African Virtual University Delegates meet in Nairobi

By Eric Akasa

African Virtual University (AVU) is hosting a workshop at Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel from 9^th-12^th June. The workshop is the first step to the implementation of the African Development Bank (AfDB) funded Multinational Project (II) that aims at helping African countries’ improve their ICT infrastructure and programs, and provide technical assistance on their ICT in education policies and strategies.

This will further strengthen AVU and its network of institutions to deliver and manage quality ICT integrated education and training opportunities in 21 African countries. The outcome of the workshop will inform the implementation of the project across the countries and universities through panel presentations and discussions by the delegates.

Attending workshop will be 180 delegates from Eastern, Western, North and Southern Africa in academia, government, and donor partners. Present at the workshop will be Ministers and high officials from governments, and Vice Chancellors from universities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, DRC, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan and Tanzania.

AVU partners such as the African Development Bank, the African Capacity Building Foundation, UNESCO, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa will also attend.

The workshop aims to chart a path for the 5 year program through the establishment of new Distance and eLearning Centres while upgrading existing ones; Develop four ICT Integrated Programs including

teacher education and computer science; Mainstream uptake of mathematics and sciences for women; Introduce Research and Development; Promote and Develop Open Education Resources (OER); and Offer technical assistance to countries on distance and eLearning policies and strategies.  This will serve to enhance AVUs capacity and participating universities to increase access to quality education.

Speaking during the workshop opening ceremony, AVU Rector, Dr. Bakary Diallo said that AVU aims to bridge the gap that is missing in higher learning opportunities in Africa due to limited access to tertiary institutions. “One academic challenge facing most African countries is availability of tertiary learning institutions due to limited learning facilities and not the lack of will to attain higher education credentials. This should not be the case anymore since there are alternative opportunities through distance and eLearning”, observes Dr. Diallo.

“AVU has united with more than 53 Academic Partner Institutions in more than 27 countries in Africa, and with innovative use of ICT, we seek to increase access to higher education. This is the season of university intakes for new students and the impact of eLearning as a form of accessing higher learning cannot be overemphasized. Africa is advancing technologically and institutions that are moving with the times have adopted the system so as to deliver beyond their classroom capacity”, adds Dr. Diallo.

The workshop comes at a time when research has shown that majority of secondary school leavers do not get access to tertiary education and those who would like to may not know how to go about the opportunity to take up Open Distance and eLearning. This not only deters individual growth but also economic, social and political advancement in Africa.