In Africa the digital divide has prevented electronic delivery of lifelong learning. A programme in Senegal has shown that it is possible for educators to work with employers to establish a distance professional training scheme using appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs).

A chapter in a joint publication from the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO describes a project undertaken by the Ecole des Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes (EBAD) at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal.

Access to ICTs in Africa is still extraordinarily low. There are around 5.2 telephones per 100 inhabitants. Broadband is only available in a few countries. The geographical distribution of telecommunications infrastructure is uneven: 67 percent of fixed telephone lines in Senegal are concentrated in the capital. Only a thousand of the country’s 14,200 villages have telephone connections. African languages are conspicuously absent on the Internet as the bulk of available information is in English.

Cybercafés are often proposed as venues for distance learning but are generally unsuitable due to lack of required hardware and software, limited bandwidth shared by crowds of users, high connection rates and, above all, an atmosphere that tends not to be compatible with learning.

Faced with falling student numbers, in 2001 EBAD began an experimental six-month distance learning certificate course for business documentation specialists. EBAD contacted 50 private and public sector companies, non-governmental organisations, local authorities and associations. It was agreed that:

• Employers would provide learners with a computer and Internet access for at least two hours a day.
• EBAD would provide training, charge learners a tuition fee and require them to continue working for their host business for the duration of the course.
• Learners would be closely supervised by tutors via telephone, discussion forums and email.
• The company would have the services of a new information worker for six months without having to pay extra wage costs or be under any obligation to hire the worker once the course was over.

Learners were awarded a business certificate. This learning system has opened up new opportunities for information workers and given them marketable skills without needing to stop work or leave their families for a long and costly stay abroad.

The EBAD experiment has shown how partnership between businesses and training providers can provide companies with better-trained staff who are acquainted with the world of work and have relevant skills.

EBAD’s experience highlights the need to:

• create local training centres equipped with IT hardware and affordable broadband Internet access
• promote adult education and encourage training centres to work with local businesses to develop training courses
• persuade businesses to see the importance of upgrading and acquiring new knowledge and allow employees to take courses
• promote the concept of learning through experience
• encourage the development of short certificate training modules suited to the needs of business.

Source(s):
‘Lifelong Learning in the African Context: A Practical Example from Senegal’ by Olivier Sagna in ‘Perspectives on Distance Education, Lifelong Learning & Distance Higher Education’, edited by Christopher McIntosh and Zeynep Varoglu, Commonwealth of Learning / UNESCO Publishing, 2005 Full document.

Funded by: Commonwealth of Learning

id21 Research Highlight: 27 June 2006

Further Information:
Olivier Sagna
L’Ecole des bibliothécaires archivistes et documentalistes
EBAD / UCAD
Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar
BP 3252
Dakar, Senegal

Tel: +221 825 76 60 / 864 21 22
Fax: + 221 824 05 42
Contact the contributor: olivier.sagna@ebad.ucad.sn

Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Daka

Commonwealth of Learning
1055 West Hastings Street, Suite 1200
Vancouver, BC
V6E 2E9 Canada

Tel: +1 604 775 8200
Fax: +1 604 775 8210
Contact the contributor: info@col.org

COMMONWEALTH of LEARNING

UNESCO
Division of Higher Education
7 place de Fontenoy
Paris 75352
France

Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 08 88
Fax: +33 (0)1 45 68 56 32
Contact the contributor: amq@unesco.org

UNESCO

Other related links:
'How to make distance higher education affordable'

'Distant future: new developments in open and distance learning'

'African distance learning: reaching parts other education systems cannot reach?'

'Distance education: can quality be assured in an expanding market?'