Issues
To cater to the demands placed by the new economy, thousands of institutes and learning centers are cropping up everywhere and especially in the developing countries, offering IT and Professional Development skills and degrees. Unfortunately, quality education is an experience, not readily available in these developing countries. Lack of “subject matter experts”, deficient curricula, high cost, redundant teaching methods and educational policies, lack of accurate monitoring of learning achievement and evaluation programs, identification of correct educational needs, no accountability, no quality assurance, inconsistency, no way to authenticate teacher training or qualification... are some problems that mar the education systems in the DC’s. This situation is leading to “illiterate and under-prepared” degree holders, and it is clear that developing countries lack the appropriate human and economic resources to take advantage of emerging technologies and build competent and cost-efficient skills development programs.
As it is not possible to change entire educational systems or send out thousands of subject matter experts to each and every developing country, a viable alternative is the proliferation of IT and 21st. century employability skills to the masses through e-learning using the Internet. E-learning has proven to be the most cost effective method of disseminating high-end “expert” level instruction. Elearning also provides an individualized approach to learning, which takes into account:
- A student’s level of preparation
- A student’s Learning styles and
- A student’s Individual learning rate
Excerpts from the "Latest studies in education" further validate the future of education through elearning.
However, there were four key barriers to the adoption of e-learning in the developing countries, namely, (i) very high cost of “expert content”, (ii) piracy (iii) bad end-user experience due to low Internet bandwidth and disconnection problems in the DC’s, and (iv) lack of awareness of e-learning due to inaccessibility.
ICWFD has addressed ALL of the above barriers.. Learn more |
