At a recent advocacy workshop on open distance learning education tagged ‘’roll out on GST E-Modules for distance learners’’, stakeholders at the meeting, were undivided in their views that encouraging the open distance learning programme will certainly address the yawning gap in access to tertiary education. AUGUSTINE OKEZIE takes a critical look at the challenges facing open distance learning in Nigeria.
Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission,(NUC) Professor Julius Okojie, drew the opining argument at the workshop when he called on Nigerians and government at all levels to support the open distance learning education operated by several Nigerian Universities located at Ibadan, Abuja, and National Open Universities as viable access to tertiary education.
Professor Okojie further noted that the ODL system will help address the shortage of needed manpower for National development, and ensure that our teeming population of youths that are clamoring for university admission each year an alternative access to tertiary education while simultaneously engaged in meaningful productive activities.
He said ‘’ you will be amazed those that have earned this degree elsewhere yet they criticize the quality of learning in NOUN. We cannot all rely on bread and butter system of education and on the carrying capacity of admission quotas and so on’’
He dismissed insinuations that the quality of learning offered by ODL and NOUN was lower than that of conventional universities, saying they were at par.
“There is opportunity for mature students in the ODL because they have seen life and therefore at liberty to decide which course of study to pursue. “The fact that you are not a regular student does not make you less a student than your counterpart in the conventional university.
Prof. Vincent Tenebe, Vice-Chancellor, NOUN, said that issues of acceptability of NOUN’s courses and degrees were part of the advocacy. According to him, there is no difference between ODL and conventional learning as the most important thing is what you learnt and what you can deliver.
Also speaking, the director of programmes, British council, MsLoiusa Waddingham said that the council has been working closely with Nigeria on distance learning education which has made great impact and contributed to the transformation of British Education and culture
She said ‘’British council is all about mutual relationship and cultural cooperation with Nigeria, it is high time we step up our engagement in higher education and e learning activities.
University of South Africa based guest speaker at the workshop, Professor Dele Braimoh’s assertion that the open distance learning program me can address the vexatious question of access to education in Nigeria, no doubt provided a further elixir on why the programme needed to be embraced by all and sundry.
Professor Braimoh event cited the fact that he never went through the walls of a secondary school nor attended any conventional training model outside the distance learning programme to support the campaign for increased enrolment in distance learning
Former Vice Chancellor of the National Open University (NOUN), Professor Olugbemiro Jegede’s observation that the future of education in Nigeria will increasingly move towards Open and Distance Learning (ODL) with increasing global acceptance of out-of-classroom learning methods and technology adoption, represents another positive prediction of what the future of education holds with the expected influx of students into distance learning
Presenting an Inaugural Keynote Address at the 7th Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF7) at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, the professor said:
“Exciting indications are that very soon the growth of open learning in Nigeria would soon overtake that of all of Europe combined and would triple what obtains in the USA.
“This is being made possible through the unprecedented entry and expansion of telecommunication merging with computer technology,” Jegede said.
According to Prof. Jegede who is the current secretary to the Kogi State government, Nigerians adoption of modern communications technology provides a huge opportunity to take education out of the classrooms to the homes of every Nigerian.
“The data we have is that 2 out of every 3 Nigerians own mobile devices, and with the astronomical sales being made by the telecommunication companies, it would not be long before close to 170 million people are connected!
“Needless to say how this will boost open learning and the education of people outside of the mainstream formal schooling system.”
Jegede said Nigeria can no more ignore ODL because its mode of instruction has now been mainstreamed with many face-to-face institutions embracing it.
“The flexibility of ODL as a mode of instruction has made it the preferred mode of reaching people in many non-formal circumstances.
He also emphasised the advantage ODL has over conventional education modes in reaching people with restricted access, for a number of reasons.
“ODL provides access to remote and normally inaccessible under-represented groups, such as women in or out of purdah, persons in rural and remote locations, migrant fishermen, and nomadic cattle herders) and tailored to meet the specific and special needs of a variety of learners, including those in employment, with family responsibilities, older or and retired people, wishing to embark on professional, and leisure or personal studies.”
Prof. Jegede also stated that ODL would be more concerned with what a student does with the knowledge acquired as opposed to regurgitating what he has learned.
“It will no more be a matter of fail or pass in assessment, it will instead be a matter of the extent of learner’s understanding and how everyone in a community of learners could be assisted to earn the highest proficiency,” he said.
Attitude of governments at various levels and that of the students may create stumbling block to development of open distance learning programme in the country. While governments must provide the needed infrastructure and increased funding ,the students should urgently embraced the programme rather than embarking on endless search for admissions into tertiary institutions through other means.