"Sowing the Seeds of Life-Long Learning."

Master of Ceremonies may I thank you for inviting me to be the guest speaker at this important event. This event serves once more to reinforce the concept of lifelong learning. One is never too old or too educated to learn something new. The learning environment itself is also broader than just the classroom or learning institution. Over the past six years of government I have had to demonstrate a tremendous degree of flexibility and open-mindedness while taking in the enormous amounts of information associated with governance. Living in the information age requires continuous learning.

Education, or learning, is the key to improved quality of life. As with every investment, investment in education should aim to avoid speculation and thus high risk. Learners should invest in blue chip shares because that will give them a safe return over the long run.

It is therefore critical that learners invest in subject areas that are marketable and in short supply such as maths, science and technology.

It is becoming a lifelong process, but it requires a great deal of investment in terms of money, effort and inspiration. You should be aware that the future demands on your skills are going to change very rapidly and your learning should be adjusted as the needs of the economy, the society and our country change. Learners must therefore be flexible and attempt to acquire generic skills that are portable between different fields of employment.

1. THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN THE FUTURE

The traditional way of teaching is rapidly disappearing and is being replaced by the concept of open learning.

The most obviously this is so because of the cost of education. Once a country has to spend more than 20% of its budget on education in the face of a rapidly growing population the traditional ways of teaching become inadequate as in most cases traditional education targeted a small elite population.

The information age, globalisation and the demands of the modern economy require the massification of education. Traditional modes of education simply cannot cope with modern demand.

Budgetary constraints imply that we must do as much as possible with very little resources. Fortunately the application of particularly information technology in the field of education will enable us to use our limited resources with the maximum efficiency. If the products of our education roam the streets unemployed then the essential link between the job market and the education system has not materialised and we will be wasting our precious scarce resources.

This means that the dependency burden on the individual is becoming so high that the investment potential of a country is severely limited. If the present cost of tertiary education is taken as an example, it will cost a full-time student around R30 000 per annum to study for a particular degree at a residential university. This is the present cost with state subsidy (although limited). If the tertiary educational system wants to contribute its part in human resource development it has to look at how it could be more cost-effective. This implies that the whole administrative process, the information process and the academic process have to be reconsidered.

Global best experience has shown that the traditional modes of education are fast becoming obsolete.

2. THE COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TERTIARY SECTOR IN THE FUTURE

Although there are many aspects to take into consideration to ensure more cost-effectiveness of the tertiary sector I am going to dwell just on a couple of issues, namely methodology and technology.

Given the present situation no tertiary institution is in the position to fulfil its mission with regard to the current needs of our country. This is mainly due to the methodology of teaching. It has become imperative to move to learning. It has become more clear in modern times that students with their exposure to the information age are in most cases in the position to handle a great deal of their studies on their own. That is why the emphasis is on learning.

The main responsibility is shifting from the lecturer who has been the traditional teacher to the student who will increasingly take over at least part of the task of the lecturer and become a learner. We all know that students are able to handle a great deal of their study material on their own given the availability of proper study materials and good planning of curricula and syllabi. This would mean that the student would have more time for self-study, learning and discovery rather than sitting through long boring and time-consuming lectures.

At the same time the lecturers could use their time more effectively since the main focus could now be directed to applied knowledge and those areas of courses which tend to be difficult to handle without guidance. This will create opportunities for research, which is the foundation of scientific development and applied science. At the same time it will increase the ratio of students to lecturers, which will mean that the institutions will become more cost-effective.

Of course this transformation will be a painful process because most people are afraid of the unknown. This is true for both the lecturers and the students. The present mode of education, training and teaching has been from the viewpoint of the supplier. The institutions with their lecturing staff would typically decide influenced by their research and opinion what the most relevant study material for students should be. This poses the problem that the supply has to create its own demand, which in many cases would result in teaching highly specific scientific knowledge, which is of little relevance and applied value.

This has created an attitude on the part of the students that they should be passive in the learning process because they get used to being spoon-fed. This combination has dangerous consequences for the entrepreneurial spirit in South Africa because it limits creativity, both on the part of the student and that of the lecturer.

The ultimate result is stagnation and, as we could expect with stagnant water, which carries decay within itself, stagnation in the academic world carries within itself the decay of society and the economy.

Fortunately this danger has been realised and the present White Paper on Higher Education is a clear sign that educational methodology has to be revisited and revised dramatically. Those institutions that are not prepared or able to make this commitment will quickly become obsolete.

The basic tenet of this new approach is that the knowledge, potential, initiative and ability of the student should be utilised optimally. This implies that the focus on the lecturer as the person who has to effect learning is being shifted to the student who becomes the learner, the point of creative discovery. Hence the emphasis on the learning process, rather than on education.

This requires a complete rethink of how study material should be presented and the whole curriculum process has to be reviewed. It also implies that the development high quality accredited study material becomes a vitally important part of the learning process. It involves not only subject specialists but also didactic specialists; outside and preferably international evaluators, educational technologists, corporate sector involvement and production specialists.

It is quite clear that resource-based learning is becoming the norm for all study materials. Most importantly it involves relevance, which could only be reached with sufficient and regular feedback from all the role-players in the academic process. In this process technology becomes increasingly critical.

Another important aspect in the methodology is the realisation of the involvement of different role-players in the whole process.

That is why one could increasingly expect the establishment of alliances or partnerships between the tertiary institutions themselves as well as with the public and private sectors. This is already a global phenomenon. The sooner we accept that we should complement each other, the sooner the quality of our learning programmes will become impeccable.

Technology is making it possible to choose between various cost-effective alternatives. Besides the different models that exist using the traditional lecturing approach with limited study guides and maybe some transparencies or slides at residential tertiary institutions, a greater exposure to lecturing and the existing distance delivering system of correspondence by various institutions, the information explosion has made it possible to look at various other options to create effective learning.

Taking the main constraints into consideration technology should be used that could make the academic process more affordable and accessible.

Increased accessibility means that the whole question of entry requirements have to be revisited to make it possible for anybody who has demonstrated some potential through further education or appropriate work experience to enter tertiary institutions. At the same time the technology should make it possible for the students to receive the lecturer in a virtual context on the screen of his or her computer, television set or radio in his/her town or even house. This has become possible through the use of video, satellite transmissions and the Internet and e-mail.

Educational institutions have joined in the effort to bring programmes to your doorstep by accommodating this new technology.

Given the vast distances in South Africa and Africa satellite technology becomes a viable option in taking the "distance" out of distance education. It has now become possible to create a virtual university where somebody can actually get into the learning process wherever they are located. Potchefstroom University has, for example, about 26 different study centres at the moment across the country.

This institution has also just completed an agreement to start transmitting to Harare and Namibia.

This technology also facilitates the practical application of joint ventures. Not only does it become necessary to involve other institutions in the production and transmission of study materials, but also it involves a whole range of educational institutions across the world in creating suitable delivery points.

It also becomes evident, looking at the immediate future, that the multimedia application will increasingly become the main delivery and communication system, because it will enable the student to be in continuous contact with the tertiary institution at a fairly low price. Although the availability of this type of technology is not yet universal, there are sufficient institutions with the required facilities to join hands in making this a reality.

The new technology will enable the tertiary institutions to limit their staff component, which will decrease the cost of these programmes. The second major requirement for our country’s educational needs, namely affordability now becomes possible. It is clear, however, that tertiary institutions have to move into a much more complicated technological environment where sound management will become the determining factor.

We have already seen the impact of the application of this new learning model on an institution like the Potchefstroom University through its Telematic Learning Systems Department. In 1995 it became the first institution in South Africa to introduce this unique model. Despite a humble start of 350 students in 1995 the system has already become a formidable part in making learning accessible to more than 3000 additional students in 13 programmes at about 50 study centres across South Africa and even outside our borders.

3. RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING BY TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

The rapidly changing information society shows that it is doubtful that anybody could expect to have a useful career path through a single qualification.

It is generally accepted that all individuals should be able to enter into a life-long learning process that will arm them with occupational flexibility and the portability of skills. The closer co-operation which have started on various levels has already make it clear that the main requirements will become not so much the quantity of prior knowledge but rather the ability by a student to apply knowledge in different contexts.

This already has had the consequence that different requirements for entry at tertiary institutions have to be applied. It also has brought into play a greater deal of flexibility in accepting and crediting learning achievements of other tertiary institutions. It is also creating opportunities of institutions cooperating and supporting each other, e.g. by creating programmes where the successful completion of these requirements at one institution will give automatic entrance to the other.

4. CONCLUSION

Tertiary education has opened its Ivory Towers forever and has become part of real life. Great demands and changes in attitude are necessary at the level of the institutions and the students about the use of resource-based and output-based learning. Extremely good management must become part of all tertiary institutions in order to optimise the use of their resources. The result is going to be that the learner must be able to enter into the tertiary sector at various entrance levels and exit at several levels along his/her lifetime depending on social and economic needs at the particular point in time. This will enable the individual to increase his/her intellectual capacity through which the whole output of the country should be improved.

Tertiary institutions will become much closer to each other in the development, production and delivery of academic programmes and these programmes will be driven mainly by the needs of the learners.