Appendix E

Open Learning: A Perspective from the White Paper

 Introduction 

‘Open learning’ has fast become a buzzword in education and training in South Africa, picked up from international educational debate and used in different ways to serve a multitude of purposes. Rather than attempting to pick through the various interpretations of the term and discuss their relative value in the South African context, this appendix will summarize the concept as suggested in the first White Paper on Education and Training released by the ex-Government of National Unity[1]. The  White Paper has been generally accepted as the framework for activity in education and training in South Africa.   

The concept described 

In its discussion on the establishment of a National Open Learning Agency, the White Paper describes open learning in the following way: 

The dimensions of South Africa’s learning deficit are so vast in relation to the needs of the people, the constitutional guarantee of the right to basic education, and the severe financial constraints on infrastructural development on a large scale, that a completely fresh approach is required to the provision of learning opportunities.

 

Open learning is an approach which combines the principles of learner centredness, lifelong learning, flexibility of learning provision, the removal of barriers to access learning, the recognition for credit of prior learning experience, the provision of learner support, the construction of learning programmes in the expectation that learners can succeed, and the maintenance of rigorous quality assurance over the design of learning materials and support systems. South Africa is able to gain from world-wide experience over several decades in the development of innovative methods of education, including the use of guided self-study, and the appropriate use of a variety of media, which give practical expression to open learning principles.

 

The Ministry of Education is anxious to encourage the development of an open learning approach, since it resonates with the values and principles of the national education and training policy which underpin this document, and has applicability in virtually all learning contexts.

 The principles of open-learning 

Reference is made in the above quotation to the fact that open learning is based on various educational principles. In the concept paper on the National Open Learning Agency (NOLA), they were categorized under the following headings (based on work previously done by the South African Institute for Distance Education)[2]:

  •      Learner-centredness

  •      Lifelong learning

  •      Flexibility in learning

  •      The removal of all unnecessary barriers to access

  •      Recognition of prior learning experiences

  •      Accumulation of credits within and across different learning contexts

  •      Learner support

  •      Expectations of success

  •      Quality learning

  •      Cost-effectiveness[3]

These headings mirror the summary of principles given in the above quotation from the White Paper. The concepts are also clearly articulated in many of the principles on which the entire White Paper on Education and Training is based, as the following quotations demonstrate: 

      Flexibility in learning, Removal of unnecessary barriers to access, Recognition of prior learning experiences, Accumulation of credits within and across learning contexts

  •       An integrated approach to education and training, linked to the development of a new National Qualification Framework (NQF) based on a system of credits for learning outcomes achieved, will encourage creative work on the design of curricula and the recognition of learning attainments wherever education and training are offered. It will open doors of opportunity for people whose academic or career paths have been needlessly blocked because their prior knowledge (acquired informally or by work experience) has not been assessed and certified, or because their qualifications have not been recognised for admission to further learning, or employment purposes

    [p. 15] 

    .

    Learner support

  •       The state has an obligation to provide advice and counselling on education services by all practicable means.

[p. 15]

 

    Learner-centredness, Lifelong learning, Quality learning

  •       The over-arching goal of policy must be to enable all individuals to value, have access to, and succeed in lifelong education and training of good quality. Educational and management processes must therefore put the learners first, recognising and building on their knowledge and experience, and responding to their needs. An integrated approach to education and training will increase access, mobility and quality in the national learning system.

[p. 21]

 

      Lifelong learning, Flexibility in learning, Removal of unnecessary barriers to access, Quality learning

  •       The system must increasingly open access to education and training opportunity of good quality, to all children, youth and adults, and provide the means for learners to move easily from one learning context to another, so that the possibilities for lifelong learning are enhanced. The Constitution guarantees equal access to basic education for all. The satisfaction of this guarantee must be the basis of policy. It goes well beyond the provision of schooling. It must provide an increasing range of learning possibilities, offering learners greater flexibility in choosing what, where, when, how and at what pace they learn.

[p. 21]  

   

 Quality learning

  •       The improvement of the quality of education and training services is essential. In many of the schools and colleges serving the majority of the population there has been a precipitous decline in the quality of educational performance, which must be reversed. But quality is required across the board. It is linked to the capacity and commitment of the teacher, the appropriateness of the curriculum, and the way standards are set and assessed. A national qualification framework will be the scaffolding on which new levels of quality will be built. Other quality assurance mechanisms will be developed to ensure the success of the learning process.

[p. 21]

 

     Lifelong learning, Removal of unnecessary barriers to

     access

  •       The realisation of democracy, liberty, equality, justice and peace are necessary conditions for the full pursuit and enjoyment of lifelong learning. It should be a goal of education and training policy to enable a democratic, free, equal, just and peaceful society to take root and prosper in our land, on the basis that all South Africans without exception share the same inalienable rights, equal citizenship, and common national destiny, and that all forms of bias (especially racial, ethnic and gender) are dehumanising.

[p. 22]

 

      Learner-centredness

  •       The curriculum, teaching methods and textbooks at all levels and in all programmes of education and training, should encourage independent and critical thought, the capacity to question, enquire, reason, weigh evidence and form judgments, achieve understanding, recognise the provisional and incomplete nature of most human knowledge, and communicate clearly.

[p. 22]

 

      Lifelong learning, Flexibility in learning

  •       Curriculum choice, especially in the post-compulsory period, must be diversified in order to prepare increasing numbers of young people and adults with the education and skills required by the economy and for further learning and career development.

[p. 22]

 

     Cost-effectiveness

  •       The expansion of the education and training system must meet the test of sustainability. The education and training system has not been given an open cheque book by the government. Development needs to be planned for, and balanced across the full range of needs, from early childhood to postgraduate study. Unsustainable development is not development at all, but a kind of fraud practised on the people. However, sustainability is not just a financial concept. True sustainability occurs when the people concerned claim ownership of educational and training services and are continuously involved in their planning, governance and implementation.

[p. 22]

 

      Lifelong learning, Quality learning, Cost-effectiveness

  •       The system of education and training, taken overall, has developed many areas of inefficiency, where funds are wasted and staff are not well employed. The productivity of the system-what it produces in terms of personal learning, marketable skills, and examination results, in relation to what it has cost-is very low in much of the system. Improving efficiency and productivity is essential in order to justify the cost of the system to the public, to secure more funds for development when they are needed, to raise the quality of performance across the system, and thus improve the life chances of the learners.

[p. 23]

 Footnotes 

[1] Refer to Government of National Unity, 1995, White Paper on Education and Training, Government Gazette No 16312 of 1995, Cape Town, Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. All page references in this appendix are to that document.

[2] Refer, for example, to Butcher, N. “The Concept of Open Learning in South Africa” in Open Learning Through Distance Education, newsletter of the South African Institute for Distance Education, vol. 1, no. 1, 1st quarter 1995, p. 1. Appendix A also contains material on the concept of resource-based learning, which has extended the thinking contained in this article.

[3] Department of Education, 1996, The National Open Learning Agency: A Concept Paper, Pretoria, pp. 3-6.