Lear ning is that 'any learner anywhere in the Commonwealth shall be able to study any distance-teaching programme available from any bona fide college or university in the Commonwealth'. That vision of collaboration is one which could inform the development of distance education in small countries.