Dear all,
This main topic introduces you to organizational models of distance education in non-formal education. It defines non-formal education, identifies some issues relating, refers to some case studies and lists some of the important references.
| Nonformal education refers to education which takes place outside
of the formally organized school. Most typically, the term or phrase nonformal
education is used to refer to adult literacy and continuing education
for adults. This education is called nonformal because: -- it is not compulsory -- it does not lead to a formal certification, and -- it may or may not be state-supported |
There are a number of related terms: basic education, lifelong learning and adult education. Basic education emphasizes aspects of content, adult education emphasises aspects of age, nonformal education refers to the delivery format. The boundaries are overlapping. Certainly there is bsic formal education (e.g. learning to read and write in schools) and there may be non-formal education for young people (e.g. school drop outs).
Perraton's section on nonformal education is headed by the title 'A light that never shone' (Perraton, 2000, pp. 15-31). What makes him saying this?
Perraton argues that nonformal education has developed a working distance education model (which is?). Nonetheless he observes that nonformal education, often being publicly funded, entered into a competition with investments in formal basic education. Which type of resource allocation is more cost-effective and why?
Consider the below cases and ask how the media, the audience and the organizational models fit together.
Latin America: Radiophonic
Schools
Behind the birth of Radiophonic
schools is a remarkable story of a village priest who saw radio as a better
means of reaching his rural people with both an educational and a spiritual
message that might improve their lives (McAnany, 1976; Fraser and Restrepo-Estrada,
1997). Fr Salcedo, the pioneer of ACPO system, began the programme with an
amateur radio transmitter with an output of 90 watts in November 1947. His
efforts grew into a national organisation, Accion Cultural Popular (ACPO),
which later influenced the establishment of similar programmes internationally:
25 programmes in 17 Latin American countries and in Canary Islands (ibid).
The main features of the Radiophonic
school model are (ibid, p.13): (1) the audience is rural children and adults;
(2) efforts are directed to literacy and basic education, although in some
places primary equivalency is offered; (3) schools are small organised listening/learning
groups (normally three to ten, all members of one family, or they might be
from different families in the neighbourhood) meeting in homes, churches,
etc., under the charge of a local volunteer or monitor; (4) field organisation
is usually in the form of supervisor (sometimes paid) who tries to co-ordinate
the activities, distribute the material and visit and encourage groups from
time to time; (5) the basic approach is radio, printed booklets, charts, newspapers,
and other supplementary materials; (6) all the projects are run by private
organisations, usually affiliated with the Church; (7) their finances come
from private funds and donations, often from International Catholic agencies,
sometimes from a government subsidy and less frequently from self financing;
(8) each project its own production and broadcasting stations; (9) broadcasting
consists of not only educational programmes, but also general education and
entertainment for rural listeners.
Despite the impressive achievement,
after nearly four decades, the ACPO found itself being the target of hostility
of the Church and the government (Fraser and Restrepo-Estrada, 1997). Sadly
it lost support from international agencies. In 1982 it started to cut of
its staff, and in 1987 ACPO folded and most of its assets were sold to pay
off its debts (ibid). The model, however, still remains in Canary Islands
and other Latin American countries. In Canary Islands, it was also a Jesuit
priest, Fr Villen, who started the programme. Fr Villen visited ACPO in the
early 1960s adopted the programme in Canary Islands, which later became an
alternative model to Latin American countries.
Edirisingha
(1999, p.8)
The
African and Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), Kenya, Uganda, a NGO/accredited training organisation,
has provided long-distance training for 14 000 junior health professionals
in Kenya and Uganda.
Kenya: African Medical and Research
Foundation (AMREF)
This is a programme
that attempts to address the needs of the learners by raising the effectiveness
of intermediaries, such as extension agents and health workers agents who
are working with them. The Distance Education Unit of AMREF provides in-service
education for health workers in Kenya. The distance education unit has developed
a programme with correspondence lessons, audiocassettes, a weekly radio session
called ‘Health is life’ and practical demonstrations to support its other
teaching methods. The programme grew from a pilot of 100 students in 1980
to reached 6000 by 1995 with 4090 active learners, all of them paramedical
health workers. The AMREF project is unusual in using distance education for
the in-service training of field workers. Although there is extensive experience
of supporting schoolteachers at a distance, far fewer projects have used the
same method for health workers or extension agents (Perraton, 2000).
Edirisingha
(1999, p.12)
The
Functional Education Project for Rural Areas (FEPRA), Pakistan: An outreach project
of the Allama Iqbal Open University offering functional courses for adults.
Pakistan: The Functional Education
Project for Rural Areas in Pakistan (FEPRA)
FEPRA was initiated as an experimental
programme to address the learning needs of the rural people of Pakistan, who
are predominantly poor, and with 62 percent adult illiteracy (Perraton, 2000).
In Pakistan only about 10 percent of rural women can read. Based on extensive
research and careful development of material, the Allama Iqbal Open University
worked out a style of teaching, and group study led by villagers, that matched
the village peoples needs. The experimental stage ran from 1982 to 1985 and
has since institutionalised some of that work (ibid).
The main teaching methods and
media include printed teaching material, illustrated flip charts, and audiocassettes,
and group meetings led by group leaders. Field workers recruited and trained
group leaders in the techniques of group study and supervised their work in
the field. At the end of each session the group leader completed a feedback
form that provided information for later sessions in the course for management
and for evaluation. The project was reaching about 1500 learners and its was
estimated that the same structure could reach about 5000 a year. It had some
success in reaching its target audience of people with little formal education:
55 per cent of the learners were illiterate and 66 percent had either not
gone to school or progresses no further than lower primary level. The evidence
is consistent in showing that the project succeeded in establishing a viable
and effective system for rural education. Its work had continued and has now
become the responsibility of a university faculty of mass education (ibid).
Edirisingha
(1999, p.11)
National Open Schools (NOS), India: Safety net for school dropouts and those who missed out and are over the
age of the respective level of schooling; classical example of DE.
It is, with about 160000 students (in the year 2000), the largest open schooling system in the World. Study material is written in Hindi, English,
or the respective local language.
Asia: Open Schools
In the South Asian sub-continent,
the immediate post-independence era was too early a time for the establishment
of open and distance learning initiatives for out-of-school populations. Innovations
such as the UK Open University, which became one of the main influential factors
later on, were still to come. The formal education system has been leaving
behind a large proportion of people who were not able to read and write. High
population growth was adding to the problem, while social, cultural and geographic
reasons limiting the access to education for marginalised communities.
The first programme to provide education out-of-school was the Indian Open
School project in 1979, which after ten years became the National Open School
(NOS). Ten state governments followed this example and initiated their own
State Open Schools. Pakistan established the Mass Education Programme in 1982
and Bangladesh initiated the Open School of Bangladesh in 1992, both were
off-shoots of their national open universities, while the NOS was established
as an autonomous body. The implications of these arrangements for success
and sustainability will be discussed later.
(Edirisingha,1999,
p. 5-6)