Integrating Distance Learning in Secondary Schools

Teachers and administrators are being equipped on the use of ICTs for online studies.

The key role of distance learning through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among Second Cycle teaching and learning community in Cameroon is being appropriated by instructors, teachers and students at a three-day competence enhancement workshop that began in Bali-Douala yesterday.

The training, which offers a complementary opportunity to study at all times out of school time, will have participants benefit from the expansion of the Internet. The main objective is to equip participants -- second cycle teachers, instructors and administrators of education, managers, decision-makers and private sector officials -- on the benefits of ICTs and their integration to the world of knowledge. In effect, it encourages the use and judicious integration of new technologies in teaching, with the goal of responding to access, quality and diversification of higher learning.

"Participants will cultivate a solid knowledge and boost their competence in planning, conception and distance learning management system, in order to appropriate the extent of their potential," revealed Dr. Zakaria Mohamed Rabany of the Morocco-based Islamic Organisation of Education, Science and Culture (ISESCO), which funded the workshop.

Organised by the ministries in charge of Basic Education, Secondary Education and Vocational Training, in collaboration with UNESCO, the training will "help countries South of Africa to escape marginalisation and isolation of modernity and globalisation," Governor Beti Assomo said at the opening.