An EU funded report that looked at virtual schools around the world found that “It is only in Africa where we found fewer than we expected, except for some across Mediterranean Africa and in Southern Africa. It seems that despite much rhetoric and many advances in school education in Africa (including low-cost and innovative solutions from business and social entrepreneurs), there is little actually on the ground.” The study also found lower than expected virtual schools in the Middle East, India and in many small island states in the Caribbean, as well as in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
The report highlights two home-grown large-scale initiatives in Africa. The Namibia College of Open Learning (NAMCOL), a state distance education institution that targets out of school youth, especially at secondary school and tertiary level. NAMCOL started with and continue to use mainly traditional print-based materials, some ICT or multimedia incorporation including e-learning, video and radio.
Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL), now the Botswana Open University (BoU), was set up to offer education opportunities to out of school youth. The BoU offers open distance learning programs through print and e-learning. There are other virtual education projects (mostly pilots) that have demonstrated potential to address lack of schools or teachers, including the eLearning Sudan pilot project carried out in 2012-2015 and the XPRIZE competition in Tanzania.
Challenges with Virtual Schools in Africa
There are many challenges in virtual schools! Research shows that virtual schools under-perform more than traditional face-to-face schools. Some factors leading to underperformance can be connected to policy and design options. And yet despite this somewhat consistent finding, virtual schools continue to grow. This may be because of the potential of virtual schools to solve problems of teacher shortages.
Other challenges include the issue of technology trying to replace teachers, kids miss out on social aspects of the learning process, low engagement, high dropout, low completion, low retention rates, there is no social life, there isn’t enough supervision, and they aim to privatise education. For many developing countries such as those in Africa, other challenges with developing virtual schools relate to Internet connectivity, electricity and access to digital devices.
The low numbers of virtual schools in Africa could be attached to the current needs of many countries, and their issues with infrastructure (mostly electric power). Despite collective efforts to address power and connectivity challenges in many countries across Africa, representatives from the education sector are often missing from relevant conversations. Closer collaboration between ministries of education and other government ministries responsible for energy and connectivity is critical.
If a country wants to seriously examine starting a virtual school and provide alternatives for successful learning, several best practices to cover include: policy frameworks and emerging standards to guide program development; costing models; teacher preparation and training, content development and instructional design; technologies, critical success factors, including leadership and a focus on defining and assessing learning outcomes, which can increase chances for success.
As connectivity develops around the world, and digital devices increase, how, and when virtual schooling paradigms be relevant for consideration across many educational contexts in Africa? Only time will tell – but such a time might be coming in a few places sooner than you think.
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