Distance education goes on-line to help rural youth

by Anushka Nanayakkara

The number of students following distance education programmes is increasing at the rate of 40 per cent per year. The Ministry of Higher Education and Sri Lanka Institute of Development and Administration have taken steps to launch the Distance Education Programme recently to cater to the growing demand.

President of Commonwealth of Learning Sir John Daniel, an expert in the on-line Distance learning projects was in Colombo to launch the new project on Thursday.

"The Distance Education Modernisation Project", was funded by the government of Sri Lanka and the Asian Development Bank.

Distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on pedagogy/andragogy, technology and instructional systems designed are effectively incorporated in delivering education to students who are not physically "on site" to receive their education, through technology(email) that allows them to communicate in real time (synchronously). Modern distance education has been around at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britian via correspondence in the 1840s, since the development of the postal service.

Computers and the internet have made distance learning easier and faster as in many other day-to-day tasks. Educational institutions such as the Open University of Sri Lanka, professional organisations, public and private sector institutions have been invited to take over this programme.

Over 35 degrees, diploma and certification programmes are available to cater to the local education market. These courses are based on National On-line Distance Educational Services (NODES).

These educational centres are at Anuradhapura, Ampara, Moneragala, Kandy, Matara, Ambalangoda, Kurunegala, Ratnapura and Colombo. Twenty more centres will be launched before the end of this year. A distance education project was introduced to Jaffna in 2006. Students who follow tertiary education for personal development and career development are stakeholders or the customers of this project. There is no age barrier to study under this scheme.