Exchange programme bridges ODL and conventional education

Gothataone Moeng | Wednesday July 2, 2014 06:59

 

The Head of the European Delegation to Botswana and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gerard McGovern yesterday said it would be interesting to see how the initiative, involving participating students from Botswana, Germany and France, would deal with the challenges of both the ODL and the conventional teaching system.

“Initially the conventional system depended on the presence of a teacher for teaching and learning to take place, while ODL depended on media to facilitate teaching and learning,” McGovan said, adding that, “With the massive technological developments in the world today, the distinction between ODL and the conventional system is blurring and they systems are coming closer together with each standing to benefit from each other”.

McGovan said the initiative should be commended for creating linkages between students in Europe and Botswana.  

He said he hopes the initiative would open up opportunities for more linkages between institutions in Botswana and Europe both within the educational and other sectors.

“I see scope for staff and student exchange programmes, collaborative research and publishing among the institutions and why not showcasing how ODL and conventional education can enhance each other?” he said.  

With 20 years involvement in the support of education in Botswana, McGovan said the EU is now focusing on assisting government in planning and implementing its reforms for the education sector.  Of the P1.5 billion development cooperation programme funds 85 percent is being allocated to human resource management to help the country transit from a mineral resource economy to a knowledge-based economy.

The initiative, according to BOCODOL Acting Dean (Academic Services) Dr Bogadi Nage-Sibande started in 2012, with six Batswana students visiting France and Germany.

“It is a partnership aimed at empowering young people in participating colleges in the three countries, through an exchange of employable life skills, as well as sharing cultural heritage for a better understanding of each other’s environment,” Nage-Sibande said.

In this round of the programme, Batswana distance-learning students will be joined by French students from Adere Occupational Therapy and German students from Ergo Therapy in the country for two weeks.  Over the couple of weeks the students will participate in leadership skills workshops, occupational therapy, basket making and end the programme in Maun.