ANNEX VIII:

Global University System in Africa

Prepared by
John Senyo C. Afele, Ph.D
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
jafele@uoguelph.ca

 

CONTENTS

 

1. Overview
2. Problem or Opportunity

3. Goals
4. Proposed Activities
5. Specific Activities

6. Anticipated Outcome
7. Geographic Location of Activity
8. Cost Effectiveness
9. Expected Social Benefits
10. Expected Outcome
11. Sutainability
12. Risk and Counter Measure
13. Evaluation
14. Proposed Partners

 

1. Overview

A major outcome of this project would be development of an infoculture in institutions of learning in Africa. That is, an information affluent society to take advantage of the merging information societies and its privileges. Inclusion of basic schools in the African component of the Global University System would ensure the acquisition of this new learning culture at an early stage of education.

The concept of the Global University System is an integrated knowledge flow, from childhood through formal school years to a life-long learning system. Thus the African Component of the Global University System features connectivity for basic school, junior and senior schools, technical and vocational institutions, to universities and adult-learning mechanisms with Ghana as the pilot country.
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2. Problem or Opportunity

Sub-Saharan Africa's economic, technological, political and social emancipation and realization of the New African Renaissance, would depend on the manner and extent to which it is able to access, assess, and integrate global knowledge, particularly critical technologies, into its indigenous knowledge platform. Nowhere is human security as threatened as in sub-Saharan Africa. The strength of any human civilization is its human resource base and knowledge system, however, Africa's ability to provide knowledge to its citizenry through education, was based on an elitist system which served only about 20% well, leaving the majority rural populations to Stone Age practices. Obviously, attempts to substitute indigenous African Knowledge and Ideas with alien theories in the development process have been expensive failures.

The African Component of the Global University System describes the philosophical bases and themes, and the required knowledge networks to generate the blend of indigenous and modern knowledge systems and translation into integrated practical policy tools for the benefit of some of the world's poorest. It concentrates on critical technologies while conversant of the need to modernize and utilize indigenous governance systems to provide the peaceful domain in which advances in technology can be harnessed.

Intellectualization of Indigenous African Knowledge for sustainable livelihoods, is built on the following issues:

  1. the desired effects of enhanced knowledge utilization in rural technological advancement;
  2. indigenous African knowledge as technological platforms for sustainable rurality;
  3. interactions among the peoples of Africa and of the African Diaspora;
  4. Information and Communications Technologies as facilitating medium.

Knowledge and ideas as critical inputs in economic development, stem from education which enables making informed decisions about social, political, economic, and ecological harmony. However, upon all the expansion of education across the world, illiteracy has increased in the poorer countries. Access to education in Africa has continued to be limited at all levels, resulting in the lowest literacy rates in the world. The most crucial stages in human education would be the early ages, as this would determine a community's ability to rejuvenate itself. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, the primary school age population is the most deprived in knowledge resources. Primary school age population in Africa is increasing at about 3.3 per cent annually while school enrolment for the group is rising by only 2.2. per cent.

To address Africa's chronic educational deficiency, the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of the Organization of African Unity adopted the Decade for Education 1997-2006 (Resolution AHG/Res. (251 XXXII)) in June 1996 (Africa Economic Report, 1998) with the objective of removing obstacles which impede progress toward "Education for All." The international community as a whole has also resolved to strengthen educational systems at all levels in The 1995 Social Summit (Plan of Action) by calling for the creation of the necessary conditions for "... ensuring universal access to basic education and lifelong educational opportunities while removing economic and socio-cultural barriers to the exercise of the right to education as a precondition for an open political and economic system which requires access by all to knowledge, education and information."

But Africa's education and research communities are facing severe problems at all levels, therefore our designs should have the perspective of integrated distance learning and research.

The West African Examination Council released its annual review recently. The examination board is responsible for secondary and high school examinations in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. That is GCE O and A levels. It said "... there was a high failure rate in the November/December 1998 SSCE for private candidates ... in which the Chief Examiners reported "massive show of poor knowledge on the rules of grammar."

In a separate case, the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals and vice-chancellors of universities of Ghana met on September 23, 1999 and deliberated on the current crisis in funding tertiary education and observed that “Purchase of items such as chalk, chemicals, books and journals, equipment and what goes into direct teaching has been virtually impossible. This has made it very difficult for the Universities to effectively carry out their programs.”

Or the state of scientific investigations which could be generalized for Africa: The Director General of Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said “the new expenditure framework could not provide the needed funds to address demand-driven researches. Prof. Alhassan said the awareness had been created but the commitment to practice does not appear to be total and it is contributing to low performance. Other factors were lack of seed money to carry out projects through pilot-phase testing.”
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Conventional teaching and learning methods, however, have become inadequate in the wake of deepening illiteracy, paucity of well-trained teachers and diminishing resource allocation toward education. Innovative teaching and learning schemes are therefore required if sub Saharan Africa should ensure the evolution of its civilization in the face of globalization. Rapid advancements in IT herald unprecedented potential for the resolution of the knowledge hunger in rural sub-Saharan Africa. However, teledensity, the principal index of IT utilization, in sub Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, is only 0.48 telephone per 100 population while the region's rural peoples (70% of the population) share only 228,000 telephone lines. In Ghana, for example, teledensity is 0.31 lines per 100 people nationally but some 40% of the nation's population (of 18 million) contained in the Volta, Upper, Northern, and Brong-Ahafo administrative Regions share 3,800 telephone lines, or 0.06 lines per 100 people. The Ghana Government's Telecommunications Policy for an Accelerated Development Program 1994-2000 for telecommunications seeks to meet short-term demands in telecommunications by providing 100,000 new lines but businesses are the priority of that program while overall demand is estimated at 300,000 - 500,000. The government has acknowledged that network growth of about 35% pa would be required to meet even the lower end of demand estimates; that is a network growth rate of almost two times the level achieved by some more advanced economies. The government's connectivity target for rural Ghana, even if achieved, would mean one public telephone line in each village of 500 people, which is far less than the modest five lines per 100 population recommended by the International Communication Union. Considering that the investment cost in telecommunications in Ghana is about $1,500 - $4,200 per line, the chances of educational reform via IT are unrealistic except innovative methods in communication and education are devised.

What is needed is a poor person's learning system which, in this case, would enable an entire community to utilize a few units of the convergence of television, radio, telephone, Internet, CD-ROM, and print media, to offer new prospects in the delivery of sophisticated information to the previously ‘uneconomic' regions of the world. That is, IT systems in development of school curricula in rural Africa should be adapted to local realities. The impact of IT on local education demands planning at national and regional levels so as to make these tools relevant to socio-cultural needs. This proposal features development of an enabling educational environment which would include integration of all data on Africa and permit dissemination of such data, as well as extend the oral storytelling of the African traditional system. It is said that "an archive is the most precious gift a generation bequeaths onto the next." Oral traditions of information storage and retrieval in Africa should therefore be viewed with scrutiny in the age of IT. Njinya-Mujinya and Habomugisha (1998) have called for the establishment of rural information or data banks in Africa to document Indigenous livelihoods and as a means to redressing the "booklessness" state of rural Africa. The advent of IT in rural Africa should seek to tie the notion of telecentres into this rural infobank concept as a process toward the intellectualization of African tradition, and for building human capacity in rural Africa.

Essentially, such an approach would integrate formal school curricula development, adult education programs, and continuous learning systems. Thus the role of national library systems, university faculties of education and communications, ministries of education and information services or their variations, should be revised to reflect the need for modern information storage and retrieval systems.
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At least 50% of participants - pupils, students and instructors will be female.

Access to lower levels of the educational structure in Ghana (basic and secondary schools) might be "gender neutral," however, female pupils and students face difficulties above their male colleagues in career drives and available time to prepare for competitive national test scores which determine a pupil or student's advancement on the educational ladder. For example, domestic duties detain girls at home while the boys play and socialize; keeping one's appearance, e.g., braiding hair, etc consume time, and the social norm of a young woman being married off eventually to a richer man, prey on the ability of girls and young women to pursue concentrated academic and career drives.

The "gender in development" philosophy of our initiatives is based on substantive, systematic and innovative diagnosis of the state of women, family and development, and finding appropriate solutions. For example: 40% of pregnancy related maternal deaths occur in Africa, largely because most of the child deliveries are under the supervision of traditional birth attendants who could be provided with some internship programs by municipal hospitals, to minimize infections and stop excessive bleeding; rural African women give birth anywhere - at home, on farm roads, etc; many young African girls do not have reproductive health counselling; etc.

There is a need for intellectualizing and coordinating women activities and professions, such as trading in African textiles or other retailing forms, for effective participation in the globalized market.

We have made contact with female professors at the University of Ghana, and others in the information sector of Ghana (e.g., a woman producer at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation; at the Ministry of Education; at the Ghana Information Services; and at the Home Science Department of University of Ghana, Legon) towards establishing a Women's Study Program in the Ghanaian university structure. We are also aware of statements that a Women's University would soon be established in Ghana, as partnership with an African-American group and the national government in Ghana. Our ability to interact with such an institution is foreseen.
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3. Goals

  1. Create community-focussed literary African populations for human capacity development through access to global knowledge in combination with Indigenous knowledge. The current pilot proposal would enable connectivity to reach rural schools more effectively than other programs being contemplated by many other groups.
  2. Develop channels for the diffusion of the blend of Indigenous and Modern Knowledge systems
  3. Development of an integrated knowledge network which would provide examples of the blend between modern and indigenous knowledge of the target area in the areas of governance, rural technologies, rural agriculture (e.g., farming systems), environmental rejuvenation and its sustainable utilization, mobilization, primary health care particularly related to teenage girls (prevention of STDs, reproductive health responsibility, career development, etc.), marketing and women, and social capital, among others.
  4. Produce on-line, CD-ROM, text and audio-visual (on/off-line) documentations of rural mobilization, organization and communication networks essential to the long term efficacy of designs and strategies for sustainable development communication in rural Africa.
  5. Establish a domain name/site which will automatically capture and index all web entries on "rural Africa," as well as link all African intellectuals in Africa and elsewhere, and individuals and organizations whose engagements impact education and rural poverty alleviation in Africa. Establish a surrogate rural African node at the University of Guelph to host the domain site and organize a moderated Listserve on issues pertinent to education for sustainable rural African livelihoods.
  6. Produce an instructional and educational support tool among institutions and agencies whose activities impact on rural communities in Africa. The product would also serve as a useful teaching material in academic institutions involved in international development activities and programs.

The model is for personalized learning eventually while beginning with the community as the focus group until such a time that individual classrooms in rural African can be connected to global information systems.
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4. Proposed Activities

The major first target will be to:

  1. Establish an earth station at the University of Ghana which will become the major Internet Service Provider (ISP) from which three other universities in Ghana (University of Cape-Coast, University of Science and Technology Kumasi, and University of Rural Studies Tamale) will be connected. The Global University System will build a network into the African Virtual University program and also links to the Association of African Universities. Other tertiary level connectivity schemes, e.g., for polytechnics and vocational institutes would seek to enhance human resource building for the middle level management and technical and support services, e.g., secretarial, administrative, hotel and food, tools, etc., for an expected rise in the business sector. The Ghana Earth Station will serve as connectivity hub to:
    1. Four "Internet Bulletin Boards" at four universities in Ghana (Legon, Cape-Coast, Kumasi, and Tamale)
    2. Three technical institute (Accra and Ho Polytechnics and Kpandu Technical Institute) to coordinate activities for technical/vocational schools
    3. Mawuli Primary School will coordinate the basic school program. Five sub-nodes as corners of secondary school connectivity will be established within the local library system in Ho, Kpando, Hohoe, Peki, and Kpedze, to serve schools therein.
  2. Junior and High schools, and primary schools will be cascaded down and equipped with convergent information tools (e.g., Internet, email, HF-Radio, CD-ROM, Digital Camera, Scanner, VCR, Fax, Copiers, Laser Printers, etc.) with wireless and remote-access devices for sharing and ensuring universal access.
  3. The ISP in Ghana will be connected to the Northern hub which will be located at the University of Guelph, Canada.
  4. The proposal includes content development and provisions of facilitators and teacher training, etc. through the extensive knowledge network of the proposed grantees.

The overall framework is to test the hypothesis that global knowledge can be concentrated within a target rural African community as brain power to decode and integrate indigenous African knowledge into modern knowledge or enhanced local knowledge. Enhanced knowledge is desirable for resolving local crises, human capacity development, rural poverty alleviation and environmental rejuvenation for human-human and human-environmental system sustainability. The group will develop, refine, and disseminate examples of the blended knowledge system.
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5. Specific Activities

"Convergence of IT" would enable identification of excellent formal school teachers of defined school courses, or the knowledge of local trade and artisan groups and practitioners of rural occupations (e.g., toolsmiths, pottery makers, market women) in the country and the capture of their course deliveries or trade practices into web-based systems, CD-ROM, HF-Radio broadcasts, video documentation and text-based manuals for pupils of other schools, and adult communities.
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To establish a Satellite Earth Station at the University of Ghana, Legon which will serve as the hub in Ghana and connected to the African Host of the Global University System at the University of Guelph, Ontario Canada. Three other universities in Ghana (Kumasi, Cape-Coast, and Tamale) will be connected to the Legon node. The goal is to enable sharing of on-line journals and library information systems among the Ghanaian universities and external sources of learning. The program will interact with the African Virtual University of the World Bank of which University of Ghana is already a node. Also, interaction with the Association of African Universities which is located in Ghana will allow for diffusion of positive elements at regional and sub-regional levels.
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Our plan entails interaction between the universities and national research systems of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (C.S.I.R), through the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) and the Institute for Scientific & Technological Information (INSTI), both of the C.S.I.R.
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A unique feature of our design is the interaction of formal educational system and research centers with indigenous institutions for advancement of indigenous knowledge and practices, such as tools and process.
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These institutions are critical in middle-level human resource development for the private, government bureaucracies, and trade sectors, e.g., secretarial, management economics and accounting, tools and engineering, hotel and food industry, agricultural and health management and extension services. The efficiency of such sectors, e.g., human resource, managerial and technologies are required for the perceived expansion into the global market. These institutions will be coordinated from the Office of the Principal, Accra Polytechnic, in Ghana. It will entail development of on-line training in the defined disciplinary areas.
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Mawuli Primary School, which is of high reputation, would lead the basic school project, in development of a computer literate culture among the other schools and pupils in the target area:

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6. Anticipated Outcome

A major outcome of this project would be development of an infoculture in institutions of learning in Africa. That is, an information affluent society to take advantage of the merging information societies and its privileges. Inclusion of basic schools in the African component of the Global University System would ensure the acquisition of this new learning culture at an early stage of education. The proposal would achieve this status through development of the virtual classroom for all ages of learning in Africa, with emphasis on basic education and adult or continuous learning in rural areas, where about 70% of the African population live. This would transform hitherto information-starved communities into learning societies.

At the university level, the goals would be connectivity to global information systems, such as matching university systems in the developed and other developing countries, and to global centers of research and knowledge, e.g., via on-line library and journal sharing.

The three districts have a total of 350 primary schools, 240 junior schools, 30 senior schools. There are four universities nation-wide. In terms of enrolment: 60,000 primary school pupils, 26,000 junior schools, and 10,000 senior schools and some 20,000 students in four universities and polytechnics. The proposal would impact primary school and Junior Secondary Schools in two villages (Woadze and Anfoeta) and two towns (Ho Mawuli Primary School and one in Kpandu); Six Senior Secondary Schools and two Polytechnics to be accessed via the town libraries in (Ho, Kpandu, Hohoe, Kpedze and Peki), four universities (Accra, Kumasi, Cape-Coast, Kumasi and Tamale) and Accra Polytechnic.

  1. Educational systems linkages would supplement rural classroom lessons with virtual school teachers and textbooks, provide health knowledge such as counselling to rural African teenage girls and boys on STDs, and produce computer graphic animations of indigenous folklores into virtual children programs for web, CD-ROM, and video systems.
  2. Tele-Health Education which would create an educational atmosphere and flow of health knowledge (telehealth nodes) between external centers, e.g., World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to include the science of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA's) who are the highest level of obstetrics among the majority populations and indigenous healers who are health officials for 80% of most communities. Studies in Pharmacology would include synthesis of dental products from the traditional chewing sticks.
  3. Technical and engineering institution linkages would include second-cycle technical and vocational institutes, and knowledge of indigenous toolsmiths and rural artisans (who are the indigenous engineers of rural technologies, e.g., agricultural implements such as hoes), for example in design of hand-held solar-energy dependent motorized-hoes to replace the quintessential hoe and machete as primary tillage tools.
  4. Business studies and management curricula would include modern financial institutions while cognizant of the indigenous social capital systems of susu and fidodo in the design of rural banks, and e-Commerce would include knowledge about the values and mechanisms of indigenous marketing structures.
  5. Agricultural studies would feature indigenous rural agricultural practices, provide weather charts and tracking of disease epidemics with Geographic Information Systems, and knowledge for cultivation of mushrooms instead of hunting for them from the wild.
  6. Yet a highly desirable outcome would be ability to strengthen indigenous civil society, the pinnacle of which is the indigenous African governance structure which is the repository of the African knowledge system and basis of the survival and mobilization of rural African communities. That would be accomplished by developing social studies and science and technology policy programs which reflect the need to blend both knowledge systems.

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7. Geographic Location of Activity

The target area is Africa, with emphasis on rural schools, with Ghana as primary country focus. The pilot studies in the proposal are in three administrative districts of the Volta Region of Ghana and the four national universities (outside these districts) which have a mandate for this region as well. The pilot would serve as centers of innovation and following positive evaluation and Best Practice Assessment would be replicated elsewhere.

Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from Europe and in that capacity has established itself as one of the primary centers of innovation in education, economic restructuring strategies, and democratization and decentralization of rulership. Thus Ghana served as U.S. President, Bill Clinton's "Gateway to Africa."

The target area has three urban communities (Ho, Hohoe, and Kpandu) and significant towns such as Peki, Kpedze, Anfoega, Logba and Ve. There are national libraries located in the four corners of Ho, Kpandu, Hohoe and Peki, into which the pilot could be tied.

The shared national educational system within Ghana and between Ghana and the rest of Africa through the African Virtual University program and the Association of African Universities would allow for diffusion of positive elements to sub-regional and regional levels.
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8. Cost Effectiveness

The insecurity state of Africa, particularly rural areas, is a reflection of lack of modern knowledge and consequently inefficient production systems, management of natural resources, or ensuing ethnic rivalries. Knowledge has become the most strategic asset in development today. However, conventional learning methods would be inadequate in wake of the extent of the decay of the African state. A learning system which is both interactive and widely diffused would be the necessary requirement to reach so many people at different learning states simultaneously. There are several connectivity schemes targeting Africa, however, most of such schemes are devoid of realistic integration of the indigenous platform into the designs.

The program content is based on modernizing the indigenous knowledge system and to be accessed by the majority of the target population.

The proposed activities provide the lowest cost-effective method to promote the use of advanced broadband Internet for the benefit of societies in Africa.

The World Bank and African Partners have been operating the African Virtual University system. There is also the Association of African Universities. Both of these programs include the University of Ghana Satellite Earth Station and hub. Positive elements of the pilot would therefore be easily transferable across the West African sub-region and the African region.

The University of Guelph which may serve as host of the African Program is well-adapted to the critical needs of rural Africa. Guelph has been involved in educating many citizens of Africa through various programs. This proposal would enable the university extend its knowledge development program in Africa beyond those students who are physically present in the Guelph environment to the larger mass of students in Africa through sharing on-line journals and library resources.

Wireless Internet requires (i) less regulation, (ii) less initial investments, and (iii) less operating costs. Distance Learning and telemedicine would provide greater flexibility, enhanced content and greater accessibility.
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9. Expected Social Benefits

  1. The next millennium would be characterized by increased globalization forged by integrated economies and facilitated by the Global Information Infrastructure. If Africa is able to interact with the global knowledge pool, its people would be able to apply knowledge in resolving local crises. An educated population is an asset to the human capacity pool of a nation and the global community. The 1995 Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development recognized "that the new IT and new approaches to and use of technologies by people living in poverty can help in fulfilling social development goals; and therefore to recognize the need to facilitate access to such technologies." So essential is communication that the capacity to communicate is expected to become a human rights issue, hence the international community has dedicated much of this decade to Africa's Connectivity issues, including the Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) real and virtual fora, the Global Connectivity for Africa Conference, several mail lists and programs. A glance at connectivity programs for Africa, such as provided by Mike Jensen <http://www3.wn.apc.org/africa> would demonstrate the myriad of programs towards Africa's Connectivity by regional and international agencies of development. While it is prudent to allow sufficient period for gestation of these projects, it is still important to begin to contemplate if efficiency can be improved - in terms of avoiding duplication, and proof that real change can be measured soon. Perhaps, even at this early stage, it is critical for each country and region to fully coordinate such connectivity programs. Would connectivity be better served by first identifying critical national and regional needs and then strategically distributing the task, including funding, to the local, regional, and international resource and donor communities? Would such a matching of need-to-donor be decided by thematic areas, or would it continue to be between one agency and a perceived sector, with others not being well informed?
  2. A comprehensive educational program of knowledge development and utilization, as the Global University Systems contemplates, would be an ideal model to coordinate knowledge acquisition and utilization.
  3. On relevance and replication elsewhere: The principal indicators of insecurity which this program addresses are found elsewhere in Africa (outside the pilot area) as well as other communities of the South, such as indigenous communities of the Americas and Australia. The rural poor everywhere have little to eat, drink water which serves as disease inoculum, employ primitive tools in income-generating activities, produce inefficiently, and have alien systems of governance which perpetuate marginalization from decision-making machinery.
  4. Our model has been requested by many other institutions. Individuals and institutions, from Nova Scotia (eastern Canada), through U.S.A. to the Caribbean and Latin America, and in Europe and Asia, have encouraged the development of these perspectives, as the extensive network exemplifies.
  5. The Office of the Dean, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, has been exploring affiliations with Fort Cox College of Agriculture and Forestry, South Africa. We hope to test this model of connectivity for education, in distance course delivery with this college as well.
  6. A report on evaluation will be available as Best Practice Assessment on the web to inform others who might be similarly engaged.

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10. Expected Outcome

  1. To fulfil International Declarations of Education for ALL and Information as basic right for all, particularly in developing countries.

  2. A prototype of developing country rural school access to global knowledge gateways and development of virtual classrooms

  3. Develop prototypes in knowledge blends - between indigenous and modern knowledge systems

  4. Connecting schools in one corner of the world with others elsewhere for their potential in shaping a common future

  5. Provide direction for integration of indigenous knowledge into modern formats for application in sustainable rural development

  6. Conference report for public dissemination

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11. Sutainability

To turn pilot into national and local government authority and provide mechanisms for integration into formal education structure.

  1. The proponents do not intend to relinquish all interactions with the target schools following the pilot. Continuous monitoring and integration of new formats as they evolve are imagined since most of the stakeholders in the pilot are integral to the national education and communications systems.
  2. The Organization for African Unity and global institutions and governments have been concerned about Africa's human resource base. This program is an attempt to develop such capacity.
  3. Efforts to encourage private sector participation for development of its workforce would be sought for continuous funding in form of developing highly trained personnel and fees would be charged for such services and plowed back into the scheme.
  4. The idea is integration of the desirable outcomes into national policy as platforms for continuous evolution.
  5. The learning system described, if accomplished, would enable generation of an informed society to make informed decisions for personal, community and national enrichment. Thus, if basic school learning can lead to improved educational standards at that level, it should lead to a more educated second-cycle students and at tertiary levels, better mental equipment for rural occupations and outputs, provide easier access to global markets, and production of an innovative community as a nation's human resource cadet corp. Such achievements should enable increased capacity of the individual, community and nation, which should feed-back into the pool as sustenance of the scheme. For example, reduction in STDs (e.g., HIV/AIDS) should save the national coffers significant budget allocations; improved farming systems would reduce food import, etc. Design of better agricultural tools by technical institutes should improve productivity which should translate into health benefits and improved life, lower food costs, and produce the human physical health required of a strong human resource base.
  6. Education is often under national government jurisdiction, to ensure universal access. Governments have often devoted significant budgetary allocations to education of citizenry. There is no presumption that this scheme would be devoid of continuous support from the national government or the international community. It is foreseeable that when successful, the program could be integrated into the national education curriculum, and funded as routine curriculum development and delivery methods.
  7. Education budgetary items such as further training school teachers would be achieved through this process en mass thus minimizing the cost.
  8. Uniform quality of education as virtual courses would be universal for the target region.
  9. Textbooks which are already non-existent would need to be printed less.
  10. The nation's human capacity pool would increase, finding solutions to unemployment and lack of human expertise.
  11. Such outcomes should dictate the national government's continuous support of the scheme.
  12. Furthermore, achievement of the goals set in this proposal would translate into enhanced income generation or expected benefits sufficient enough to allow fees to be charged for access, like all education schemes.

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12. Risk and Counter Measure

Reliability of the physical infrastructure: to be overcome with ingenuity of designs and recruitment of experts internationally. The program intends to train local technical personnel to handle minor and somewhat major technical glitches

  1. Cost of connectivity:
  2. Lack of local expertise initially to handle data mining and translation into knowledge:
  3. Availability of other connectivity schemes:
  4. Introduction of a new learning tool could be a hindrance to performance initially.
  5. A tendency for dominance of technologies by male pupils and students.

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13. Evaluation

Critical Success Factors in utilization of IT and distance education methods will be applied in the continuous assessment/review of the scheme. The benefits of an educated and knowledgeable society is a qualitative factor. It cannot be easily measured. However, performance of pupils/students in national tests would be one method of evaluating basic school connectivity if the content is well-designed; the individual participant would be assessed by personal satisfaction in knowledge enrichment. Programs targeting tertiary technical and vocational institutions would be measured by increased output in the trade assigned, e.g., if the sector has been able to derive more competent personnel.

Prior to commencement of pilot (following initial survey of connectivity nodes and stakeholder agreements), an international panel of experts, including proponents and funding organizations, as well as experts in distance education and virtual systems, would review the plan and offer suggestions as to ensuring program success;

Participating schools and coordinators will submit progress reports every three months to the international review process;

Bi-annual major review of the program. These reviews will involve survey of pupils/students as to fulfillment of career goals and learning ability. It will include issues of relevance to the national education and human resource development. Changes will be incorporated in an on-going manner in terms of tools and contents to reflect the rapidly changing terrain of information and communications, as well as in national agenda and infostructure.
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14. Proposed Partners

Three Administrative Districts/Traditional Councils in The Volta Region of Ghana:

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