Guest Post by Lucia from bestonlinedegree.org
If there is any continent that has encountered political and social turmoil to a huge extent, it’s none other than Africa. For years, the continent was considered to be one of the most unstable and unprotected places of the world. Decades of totalitarian rule and a never ending phase of corruption simply shattered the peace of thousands of African denizens. All the chaos that gave rise was due to the growing clashes in between the African countries. Finally, the guns have pacified on the parched borderlands between Eritrea and Ethiopia and people have finally smelt the fragrance of peace.
Owing to long years of misrule, the sector that emerged to be one of the lowest priorities was education. It was the mismanagement of the African administration that hindered the government from making handsome investments in the educational organizations in Africa. This brought negative consequences in the lives of young people especially in military trainings when they started misusing arms. The entire nation became tensed since they were not getting right answers to questions on security. As a result, young individuals who were looking forward to build careers on the African soils were compelled to step back from taking admissions in the African colleges and universities.
Today, Africa has come up with strong and positive developments in the educational arena. Owing to the initiation of the internet services, the option of distance learning has attained massive importance among the students of Africa. It is an advanced form of learning that brings a blend of work and independent learning. To know more about it, you can visit here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Africa.
Being an economically advantageous learning medium, distance learning has rather cast a magical impact in the lives of many African career dreamers. In fact, those who have been unwilling to quit work can now continue the same by taking admission in any of the African academic institutions offering distance education.
Open distance learning (ODL) in Africa has emerged to be a complementary mode of learning. It is a conventional concept that classroom education is the only way to gain knowledge and prosper in life. However, there are people for whom circumstances are not always suitable for them to attend university classes on a regular basis. For them, distance learning indubitably can create better chances to enhance their qualifications thereby letting them climb to the acme of success in quick time.
Although, the option of distance learning in Africa is alluring to students and many working people, many who live in the remote areas may still be dwelling in isolation from the wider world owing to the lack of electricity and their inability to buy computers. As a result of this, many students are bound to remain confined into the world of books only and are therefore becoming unaware of the better learning modes that can help them come out with flying colors with ease and convenience. This was the biggest reason behind the initiation of the ODL programs in Africa that actually focused on three keywords – Access, Quality and Success.
Since the rural areas in Africa are devoid of electricity, it won’t be easy to operate computers on a wider scale. Consequently, the chances of accessing the internet would be almost next to impossible. Despite such circumstances, distance learning in Africa can still be possible if the postal services can be bettered. This will help people to receive study materials right from their own homes. Moreover, those who are digitally illiterate can also be benefitted by this very alternative. So, just like other developed continents, Africa can still dream to bring education to numerous doors of those who have been struggling hard to prosper in life.
Suggested Books
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the organizational models of distance and online learning from an international perspective and from the point of view of economic planning, costing and management decision-making.
Amidst the euphoria about the new frontiers of technology sometimes perceived as a panacea for expansion of higher education in developing countries, there is a need to analyze persistent and new grounds of unequal opportunity for access, learning, and the production of knowledge.
Related articles
- Africa Distance Learning – Unfolding Opportunities in a New World (sociolingo.com)
- What are the benefits of distance learning? (career-advice.monster.co.uk)