Background

Within the larger mission of the Tertiary Education Commission, the Division of Distance Education and Open Learning (DEOL) operates to provide quality services and informed advice to local, regional and international educational partners. It aims at:

• Evolving dynamic policies grounded in local needs to implement effective Open and Distance Learning (ODL) strategies at the tertiary level and to oversee provision by private partners.
• Assisting Mauritius to expand its provision of quality distance education through multi media and ICT to increase access, promote equity and enhance social justice.

The TEC is closely involved in assisting Tertiary Education Institutions to increase their provision for ODL programmes through local and international ODL projects in order to meet the growing demand for education and training in the country. The main programmes/objectives of the Division are expanding access, promoting regional collaboration in ODL and achieving the following objectives through:

• Supporting individual ODL initiatives within TEIs
• Fostering networking on ODL -related projects among TEIs
• Developing think-tanks on ODL -related matters to support local and regional initiatives
• Collecting data on the provision of ODL in Mauritius
• Enhancing ODL initiatives to promote access and equity to education and training
• Developing quality assurance frameworks for the provision of ODL in Mauritius
• Implementing the activities of the Working Group on ODL to support the Association for the Association for the Development of Education in Africa. (ADEA)

Data Collection

To consolidate its basis for operation, the Division collects data on participants in ODL initiatives. Interestingly, the past few years have witnessed a proliferation of a number of overseas providers operating in Mauritius. As at December 2003, there was a total of 7,515 students compared with 7,507 a year earlier, which is equivalent to an increase of only 0,1% compared with a growth rate of 3.7 % and 18.7% in 2003 and 2002 respectively. Based on Mauritius Examinations Syndicate statistics, learners were registered in programmes ranging from Certificate to Masters and Professional levels, and encompass a wide variety of fields including Accountancy, Information Technology, Administration/Management, Business/Commerce/Marketing, Law, Languages Economics, Mathematics/Statistics and Psychology.

Access –Early Initiatives

Since its inception, the Division has been actively involved in promoting ODL programmes at the Mauritius College of the Air and other publicly-funded institutions in various fields. In this regard, the TEC was instrumental in initiating and fostering collaborative DE projects involving the MCA and the Indira Gandhi National Open University of India (IGNOU). In line with the terms and conditions of the Agreement for collaboration worked out by the TEC in 2000, the MCA started offering tertiary education level programmes through distance learning to some 65 students. In 2003-2004, there are 165 such students including 70 new entrants who are following tertiary-level studies by the distance education mode through the MCA. The students were registered for ten programmes, eight of which were in respect of IGNOU and two regarding the Institute of Logistic and Transport (UK).

Access – Current Initiatives

With the recent Budget Speech announcement regarding the setting up of an Open University, the activities of the Division have gained a new impetus. Within a framework of lifelong learning for personal and national development, it is handling some of the technical work towards the setting up of an Open University in Mauritius. It is providing administrative support to the Task Force that has been set up at the Tertiary Education Commission. It will help the Open University to establish partnership with as many local and overseas distance education institutions that are likely to further its objectives of access, relevance and excellence. Using the MCA as a base, the Open University will develop into an organization serving learners from the region.

Regional Activities

The Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning (WGDEOL) was created in 1997 to help ministries of education, training institutions, and NGOs in Africa improve access to, quality of, and equity in education and in particular, to strengthen the capacity of education system.. The lead agencies for WGDEOL are the Mauritius Ministry of Education and Human Resources, through the Tertiary Education Commission and the UNESCO Regional Office located in Dakar (BREDA). TEC is the implementing Agency for the activities of the WGDEOL. In this context the DEOL Division has provided support and coordination for the realization of the following activities of the WGDEOL (http://www.adea.org/). The DEOL Division is the technical arm for the coordination and implementation of the activities of the WGDEOL. Recent activities include:

1. Participation in organization of:
• 2nd Technical Committee of the Working Group DEOL, Mauritius, 25-26 March 2004
• ADEA Biennale Conference on Quality, Mauritius, 3-4 December 2003
• ADEA Steering Committee in Kigali, Rwanda, 16-19 November 2004
• ADEA Leaders’/Coordinators’ Meeting in Enghien-les-Bains, 23-27 May 2005
• WGDEOL Coordination Meeting in Enghien-les-Bains, 26 May 2005
• WGDEOL Steering Committee Meeting in Enghien-les-Bains, 22 and 26 May 2005 respectively
2. Coordination of the production of documents, papers and reports on tertiary education and related matters:

Document:

• Country Case Study – Distance Education in Mauritius (TEC)

Publications:

• Enseignement à distance et apprentissage libre en Afrique sub-Saharienne (RESAFAD)
• Open and Distance Learning in sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Survey on Policy and Practice (COL/SAIDE)
• Technological infrastructure and Use of ICT in Education in Africa: An overview (SAIDE)

Other Publications (2002)

• Cost-effectiveness of DEOL in sub-Saharan Africa (COL/SAIDE)
• Criteria and conditions for quality-a critical success factor (COL/SAIDE)

Organisation and Participation in Other Regional Activities

The DEOL Division has also organised and participated in the following regional activities:

• Second Steering Committee Meeting of the Indian Ocean Regional Media Training Centre, September 2003
• The Commonwealth Executive MBA/MPA Programme, African Consortium Meeting, December 2003

Publications of the DE/OL Division:

• Guidelines for Prospective Students proposing to embark on Distance Education Programmes offered by local and overseas institutions (January 1998)
• Distance Education in Mauritius, The Present and the Future (July 1994)
• Survey on Local Demand for Distance Education Programmes