BACKGROUND
The DE9 initiative, Distance Education for the Nine High-Population Countries, is a collaborative framework between Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan. The initiative emerged from the Education for All Summit, held by these countries at the invitation of three UN agencies, i.e. the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nationals Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). in New Delhi, India, in December 1993. The nine countries in question comprise more than hall' the world's population including 72 per cent of its illiterates. Thus, a significant improvement in the education in these countries will constitute a quantum leap in reaching the global aims set at Jomtien during the 1990 World Conference on Education for All in universalising access to education and combating illiteracy.
The Delhi Declaration and Framework for Action, adopted during the nine-country Summit, identifies access to basic education, both for children and adults, gender equity and quality and relevance of education as key issues in the area of Education for All (EFA). To attend to these issues, all possible resources require to be mobilised. Society, at different levels of decentralisation, needs to get involved in the organisation and management of the educational endeavour. Distance education is seen as an important modality in this context. The Joint Initiative on Distance Education, agreed upon in Delhi, focuses particularly on the need 'both to enhance training of teachers and other personnel, and to better reach neoliterates and marginalised groups'. To ensure its effectiveness in the varied circumstances of the nine countries, 'the initiative will be tailored to the specific needs and traditions of each country, to enhance existing efforts and to make use of new technologies' (UNESCO, 1994).
Following the Delhi Summit, a planning meeting was held in Manila, Philippines, in February, 1994, to further shape the initiative and to translate it into action, both collaboratively and nationally. The meeting was organised by UNESCO, the lead agency for follow-up to the Delhi summit, with the collaboration of the Regional Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (INNOTECH) of the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO). The current paper2 reflects on the discussions held in Manila. It reviews the potential of and requirements for effective distance education. It also presents an overview of relevant experience available in the nine countries, particularly as regards basic education. The Manila planning meeting clearly endorsed the focus on basic education for the Joint Initiative on Distance Education. Against the background of existing tendencies to think of distance education in the first place as an option for tertiary education, this focus constitu
tes an interesting challenge, requiring careful thought of what kind of adjustments might be necessary in addressing the needs of audiences different from those traditionally following distance education programmes.
DISTANCE EDUCATION: POTENTIAL
AND REQUIREMENTS
Distance education is defined by Perraton (1986) as 'an educational process in which a significant proportion of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and time from the learner.' The link between that 'someone' and the learner is provided by different means of communication and instructional support. As a mediated form of instruction, distance education can reach people in circumstances in which they would otherwise be deprived of opportunities to learn. Such circumstances can be determined by physical distance but also by such factors as cultural context, societal expectations, organisational or infrastructural conditions, or indeed by person constraints that block access to education. In the early years of distance education most, if not all, of the instructional message was delivered to the learner using the print medium, instructional text being designed to guide the student through the various steps of an autonomous learning process.
For the learning process to be effective, it should provide ways for the distance learner to communicate back to the distant teacher. This allows students to play an active role in their own learning and helps to overcome the sense of isolation students often experience in a distance education environment. Broadening the communication environment to include student-student interaction, besides student-teacher interaction, constitutes a further improvement of the system. The most common way in which the learner can communicate back to the distance teacher involves again the written word. Learners at a distance are often required to submit written responses to assignments included in their course material. This allows students to receive corrective feedback and the centre to monitor each student's progress. Face-to-face tutoring, telephone tutoring or more sophisticated forms of communication between the learner and the distance education provider constitute alternatives or enhancements of that process. In a
ddition, newsletters, telephone or computer networks can support student-student interaction.
Print is still the dominant channel of communication in most distance education systems. The quality of its design as an instructional tool has much improved over time, thereby contributing to the increased effectiveness of distance learning. However, other media have been added to the spectrum of possibilities to communicate between the student and the centre. In a literature review comparing the use of the various non-print media at the primary level in developing countries, Anzalone (1987) concludes that radio in particular can increase access to and improve the quality of instruction.
Instructional radio is often combined with print material. The three-way combination of print, radio and face-to-face teaching is another variety which has been used with considerable results (Dodds and Mayo, 1922). The success of instructional television as a cost-effective option is less widely reported, though some countries use it extensively, sometimes employing satellite technology.
Technological developments have greatly increased the number of media options currently available (Hancock 1993). However, not all media are appropriate in developing countries. Hancock argues that their development is driven primarily by market forces. Such forces do not always run parallel to the interests of developing nations. Nevertheless, whatever the choice available in a particular context, combining a range of different media and using each medium according to its particular strength is likely to add to the effectiveness of the system.
Distance education, however, is about more than just media. At least as important as the choice of the most appropriate media is the requirement for a sound organisational infrastructure to manage the flow of information and to provide support to the learner. Conceiving a distance education institution as part of the larger educational system, linking its institutional base to other organisational institutions which it can influence and through which it can be influenced, is a healthy option which will also effectively contribute to distance education acquiring parity of esteem with other educational endeavours.
Face-to-face tutoring through occasional seminars or by requiring students to complete certain parts of their course work in a residential facility greatly improves the quality of the distance education system. Further opportunities for students to interact with each other and with their teacher(s) can be provided if adequately equipped learning resource centres are created and mechanisms designed into the system to encourage and ensure adequate use of such facilities by the learner.
Good instructional design is paramount to the success of education offered at a distance. Once the instruction is out, it will be difficult to control for possible deficiencies in an immediate sense. Quality control is therefore very much a front-end activity. Good instructional design requires sound knowledge of the audience in terms of prerequisite knowledge and skills and conditions that may influence how well the students will be able to learn from the instruction. Careful planning, based on sound knowledge of who is going to learn what, by what means, in what kind of circumstances, to what effect and with what purpose in mind, needs to be combined with effective ways to ensure, through formative evaluation based on feedback from the learner, that intended purposes are met.
The preparation of distance education is a complex process, requiring highly developed skills and considerable investments at the outset. Development costs are therefore high. Thanks to the large audiences normally targeted by distance education, however, such high development costs can be spread over many users so that the unit cost per learner still comes out very favourably in comparison with teacher assisted instruction. In fact, given the economies of sale that often apply to distance education systems, this mode of educational delivery may be more cost-effective than setting up or expanding conventional forms of educational delivery.
The World Summit for Children (September 1990) has stressed that in addition to the expansion of primary education and its equivalents, today's essential knowledge and life skills could be put at the disposal of all families by mobilising today's increased communications capacity.' Mayo and Chieuw (1993) emphasise in this regard the essential link, and the need for balanced resource allocation, between learning and communication. Various Third Channel approaches, as embraced under the notions of popular education, development communication and social mobilisation, can greatly enhance educational development. Successful Third Channel approaches draw, among other things, on community participation, strengthening of local communication networks, and the maintenance of sustainable support systems.
It should be borne in mind that distance education is not a cheap panacea for existing educational problems. It is a choice, or rather a set of choices, among a variety of alternatives. The success of distance education solutions is contingent upon their being an integrated part of educational policies, investment plans and the creation of budgetary mechanisms to meet recurrent costs if these are not to be recovered from the end users. As distance education projects, because of their relatively high development costs, often get started on external funding, it is of key importance to plan for sustainability in the local context.
Reaching the unreached, training and upgrading of teachers, particularly those that cannot be removed from their posts for lengthy periods of time, reaching directly into the classroom and reinforcing the teacher's role through interventions, like Interactive Radio Instruction, which support both the student and the teacher, providing learning opportunities at the basic level to adults in areas relevant to their ability to make the most out of' their situation and to contribute to the development of their society. opening alternative routes to learning for out-of-school youths, particularly at the secondary level, expanding higher education at a cost far below what would be required for conventional approaches, these are some of the areas in which distance education has contributed in unprecedented ways to human development through education.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCES OF THE NINE COUNTRIES
The nine high-population countries share many relevant experiences. Each country has different circumstances and has developed its own areas of expertise. The value of the collaborative framework is to share these different experiences and, where possible, to undertake joint action to attend to common problems. Some of the most relevant experiences in distance education in the nine countries are referred to below under three different headings. A brief reference is also made to another case of inter-country co-operation with possible relevance in the DE9 context.
Meeting basic learning needs of the unreached
Several of the nine high-population countries use different forms of distance education to meet the basic learning needs of those who would otherwise remain unreached. Such programmes play an important role in universalising basic education for all, in enhancing equity and social justice and in creating a learning society.
India's National Open School provides open access to education for students of all ages over 14. It offers students a free choice from among a wide range of academic, vocational and life-enrichment courses at less than 25 per cent of the cost per student in the formal system. The Open School emphasizes the development of high quality text material but also uses more advanced technologies such as instructional video, TV and audio, The system also includes face-to-face contact with students. Indonesia's 'Packet A' is also a mainly print-based intervention which caters for the literacy and post-literacy needs of out-of school learners. It combines self-instruction modules with face-to-face instruction and mobilises the educational capacity available in the community under the motto of 'teach-one-teach-ten'. Pakistan's Allama Iqbal Open University reaches out to students in their homes and places of work, wherever they are. It provides literacy and functional skills training to rural non-literates. Its Basic
Functional Education Programme uses an innovative adaptation of distance education methodology based on the use of cassettes and flipcharts while concentrating on the development of infrastructure for outreach and the training of trainers. All these experiences have been particularly effective in accommodating the learning needs of women and marginalised populations. Eight million students, 60 per cent of them women, were trained through 'Packet A'. Women account for 39 per cent of the enrolment of the National Open School; marginalised groups in general for 50 per cent.
Teacher training and upgrading for EFA
Several of the nine high-population countries have developed interesting experiences in the area of training and up-grading of teachers at a distance, thereby indirectly contributing to the advancement of the EFA goals. Distance education can typically address training needs of people who cannot be removed from their regular duties for long periods of time to participate in residential training courses. Distance education is the natural choice in such circumstances. It offers the additional advantage that trainees can start applying what they learn almost immediately. Their work environment is their training laboratory. Another application has been in cases where, under pressure of a rapidly expanding demand for education, untrained teachers were integrated in the teaching force while simultaneously starting to be trained. Zimbabwe's Integrated Teacher Education Course (ZINTEC) is probably the most widely reported example of this model.
China's network of radio and TV schools and universities reaches out to remote and disadvantaged areas. Programmes produced by the China TV Teachers College are broadcast via satellite to all parts of the country. In six years 1.2 million primary and secondary school teachers were trained. A UNICEF supported project, Teacher Training through Distance Education, targets unqualified teachers in rural and minority areas, using educational TV in conjunction with existing Normal Schools. Cost savings and rapid returns on investment are reported among the successes of the project. Brazil's teacher training and support programme, A Leap to the Future, is likewise broadcast by satellite to learning posts all over the country. Teachers attend in groups under the guidance of a facilitator. They interact in real-time with the programme by telephone. Each daily broadcast is followed by group discussion. Nigeria remedies insufficiencies of the conventional teacher training system by offering teacher train
ing at a distance through a variety of universities as well as the National Teachers Institute. which enrols 40,000 students. At the Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan, teacher training at a distance is by far the largest programme, it trained 47,000 teachers in six months through its Primary Teacher Orientation course. In Bangladesh, attending to the needs of the education sector through training at a distance of educational personnel laid the groundwork for the country's Open University. Egypt considers distance education an important means to achieve educational reform goals, as well as to expedite the process of reaching the unreached and to improve the quality of education. In that context, upgrading teacher education, both in a pre-service and in-service context, is a priority concern for the country's distance education programme.
Reinforcing the quality and capacity of formal education
Distance education has been used extensively to reinforce the formal education system, which is often hampered by inadequately prepared teachers and insufficient capacity to accommodate the ever growing demand for schooling in developing countries. Both Mexico (Radio Primaria and Telesecundaria) and Brazil (Cursos Supletivos and various other programmes) have extensive experience in using different media to increase access to the formal curriculum and boost the quality of the teaching process in cost-effective ways. Mexico's successful Telesecundaria currently serves as the basis for an expanding programme called EDUSAT, which uses the Solidaridad satellite system and covers the entire country, targeting different audiences and age groups. The DE9 partnership still has to build experience with interventions such as Interactive Radio Instruction which, as an integrated component of the formal system, can reinforce regular classroom instruction or, in a non-formal setting, serve as an alternative to it. In t
he context of another UNESCO supported intercountry collaborative effort, the five African countries with Portuguese as an official language are involved in building up such experience, following similar applications in other parts of the world.
THE DE9 INITIATIVE: SPEARHEADING INNOVATION AND CHANGE
The nine high-population countries are presenting an important challenge to themselves and to the world. Their collaborative error can serve as a catalyst for similar developments in other countries. It should lead to partnerships at the national level and across borders, both between the countries and with non-DE9 partners, and mobilise the involvement or players in the international community.
The cause for co-operation among and with the nine is underpinning considerations about:
- their common challenge of vast distances and large numbers
- their joint ownership of a range of technologies and know-how
- their potential to reach unprecedented economics of scale
- their acceptance of common obstacles and problems as a shared challenge
- their role in the global Education for All movement.
One of the most obvious advantages of the cooperative framework is that countries can learn from each other. In addition, the framework serves as a basis for the building and mutual reinforcement or institutionalised human capacity as well as for shared problem solving and collaborative development efforts. In that context the following initial programme of activities was agreed upon by the nine countries during the Manila planning meeting, to take effect in 1994 and 1995:
- situation analysis, needs assessment, strategy development by each country (including necessary consultations in country, guidelines for comparability)
- technical meeting of nine countries (possibly in conjunction with the International Conference on Education,
Geneva, October 1994)
- study visits to DE success stories by national teams of two, concentrating on nine-nine/South-South exchange of
experience
- annual meetings of education ministers of nine
- develop and initiate a collaborative training/ attachment scheme
- nine-country hook-up to the Internet
- use EFA 2000 newsletter for information on E9 distance education initiative
- develop and share videos on DE success stories
- assistance to countries to develop new programmes and extend existing ones for submission to funding sources
- state-of-the-art reviews/presentations on DE technologies (including low cost; incl. local support systems)
- assessment of specific technical assistance needs of countries and identification and provision of needed TA
(especially South-South).
The initiative is well on its way. The implementation in each of the countries of the situation analysis cum needs assessment and strategy development exercise during 1994 was essential for further planning. Study visits cum workshops, such as the ones held in Australia (September 1994) and India (February/March 1995), contribute to shared knowledge and capacity building. Collaborative training/attachment schemes will further reinforce this aspect. On a more day-to-day basis, interaction through the Internet among the countries will also contribute to knowledge sharing and joint problem solving. Other mechanisms to share knowledge and concerns are the various meetings, the dissemination of information through the EFA 2000 newsletter and the state-of-the-art reviews and presentations on distance education technologies. An important goal of the Joint Initiative on Distance Education is to assist the countries to develop new programmes and extend and improve existing ones.
NOTES
1 The author is Senior Programme Specialist, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Paris, France. Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily those of UNESCO.
2 The paper is adapted from a concept paper on Distance Education for the Nine High-Population Countries, written by the author following the Manila meeting. Further information on the programme can be obtained from the author (e-mail: J.VISSER@UNESCO.ORG or fax: (33-1) 406-59405.
REFERENCES
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Dodd, T. and Mayo, J.K. (1992), 'The promise and performance of distance education in developing nations: The IEC experience 1971-1992'. Paper presented at the International Extension College's Anniversary Conference, Robinson College, Cambridge, UK, 20-24 September 1992.
Hancock, A. (1993), 'Contemporary information and communication technologies and education'. Working document prepared for the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, UNESCO, Paris, France.
Mayo, J.K. and Chieuw, J.S.F. (1993), 'The Third Channel: broadening learning horizons'. UNICEF, New York, NY.
Perraton, H. (ed.) (1986), 'Distance education: An economic and educational assessment of its potential for Africa'. World Bank, Washington, DC.
UNESCO (1994), 'Education for all summit of nine high-population countries: Final report'. UNESCO, Paris, France.
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