In the face of huge and mounting pressures on education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), distance education (DE) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly seen as a necessary part of the solution for improved quality and access in educational provision in the region. The launch of Education for All (EFA) initiatives and the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDs pandemic on the teaching profession have brought a new urgency to the need for distance education and other innovative approaches to meet the dramatic rise in teacher development and support requirements.
As part of its overall education assistance strategy, the Africa region of the World Bank wishes to support the development of sustainable models of applications of DE and ICT to enhance quality and access in sub-Saharan African countries.
Specifically, ICDE consultancy work deals with the situation of Distance Education and ICT for teacher development in three countries: Rwanda, Nigeria and Ethiopia. In Rwanda, the post-war situation has placed significant human resource constrains to its education system, and the country would need to focus on teacher development in order to increase the supply of skilled individuals able to deliver quality education. Ethiopia has been focusing on increasing the enrolment rate in primary schools during the last decade, as a consequence, the higher education system has suffered severe constrains. The small number of university graduates together with quality deficiencies in aspects of their training place a challenge to the country’s development aspirations. In Nigeria where there is a mismatch between a great demand for higher education and the means available to satisfy it, ODL can open the access and enhance the quality of the education delivered and help to overcome the shortage of qualified teachers.
ICDE subcontracted a number of consultants for the Ethiopia and Rwanda projects (both already implemented), while ICDE staff in Oslo has been heavely involved from the management side. The Nigeria project is in the process of implementation at the moment.
The current studies have been undertaken at a time when attention world-wide is focused on the attainment of education and human capacity building objectives in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), most particularly to achieve Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Additionally, it occurs at a time of a renewed emphasis on the role that distance education (DE) and ICTs can play in the attainment of these goals, in the light of the accumulated experience worldwide and in Africa, and the advent of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
The multi-country assessment of the state of DE practice and educational applications of ICTs in Africa that is being conducted by ICDE, forms part of the Bank’s overall assistance strategy to increase understanding of how DE and the new ICTs can support education in Africa, through regular consultation, focused studies and knowledge sharing. The multi-country studies is initially planned to include two EFA fast-track countries, and one post-conflict country (Rwanda). It is intended that the countries within which the studies are conducted will be able to benefit from an external and hopefully objective view of their ongoing implementation of DE and ICTs. It is also hoped that the studies will contribute to knowledge that can be shared with other countries who are contemplating the use of DE and ICTs as a part of their human development strategy.