What is the role of open and distance learning (ODL) in Teacher education

OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL):

The whole world is currently facing two major educational problems. The first problem is how to encourage and provide facilities to the older people and youth who have completed primary education to pursue secondary education. This is a huge task. Education expert Binder says that about 40 million people between the ages of 12 and 17 are not getting education or they do not have access to education facilities. Another low-level challenge is recruiting and training millions of teachers. UNESCO says that in the next ten years, one million people have to be recruited and trained. They have to replace a large number of retiring teachers. They have to achieve the goal of primary school education in South Asia and Africa and face the challenges of secondary school.

Teacher education and Open and Distance Learning (ODL) are separate, sensitive and critically important areas that require attention. When they are employed simultaneously, they ensure efficiency, effectiveness and non-discriminatory provision of facilities and maximum provision of such facilities benefits students who would otherwise be deprived of such facilities.

IMPORTANCE OF ODL:

The question arises as to why open and distance learning is important for design, assessment, evaluation and teacher education. The Education for All Memorandum was agreed by many countries in Justinian, Thailand in 1990 and in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, which made a global commitment to make secondary education compulsory in all countries. If we examine the six goals of the conference in Dakar, we will know that certain problems will have to be overcome to achieve these goals.

1- Providing education to underprivileged children in early childhood.

2- To ensure in the coming years that girls in particular are given full, independent and quality secondary education even in difficult circumstances.

3. To ensure that the youth and adults will be given access to education and other skills based programs.

4- By five years, the target of achieving 50% education coverage among older people, especially older women, will be achieved.

5- In providing primary and secondary education, discrimination between boys and girls will be eliminated and they will be given equal education. It will be assured that the girls have enough opportunities of primary education.

6- All aspects of quality education will be improved and the results will be analyzed.

Open and Distance Education issues are not only addressed in the social, economic and political context, but also use information and communication technology and the students are introduced to other technologies. Distance learning is not only technologically advanced, but students are taught directly in ODL in specific educational institutions. Due to which the difficulties in the general education system have been overcome. Along with this, there is a need for enthusiastic and dedicated teachers to teach through OLD. If developing countries adopt, strengthen and expand this type of education system, many of their problems will be solved, the shortage of teachers will be removed and the goal of education for all will be achieved.

According to the UNESCO report, most countries need 12.3 million teachers by 2025, most of them are located in the African region, where there is a huge shortage of teachers. According to the USIS report, by 2025, most of the countries in the world need 12.3 million teachers, of which 8.3 million teachers will be appointed in the central education system, while about 2.2 million teachers are needed in the education system in order to meet the global level. Sothat the goal of secondary education can be achieved. In other words, we need 1 out of 5 teachers to achieve the goal of higher education. For this, the governments of different countries have to invest on high level while for the African under developed countries it is not possible. One part of Africa needs to recruit and train 1.1 million teachers who can handle the classroom situation and the quality education. But in order to achieve the target of primary education, these countries must recruit 1.3 million additional teachers. It would be appropriate to say that there should be at least one teacher in every classroom in 8 years.

When we look at this alarming shortage of teachers in Africa and other developing countries, we need to upgrade and massively strengthen our education systems in addition to improving the effectiveness of teachers. Besides this there is a need of improving the performance of teachers.

Education expert Robinson and Lachem said about ODL that;

1.The salaries of in-service and pre-service teachers should be increased effectively.

2.Those who want to take up the profession of teaching should start their professional development programs before the service.

3.Training should be provided to the untrained teachers and higher education should be provided to them.

4.Teachers in rural and urban areas should be given the opportunity to meet other teachers in the professional training community.

5.Fast delivery of information to a large number of teachers should be ensured. Which includes curriculum changes, new teaching methods and strategies and professional standards.