Tau was speaking yesterday at the initial meeting for the establishment of a regional Open Schools Vocational education programme and materials development consortium hosted by the Southern Africa Development Community Centre for Distance Education in Gaborone. "I want to contend that the open school practice, whilst bridging the education gap for many of our previously deprived members of society, is lacking in some respects that to me are fundamental," he said. He told the delegates at the meeting that if what obtains at BOCODOL is anything to go by, the distance learning curriculum is largely academic. He said that it serves to largely enable learners to meet the certification requirements at the expense of adequately equipping them to creatively and productively live in their environments. He said that the thinking to re-conceptualise and possibly re-engineer open school learning is a welcome measure. "We are happy to be associated with it and we shall do everything within our means to promote its operationalisation should it be adopted," Tau said. Presenting the concept paper at the regional meeting, Neil Butcher of South Africa said that that the envisaged consortium will not be intended to function as a replacement for the many distance education associations which already exist. Instead, he said, its explicit purpose will be to organise and manage joint programme and material development projects between the consortium partners intended to spread the cost of responding to some of the challenges faced by open learning. "The consortium will seek to contribute to developing the skills and entrepreneurial capacity Africa requires to become equal and competitive participants in the global economy," he said. Tau explained that developing skills and entrepreneurial educational resources that relate to the needs and demands of the economy and society would take care of things. He said the consortium would support lifelong learning and so contribute to developing individuals who are better able to maintain income generation activities and opportunities they access or create. It will also support institutions to provide learners with innovative relevant teaching and learning resources required to improve the quality of vocational learning and teaching. Butcher asserted that the project will be informed by accessibility of content for women and people with low literacy and numeracy abilities; and the delivery of the educational content resources to previously disadvantaged communities and the marginalised with a focus on rural and peri-urban communities. The project will also be informed by the development of a multi-faceted strategy that ensures the on-going and sustainable use of the educational content resources. Butcher added that the consortium will work collaboratively to identify the highest priority areas for regional investment in programme and materials development for open schooling. "It will work to develop funding proposals and source funding for joint projects and create a lively learning environment across the region on the practice of open schooling," Butcher asserted. The purpose of the two-day meeting that ends today is to determine a joint vision for the consortium, to identify willing participants both within the group and other organisations not in attendance and to reach agreement on key operational principles. The meeting is also meant to scope out terms of reference for a first series of projects to be implemented by the consortium and to agree on a fundraising strategy for these projects.