Distance Education in Botswana : Progress and Prospects |
VOL. 9, No. 1, 61-79
Distance education is an important policy option for educational planners in the developing countries, and it is being given renewed attention in Botswana in a context of growing social demand for education and in-creased fiscal constraints. A review of distance education since Independ-ence in 1966 suggests that its early promise has not been fulfilled and that during the 1980s, when distance education in many developing countries expanded significantly, in Botswana it was stagnant. However, in the cur-rent situation distance education has the potential to widen access to vari-ous levels and kinds of education and training in a cost-effective manner. An important policy-making conjuncture has arrived, and there are new prospects for the development of distance education as an integral part of the national system of education.
L'éducation à distance représente une formule très intéressante pour les décideurs des pays en voie de développement. Dans le Botswana d'aujourd'hui, où une demande croissante se conjugue à des restrictions financières sérieuses, la télé-formation fait à nouveau l'objet d'un examen attentif. Une évaluation de ce domaine depuis l'indépendance (1966) mène à penser qu'en dépit de ses débuts prometteurs, la télé-formation n'a pas donné au Botswana les résultats escomptés, et a même stagné au cours des années 80, alors qu'elle prenait de l'essor dans d'autres pays en voie de développement. En ce moment l'éducation à distance serait susceptible d'améliorer, et de façon rentable, l'accès à divers types et niveaux d'édu-cation et de formation. La conjoncture actuelle est propice à l'élaboration de politiques nouvelles, où la télé-formation deviendrait partie intégrante du système national d'éducation. Introduction
Since the early 1970s distance education has been an increasingly important policy option for educational planners in developing countries, and many of these countries have come to accept that this mode of educational provision can play a part in the national education system. The success of the Open University in Britain from its inception in 1971 provided a model for distance education at university level and was emulated in the establishment of institutions such as the Sukkothai Thammathirat Open University in Thailand in 1978 and the Indira Gandhi National Open University in India in 1985. Also many countries established distance education institutions to provide programs at other levels, such as teacher training, secondary schooling, and adult basic education. The number of distance education institutions in the developing countries has therefore grown rapidly in the last 20 years. These institutions have had varying degrees of success, and a record of experience and research evidence is being developed that can enable policy-makers to evaluate distance educa-tion’s potential when considering different options for national educational development.
Distance education offers the possibility of widening access to education at a number of different levels in a relatively cheap, or at least cost-effective, manner. It is currently being promoted by international organizations as an appropriate policy choice for developing countries. At the global level, the arguments for distance education were recently articulated at the World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien, Thai-land in 1990. For Africa, the case was made in a major World Bank policy study published in 1988 entitled Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 1988), which proposed a selective expansion of educational serv-ices in African countries and singled out distance education programs to enable increases in secondary and tertiary education at lower unit costs than conventional education. In 1990, UNESCO initiated a Regional Pro-gram for the Development of Distance Education in Africa, which strength-ened this trend in international policy approaches to education in Africa. It is in this international context that the option of distance education is being given renewed attention in Botswana. The country’s experience of distance education in the 1970s and 1980s is being assessed, and the pos-sibilities for future developments are being studied in relation to current needs. In this article we present a review of the past performance of dis-tance education in Botswana and a consideration of its future prospects in order to provide a case study of distance education policy in a developing country. The article is complementary to the recent paper by Dodds and Mayo (1992) entitled “The Promise and Performance of Distance Educa-tion in Developing Countries-The IEC Experience 1971-1972”; it provides more analysis of one particular country, namely Botswana, which is the location of one of the institutions in their paper.
From a policy perspective, there are a number of issues to be taken into consideration when national educational policy-makers appraise the option of distance education. Among the factors to be taken into account are the following:
These issues constitute a set of general policy questions that need to be addressed when the option of investing in distance education is being analyzed. The answers to the questions will be determined by the particular national context in which they are being considered.
When Botswana became independent in 1966, it had a population of around 543,000 and was classified as one of the 25 poorest countries in the world. In particular, it had a very underdeveloped education system. Only about half of all primary school age children attended school, and there were only eight secondary schools, with an enrolment in 1966 of 1,531. There were no post-secondary facilities. The initial emphasis of educational planning was on expanding the secondary sector and developing tertiary education in order to meet the human resource demands of the public service and formal sector. However, the report of the first National Commission on Education (1977) shifted the emphasis to the goal of universal access to nine years of basic education (involving a transition from a 7-3-2 system to 7-2-3 and eventually 6-3-3).
During the 1980s Botswana experienced a major economic boom based on diamonds, achieving one of the highest annual growth rates in the world, so that it is now classified as a middle income country. This growth provided the resources for expanding educational services for the rapidly growing population (estimated now to be 1.3 million). The statistics for 1993 show that about 83% of primary school age children attend school. The 146 junior secondary schools (Forms 1 and 2) enrol about 95% of the primary school leavers, and the 23 senior secondary schools (Forms 3, 4, and 5) admit 27% of the Form 2 completers. In 1966, there were 66 stu-dents at the University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland, whereas the enrolment at the University of Botswana, which is the nation’s only univer-sity, is now over 3,500.
The picture is, therefore, one of massive expansion at every level, facilitated by a strong economy. However, problems of access and dropout remain, and the question of unemployed primary and junior secondary school leavers is of great social and political significance. Nevertheless, in quantitative terms, much has been achieved. Also, particularly since 1977, a number of efforts have been made to improve the quality of education through curriculum development and instructional reform, strategies to improve administration and supervision, and through staff training. There are criticisms to be made, for example, of the continuing use of untrained teachers or of the quality of the pupils’ English (the language of instruction from Standard Five), but there has not been the collapse of standards that has accompanied the economic problems experienced in many parts of Africa. It would appear that the development of both access and quality is being sustained, at least in comparative terms.
However, in the latest National Development Plan 7, 1991-1997 (Republic of Botswana, 1991) the Government forecast that revenues during the 1990s would not grow as quickly as in the 1980s, and therefore efforts would be made to reduce the growth in public expenditure. Strong pres-sures are expected on the educational budget (which represents about 17% of the national recurrent budget) so that expansion will be slower, and there will be greater efforts to spread the burden of educational financing and to achieve cost-effectiveness.
This is the economic and educational context in which distance edu-cation in Botswana has developed and which shapes its future develop-ment. The situation that had characterized the first decade of independence changed dramatically in the 1980s in all spheres, including those of par-ticular relevance, such as resource availability, educational expansion, and communications infrastructure (with a rapidly improving road and tel-ecommunications system and national radio coverage as well as wide-spread computerization). This changing context should be borne in mind when considering the development of distance education over the last 25 years. However, it is forecast that the 1990s will be less buoyant economi-cally, and, therefore, a different pattern of educational development is likely to emerge.
The first distance education program undertaken after Independence was the Francistown Teacher Training Project, which was a response to the enormous problem of untrained teachers in the primary schools, who con-stituted 47.9% of the primary teachers in 1965 (White, 1971, p. 185). The project, proposed by a UNESCO consultant, was seen as a means of train-ing teachers without removing them from the schools, in a context of limited output by the existing training colleges. The project, which lasted from 1967 to 1973, was funded by donor aid, and it involved the provision of physical facilities and a training program based on correspondence courses, radio programs, and short-term residential sessions. The training period was three years, and it covered about 600 teachers from all over the country. There was no formal evaluation of the project, but it was gener-ally considered a success insofar as it trained the majority of existing untrained teachers and thereby improved the quality of primary education (Hill, 1972).
The existence of the Francistown project provided direct experience of the potential of distance education within the Botswana context, and Government policy-makers in the early 1970s commissioned a number of studies for the establishment of a distance education institution. In 1973, the Botswana Extension College was established, with funding by the Ford Foundation and staff from the International Extension College. The College, which became a department of the Ministry of Education, had the mandate to provide secondary school courses, upgrading and retraining courses, and information courses not leading to exams (Perraton, 1977, p. 10). Its brief was to provide these courses through “three-way teaching,” involving correspondence courses, radio programs, and face-to-face meth-ods.
During its first five years of existence, the College developed its role in offering formal secondary school qualifications at both Junior Certifi-cate and GCE “O” level, and it undertook a number of interesting non-formal activities in rural development, such as a course for Village Devel-opment Committees and for the 4B Young Farmers Clubs. It did hardly anything in terms of professional upgrading courses, apart from a course in map-reading for agricultural extension workers. It remained a relatively small organization, with enrolments in 1977/78 of 820 for JC and 524 for GCE “O” level (Jones, 1982, p. 16). An evaluation undertaken at this time. (Townsend-Coles, 1978) identified significant problems in the provision of secondary school courses and recommended that work on such courses should constitute only 20 to 35% of staff time, with the institution diver-sifying into a broader range of non-formal education programs. Subse-quently, in 1978, external project funding came to an end, and the College was incorporated in the new Department of Non-Formal Education of the Ministry of Education.
The other major initiative in distance education in this period was the non-formal radio learning campaign. The idea of the radio learning cam-paign was brought to Botswana from Tanzania, which in 1969 had run a small-scale project entitled “To plan is to choose,” followed by larger projects in 1970 and 1971 (Kassam, 1978). It was introduced by the Director of the Division of Extra Mural Services of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (DEMS) who, prior to his appointment in 1970, had worked for the University of Dar Es Salaam. In 1973 DEMS ran a campaign entitled “The people and the plan” involving 1,400 groups listening to the radio and discussing a synthesis of the National Development Plan over a five-week period. This experience provided the model for a much more ambitious program in 1976 that used the approach to hold a national consultation on the Government’s land reform proposals (the Tribal Graz-ing Land Policy).
This five-week campaign was organized on a cross-ministry basis with a key role taken by the University and the Botswana Extension College. It involved 3,500 groups with 52,000 members and included not only the transmission and discussion of information but also feedback from the groups to policy-makers in the capital Gaborone and responses over the radio (Ministry of Local Government and Lands, 1977). The campaign was controversial because of the political economy of the land issue. However, it provided an example of how a distance education method based on radio programs, study materials, and group discussion could be used for non-formal education. The mass campaign approach was criti-cized, amongst other things, for not providing sustained learning and for its “top-down” style (Jere & Youngman, 1977). There has not been a national campaign since, though a district level campaign in Western Botswana on civics education took place in 1979 (Byram, 1979). By the late 1970s other policy options for non-formal education and rural exten-sion (such as the National Literacy Programme) were regarded as prefer-able to the radio learning campaign approach.
The Distance Education Unit of the Department of Non-Formal Education The Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE) was established in 1978 and expanded rapidly in the next two years, setting up an infrastruc-ture of district adult education offices and a cadre of field-workers in the districts. Its staff establishment grew from 40 in 1979 (primarily the Botswana Extension College staff) to over 200 in 1981 (Townsend-Coles, 1988, p. 19). This growth was based mainly on the development of the National Literacy Programme that, after a pilot year in 1980, was launched nation-wide in 1981. This pattern continued during the 1980s with the Department’s energies and resources being devoted more to its literacy function than to its distance education function. Indeed, the first Chief Education Officer (Non-Formal Education) felt that the distance education work should have been located in the Department of Secondary Education (Townsend-Coles, 1988, p. 100).
The Distance Education Unit provides courses for Junior Certificate and GCE “O” level, using print materials, radio programs, and face-to-face tutorial assistance at study centres and weekend courses. It therefore fo-cuses exclusively on formal secondary school programs offered at a dis-tance. Prior to 1985, the target group for the courses was the adult learner, and there was a minimum enrolment age of 19. However, when the new Government policy of aiming for universal junior secondary education was announced in 1985, the enrolment age was lowered to 15 to open up access to younger learners unable to find school places.
The Unit has a number of full-time Course Development Officers, but most of the assignment marking and some of the writing of new course material is done by secondary school teachers on a part-time basis. There are three radio producers who assist the Course Development Officers in the production of the radio lessons. At Headquarters in Gaborone, there is a student records sub-section, an editorial and production section, and a dispatch sub-section, whilst in the districts the District Adult Education Officers have the responsibility for organizing the network of about 28 study centres, using 177 part-time tutors. In 1991 the Unit had a total of 15 staff at Headquarters-1 Head, 1 Student Adviser, 1 Information Of-ficer, 4 Course Development Officers, 7 Records Officers, and 1 typist. At the end of 1991, there were 3,077 students enrolled, 942 for GCE “O” Level, and 2,135 for Junior Certificate (Department of Non-Formal Edu-cation, 1992, p. 19).
There has been little effort put into trying to determine the impact of the Unit and to make an analysis of cost-effectiveness. However, in 1991 an evaluation of the Unit was undertaken by the Commonwealth of Learning, using a team comprised of one external evaluator and two of the Unit’s staff (Yerbury, Dingalo, & Mphinyane, 1991). The evaluation confirmed the picture that had emerged over the years from internal reports of an institution chronically under-resourced and operating at low levels of pro-ductivity. The main problems that can be identified are as follows:
The inescapable conclusion from the persistent problems in the Unit is that policy-makers have no clear conception of the role that distance educa-tion might play in extending access to post-primary education and comple-menting the formal education and training system. Hence the Ministry of Education gives little priority to the distance education program and does not provide the resources necessary for an efficient and effective Distance Education Unit. This is reinforced by the section in National Development Plan 7, 1991-1997 (Republic of Botswana, 1991, p. 347), which is very low key about the future of the Department’s work in distance education, proposing more of the same with a vague commitment to improvements.
In 1978 the former Division of Extra Mural Services became the Institute of Adult Education (IAE) in the University’s Faculty of Education. The IAE was given responsibility for both the outreach, extra mural programs of the University and the academic programs for training adult educators. In 1981-82 the then Director of the IAE undertook a limited survey of distance education provision in Botswana and proposed the creation of a Distance Teaching Unit within the IAE to develop and provide tertiary level courses as a complement to DNFE’s secondary level courses (Jones, 1982). No action was taken at the time on this proposal though policy statements later in the 1980s indicated that this should be a future area of development for the University. For example, the University’s development plan for the period 1985/86 to 1990/91 (University of Botswana, 1985) refers to expanding opportunities for post-secondary education through distance learning. However, in practice, the actual provision of distance education has been restricted to two programs.
One of these programs was the Diploma in Theology by Extension, which was started in 1979 by the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. The course was aimed at both clergy and active lay persons and was based on printed lectures, written assignments, and regular study week-ends. The course had pedagogical and administrative weaknesses and very small intakes so that it was discontinued in 1990.
The only on-going University program is the Certificate in Adult Edu-cation, offered by the Institute of Adult Education since 1983. The pro-gram is based on distance education principles, with purpose-written texts, study weekends, and residential periods. It was developed initially with donor project funds in conjunction with the Department of Non-Formal Education in order to train literacy personnel, but since 1985 it has been part of the normal, recurrent activities of the University, and it has to some extent enlarged its clientele. It is a two-year course for students with a Junior Certificate and at least one year’s relevant work experience. There is an intake every two years, and the first four intakes totalled about 120 enrolments.
A major evaluation of the program was published in 1989 (Mutava, 1989a). The overall conclusion of the evaluation was very positive in terms of assessments made by students, lecturers, and employers. A number of specific proposals for improvement were made, including recommenda-tions to review the curriculum, to raise entry standards, to introduce non-print media, to strengthen the study skills and learning environment of the students, and to improve the administrative arrangements for the program. Proposals were also made for regional cooperation within Southern Africa on the development of similar programs. The small-scale experience of the Certificate in Adult Education indicated that it was possible for the University to offer relevant, high quality programs by distance education, and hence significant developments are envisaged in the 1990s. The University established the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) in 1991, and it will include a distance education section with the specialized capability to develop and administer tertiary level courses offered through distance education. Strong support was given to this development in the report of the University of Botswana Review Commission published at the end of 1990, and a major project proposal was submitted to donor agencies in 1992. It is likely that the courses provided will concentrate on areas of professional training where large numbers of employees (such as teachers, civil servants, and bank workers) will enable the economies of scale that make distance education viable. Thus, the subject areas will probably include education, public administration, management and com-mercial studies, and nursing and health sciences. However, further needs assessment studies are required. Nevertheless, a clear division of labour with the Department of Non-Formal Education is envisaged, with the DNFE being responsible for secondary level and adult basic education programs. It is also expected that the CCE could provide training for those involved in distance education and consultancy advice to bodies exploring the po-tential of distance education. The University has already been involved in the training of DNFE’s distance education staff and has done one consul-tancy for the Ministry of Health on using distance education for health personnel (Mutava, 1989b).
Distance education in Botswana since 1966 has been provided mainly by the Ministry of Education and the University of Botswana, though an un-known number of private individuals follow correspondence courses with institutions in other parts of Southern Africa (such as the University of South Africa and the Home Study College of Southern Africa) and in Britain (such as Wolsey Hall). The experience of distance education to date shows that it has been used for junior and senior secondary education, primary teacher in-service training, tertiary-level courses, and some non-formal activities for rural development. However, the promise of the 1970s was not sustained during the 1980s, and it is currently a marginal form of educational provision-for example, the 1991 enrolments of DNFE were equivalent to only 4.16% of full-time secondary school enrolments. At a time when distance education in many developing countries was expanding dramatically, in Botswana it was stagnant. The education policy priorities of the 1980s focused mainly on the expansion of conventional education at the primary, junior secondary, and tertiary levels.
However, it is the very success of this expansion in formal education that now opens up new opportunities for distance education in the 1990s. The general raising of educational standards amongst the population that has taken place has created social demand for expanded opportunities at all levels of the educational system. However, as noted above, this coincides with a period of predicted restrictions in the growth of public expenditure on education. For example, the transition rate from junior to secondary education is officially expected to decline from 31% in 1991 to 25% in 1997 (Republic of Botswana, 1991, p. 340), and this means there will be enormous social and political pressure for increased access to senior sec-ondary education. It is in this national context of expanded demand and decreased resource availability that renewed interest has arisen in distance education as a policy option, stimulated also by international trends. The recommendations of the National Conference on Education for All held in 1991 proposed extended coverage for distance education programs (Seisa & Youngman, 1993), and in 1992 a National Conference on Distance Education was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The Conference, which was attended by 100 participants comprising education professionals and planners, represented an important stage in the develop-ment of distance education policy because it re-focused attention on the nature and potential of distance education (Ministry of Education, 1992). It helped to clarify the current situation in relation to some of the policy issues identified at the beginning of this article, although a number of questions still have to be addressed.
Current Government policy (Republic of Botswana, 1991, p. 335) sees education as providing a minimum of basic general education to all Bot-swana and the occupational skills required by the economy. Its objectives, therefore, include increasing educational opportunities for all age groups and training people in the various skills needed for economic development. However, the Government projects that the growth in educational expendi-ture will slow down in the 1990s and, therefore, that increased emphasis must be put on cost-effectiveness and cost-sharing. The difficulty now being faced is how to expand the education system to meet the objectives of the policy. In particular, the goal of universal access to junior secondary education has yet to be achieved (and there is a considerable backlog of failures and dropouts), there is restricted access to senior secondary school-ing, and there are far too few vocational and technical training places of all kinds.
In this context the option of distance education becomes attractive as it has the capability of widening access to various levels and kinds of education and training. For certain groups in the population, such as those in full-time employment or those remote from major settlements, it offers a particularly accessible route to further learning. Additionally, distance education has the potential to provide extended opportunities at comparatively lower costs than conventional education. For example, the unit cost of a secondary student enrolled with DNFE is approximately 10% of the cost a full-time secondary student. A prima facie case for expanding dis-tance education exists and makes the consideration of other policy issues worthwhile.
An important issue is the identification of potential target groups for which distance education is appropriate so that it is possible to elaborate the policy options for level of provision (and hence for resources and organi-zational structures). Three distinct groups can be identified, following the typology of Dodds and Mayo (1992, p. 27):
1. Adults seeking further qualifications and work-related training. This is an important group in relation to Botswana’s human resource development, and needs have been identified in a number of areas, such as teaching, health work, administration, and business. Repre-sentatives of the public service and the private sector at the National Conference on Distance Education in 1992 made it clear they saw a potential for distance education to upgrade the academic qualifications and skills of their employees. The main advantage of distance educa-tion for this group is that employees do not have to leave the work situation, and study courses can be built into career development schemes and appropriate incentives offered. Local and international experience suggests the motivation and maturity of such students is high and the possibilities for the successful development of this level of provision is good. However, there is a major disadvantage in the fact that there are relatively small numbers of potential students be-cause of the small size of Botswana’s population.
2. Adults seeking non-formal education for basic education and social development. This group has not received much attention recently within Botswana in relation to distance education. But international experience and Botswana’s own experience in the 1970s suggests that distance edu-cation methodologies can be used in a variety of extension and basic education programs. The National Literacy Programme has produced a lot of people who are eager for post-literacy education, which is not currently available on any scale, and the potential for general public education appears significant given the importance of contemporary social issues like environmental degradation and AIDS.
3. Adolescents seeking further secondary education. This group expanded rapidly during the 1980s, and, as noted, DNFE in 1985 lowered its enrolment age for JC and GCE “O” level courses to 15. In terms of equity and political salience, this group is very significant. Current Government policy is that for the majority of children nine years of school education is terminal, so the future of the JC school leaver is particularly problematical. Distance education represents a policy option for meeting the needs of this group. How-ever, as DNFE has found, the normal pattern of distance education is not very effective for the adolescent student, who is immature, lacks discipline and motivation, and has a record of low achievement. An expansion of the present pattern of provision offered by DNFE would not be effective and would serve only as a “political safety valve” (Dodds, 1992, p. 11), giving the illusion of increased access. The experience of other countries in Africa, such as Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (Curran & Murphy, 1989), suggests that effective distance education for this group would require a more structured study-centre based system that would provide high levels of personal support. How-ever, this would need substantial resources.
In relation to perceived needs, it would appear that distance education for adults (for secondary and tertiary academic qualifications, for work-related training, or for non-formal basic education) provides a realistic policy option, though detailed analysis of numbers is required. There are enough adolescents seeking second-chance secondary education to pro-vide viable numbers for a distance education program, but the relatively high costs of suitable provision would be a significant factor to take into account.
The fiscal constraints facing Botswana in the 1990s mean that proposals for improved and expanded distance education services will be closely scrutinized in terms not only of relative priority but also cost-effectiveness. International experience suggests that distance education enables edu-cation to be offered relatively cheaply when there are large numbers of students (Sewart, Keegan, & Holmberg, 1984). A critical minimum size of program needs to be reached in order to reap the benefits of economies of scale, because the costs of course development are normally high and represent a large proportion of the total costs. These costs have to be incurred irrespective of the number of students who subsequently enrol and can only be reduced proportionally as student numbers increase. However, because of Botswana’s small population size, the numbers for many pro-grams are likely to be relatively small, particularly for the target group of working adults. Where the numbers are larger, as with the adolescent target group, there is the paradox that for them the costs of service-delivery, which are normally proportionally low, will have to be higher than usual because without a strong face-to-face component success is unlikely. The economics of expanding distance education provision in a small education system such as Botswana’s will require much more analysis than has been done so far. Some of the proponents of distance education in Botswana have been too quick to argue in general terms the relative cheap-ness of distance education without taking into account the special con-straints of a small-scale system. Detailed consideration of how to curtail unit costs will be required before further developments can take place. It is only on this basis that it can be determined whether a program can be considered cost-effective, or whether opportunity cost factors outweigh direct cost factors (for example, in releasing teachers for full-time in-service training or in reaching remote parts of the country without educa-tional facilities), or whether economic considerations can be put aside because of sound social or political reasons. The possibility of reducing costs through international cooperation is considered below.
Current plans for the development of distance education are based on two lead institutions, the Department of Non-Formal Education of the Ministry of Education and the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of Botswana. The intended focus of DNFE is to be on secondary school qualifi-cations and non-formal education for adults, whilst the Centre for Con-tinuing Education is to focus on post-secondary education and training. However, there are a number of other organizations involved in distance education, both within Government (such as the Ministry of Health’s project for training district health managers) and in the private sector (such as the training department of Barclay’s Bank). There is an obvious danger that expanded provision may take place in an uncoordinated and inefficient way.
The 1992 National Conference on Distanced Education recognized this problem, and the need for partnerships between the Government, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations was stressed. A coor-dinating body was recommended, but its nature remains vague and no action has been taken to establish it. However, the concept of partnership needs to be explored not only at the level of policy formulation and pro-gram coordination but also at the level of implementation. It is arguable that there are many components of a distance education system, such as materials production and distribution, communication media, and study centres, that can be used in common by different kinds of programs and, therefore, that a means of integrating the work of implementing agencies is highly desirable. A common institutional framework would also facilitate the training and career development of staff, thereby enhancing specialist skills and management capabilities. Crucial policy decisions are, therefore, required on an appropriate organizational structure to ensure the most ef-ficient use of resources.
The status of distance education and the learning gained through this modality is an important factor in determining whether resources will be put into its development. The idea that distance education may be inferior (a “last resort”) is an abiding one, and the correspondence courses of com-mercial colleges interested primarily in profit have often had a bad name. An important concern for policy-makers is, therefore, whether distance education will have “parity of esteem” with conventional education (Jevons, 1987). There are two lines of argument amongst educationists in Bot-swana. The sceptics feel that a form of education that does not offer direct intellectual interaction with teachers and fellow-students and the social/ intellectual benefits of institutional life must be deficient, lacking in depth and opportunities for personal development. The proponents (many of whom, like the Minister of Education himself, have been a beneficiary of distance education programs) argue that students can achieve parity in terms of academic achievement and may exhibit other desirable qualities, such as determination and self-discipline.
However such generalizations do not help policy formulation very much, and it is better to consider for which purposes is distance education appro-priate and how can it be made effective for these purposes. In the Bot-swana context, the school-level provision of the Department of Non-For-mal Education is perceived as an inferior form of education. It takes school failures, it lacks the resources to handle them adequately, and its students perform poorly on exams. On the other hand, employees of the commer-cial banks are encouraged to take courses of the Institute of Bankers with Rapid Results College, and accountants gain their professional qualifica-tions through bodies such as the Association of Chartered Accountants. In these instances, distance education is seen as a normal way of gaining appropriate qualifications, which are recognized in the workplace. The question of the status and quality of distance education has to be addressed in terms of specific purposes. Internationally, distance educa-tion in the last twenty years has established a degree of legitimacy that correspondence courses never achieved. Nevertheless, as Dodds and Mayo (1992) demonstrate, the status achieved by distance education university programs is not replicated at pre-tertiary levels. Although distance education has received generalized expressions of support from the Minister of Education (Molomo, 1992) and other senior Government and University officials, this has not yet been reflected in budgetary allocations. There is a dilemma that the status and quality that will attract resources to distance education are dependent on its effectiveness, which is, in turn, influenced by resource availability. For Botswana, it would appear that quality dis-tance education for the adult target group is achievable but that a funda-mental policy shift would be required to provide decent secondary level programs for adolescents.
The possibilities for international cooperation in developing and sustain-ing a distance education system are an important consideration for policy-makers, especially in developing countries. This is particularly the case in Botswana, which, despite its large land surface, faces the problems of educational planning for a small population (Bray, 1992). As Snowden and Daniel (1984) have demonstrated, small-scale distance education systems have special characteristics with regard to cost-effectiveness and must con-centrate particularly on the reduction of course development costs, for ex-ample, by obtaining ready-made courses from elsewhere. International co-operation provides a significant strategy for acquiring (by purchase, lease, loan, or franchise) courses from other countries or for entering into joint course production. It also provides the possibility of access to other devel-opmental resources, such as training courses and technical assistance, whichcan help to reduce the costs of developing and maintaining the system. Botswana has had considerable experience with international cooperation in this field over the last twenty years. This is exemplified in donor funding for a number of projects, joint course production with the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre, professional participation in the Distance Education As-sociation of Southern Africa, overseas training, and various forms of as-sistance from bodies such as the Commonwealth of Learning. However, if there was a more coherent policy for the development of distance educa-tion, then international cooperation could be used more systematically. Fol-lowing the need to consolidate existing patterns of international coopera-tion, two priorities can be identified. The first is to finalize the proposal, first made in 1985, for a regional distance education centre under the umbrella of the Southern Africa Development Community. The second is to develop formal arrangements with reputable private foreign institutions (such as universities and professional bodies) to provide their courses in Botswana and thus widen the range of courses available in a planned fash-ion. In this way some of the benefits of private sector initiatives could be achieved but within an overall framework that ensures coordination and complementarity, so that local programs are not undermined.
Distance education is an important option for policy-makers in developing countries. Much more evidence is now available than when the debate took place in the pages of the Journal of Distance Education in 1987/8 over the “promise and reality” of distance education in the Third World (Arger, 1987; Jenkins, 1988). In Botswana, the record suggests that the promise of distance education was largely unfulfilled during the 1970s and 1980s. However, the international and national circumstances of the 1990s are such that distance education has re-emerged on the country’s policy agenda. The National Conference on Distance Education held at the beginning of 1992 appeared to provide a significant moment for policy clarification and the mobilization of support for the development of distance education. But it seems that not much has been done in practical terms to follow up the Conference and its recommendations, so that much momentum has been lost. However, in mid-1992 a second National Commission on Edu-cation was established and it is, inter alia, considering the future of dis-tance education. It has, for example, commissioned a policy study on the desirability of establishing a semi-autonomous distance education college like others in the Southern African region such as the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre and the Malawi College of Distance Education. The Com-mission will report in mid-1993 with policy proposals for the reform of education, and it is to be hoped that it will identify an appropriate role for distance education within the overall national education system and pro-pose a strategy for its development.
Material from the following conference papers has been incorporated in this text:
Dodds, T. (1992). Distance education and education for all by the year 2000: Chal-lenges for the nineties. In Ministry of Education, The national conference on distance education report (pp. 6-12). Gaborone: Ministry of Education,.
Youngman, F. (1991). Distance education in Botswana. Paper presented to the seminar on “Distance education, broadcasting and adult education,” organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of the Republic of Namibia, Windhoek, 26 February-1 March 1991.
Youngman, F. (1992). The future development of distance education in Botswana. Summation speech. In Ministry of Education, The national conference on dis-tance education report (pp. 97-103). Gaborone: Ministry of Education.
Tony Dodds
International Extension College
Office D
Cambridge CB2 LJ
England
Dales Brewery, Gwydir St
Frank Youngman
Department of Adult Education
University of Botswana
P/Bag 0022
Gaborone
Botswana
Arger, G. (1987). Promise and reality: A critical analysis of literature on distance education in the Third World. Journal of Distance Education, 2(1), 41-58.
Bray, M. (1992). Educational planning in small countries. Paris: UNESCO.
Byram, M. (1979). Lesedi La Puso. A radio learning group campaign in Western Botswana. Gaborone: n.p.
Curran, C., & Murphy, P. (1989). Distance education at second level in six coun-tries in Africa. Dublin: Higher Education for Development Cooperation.
Department of Non-Formal Education. (1992). Distance education unit annual re-port 1991. Gaborone: Department of Non-Formal Education.
Dodds, T. (1992). Distance education and education for all by the year 2000: Chal-lenges for the nineties. In Ministry of Education, The national conference on distance education report (pp. 6-12). Gaborone: Ministry of Education.
Dodds, T., & Mayo, J. K. (1992). The promise and performance of distance educa-tion in developing nations: The IEC experience. Paper presented at the Interna-tional Extension College’s Anniversary Conference “World Education Crisis: Roles for Distance Education,” Cambridge, 20-24 September 1992.
Hill, E. D. (1972). Final report on the Francistown teacher training project. Francistown: Teachers Training College.
Jenkins, J. (1988). Pessimism and reality: A more up-to-date look at distance teach-ing in the Third World. Journal of Distance Education, 3(1), 101-105.
Jere, A., & Youngman, F. (1977). A consideration of the proposal for a mass radio learning group health campaign in Botswana in 1978. Gaborone: Division of Extra Mural Services, University of Botswana and Swaziland.
Jevons, F. (1987). Distance education and campus-based education: Parity of es-teem. In P. Smith & M. Kelly (Eds.), Distance education and the mainstream (pp. 12-23). London: Croom Helm.
Jones, K. (1982). A survey of distance education provision in Botswana. Gaborone: Institute of Adult Education, University of Botswana.
Kassam, Y. O. (1978). The adult education revolution in Tanzania. Nairobi: Shungwaya.
Ministry of Education. (1992). The national conference on distance education re-port. Gaborone: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Local Government and Lands. (1977). Lefatshe La Rona-Our land. Gaborone: Government Printer.
Molomo, M. R. (1992). Official opening speech. In Ministry of Education, The national conference on distance education report (pp. 97-103). Gaborone: Min-istry of Education.
Mutava, D. M. (1989a). Evaluation of the certificate in adult education programme at the University of Botswana. Gaborone: Institute of Adult Education, Univer-sity of Botswana.
Mutava, D. M. (1989b). The feasibility of using distance education to provide management training for health personnel at the district level in Botswana. Gaborone: Institute of Adult Education.
National Commission on Education. (1977). Education for Kagisano. Gaborone: Government Printer.
Perraton, H. (1977). Starting the Botswana Extension College. Cambridge: Interna-tional Extension College.
Republic of Botswana. (1991). National development Plan 7. 1991-1997. Gaborone: Republic of Botswana.
Seisa, S., & Youngman, F. (1993). Education for all in Botswana. Gaborone: Macmillan.
Sewart, D., Keegan, S., & Holmberg, B. (1984). Distance education: International perspectives. London: Routledge.
Snowden, B. L., & Daniel, J. S. (1984). The economics and management of small post-secondary distance education systems. In D. Sewart, S. Keegan, & B. Holmberg (Eds.), Distance education: International perspectives (pp. 398-424), London: Routledge.
Townsend-Coles, E. K. (1978). Evaluation of the Botswana Extension College. Nairobi: Ford Foundation.
Townsend-Coles, E. K. (1988). Let the people learn. Manchester: University of Manchester.
University of Botswana. (1985). Development plan 1985/6-1990/91. Gaborone: University of Botswana.
White, C. J. B. (1971). Training of unqualified teachers through correspondence education in Botswana. In J. A. Ponsioen (Ed.), Educational innovations in Af-rica (pp. 184-191). The Hague: Institute of Social Studies.
World Bank. (1988). Education in sub-Saharan Africa. Washington: World Bank. Yerbury, J. C., Dingalo, M., & Mphinyane, O. (1991). Evaluation of the distance education unit, department of non-formal education. n.p.: Commonwealth of Learning and Republic of Botswana.
Tony Dodds is Executive Director of the International Extension College, Cam-bridge, UK, where he has worked since 1971. He has undertaken long and short-term distance education assignments in many developing countries. His main con-cern is the organization and management of distance education and the integration of the media and face-to-face support services.
Frank Youngman joined the University of Botswana in 1975 and has been Direc-tor of the Institute of Adult Education and Dean of the Faculty of Education. He has written extensively on many aspects of adult education and has a particular interest in issues of educational policy in developing countries.