| Subject: Re: A HYPOTHETICAL - Drama-tech SCRIPT! |
Author:
Chairperson
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Date Posted: 03:57:12 11/01/99 Mon
In reply to:
stage director
's message, "Re: A HYPOTHETICAL - Drama-tech Stage set!" on 03:50:03 11/01/99 Mon
Good morning and welcome to this inaugural meeting on a very important and topical agenda, the issue of access in higher education. The specific concept we want to discuss is "higher education without campus". Is this possible? Is this the way we want to go? These are just a couple of questions I want us to examine also as we discuss the topic. This topic has far reaching implications on the way we have so far perceived and conducted both general and higher education.
As you know, there have been recent demonstrations and petitions to the government by the community, the parents and students who have not found a place in our existing higher education institutions. This is not a new problem. We have had this problem for the last 15 to 20 years. We are all aware that our country has had financial problems over the years. There are just not enough resources to meet all of the needs and demands of our people. We in education have to provide sound justifications year-in and year-out in our bids for funds from the national purse. We also need to consider our priorities. It's clear that we have a desperate need to provide basic literacy and numeracy skills to our population. These have been discussed in a recent workshop to which many educators in the provinces have provided some serious thoughts mainly on how to achieve universal primary education, let alone post-secondary education in the country.
At the same time, we have had the problem where about 15,000 high school students graduate each year and only a handful of them (4,000) are admitted to our post-secondary institutions. Where have the rest gone? What have we done to meet their needs for advancement in the community? Can we say that our system of education is really developing our human resources or have we contributed instead to the problems of the nation by heightening the hopes and dreams of our young people only to shatter them at the end of high school?
The dilemma is clear. We have limited resources; we create groups of frustrated parents and young people who have no basic skills suitable for employment in the "modern economy" without also providing alternative solutions. They have legitimate demands for furthering their knowledge and skills. I am not suggesting that basic schooling should be responsible for providing skills for the work place. I am suggesting that we should not only look at education as providing basic literacy and number skills. Basic education is a foundation and a stepping stone for other levels of education and knowledge and competency acquisition skills required in the fast changing global political, social, economic, and educational environments.
I am saying that we in organizations established to serve the educational needs of our people, we, who are seen as experts in our areas of engagement, must be alert to new and better ways of doing things to improve the lives of people in our communities. Our discussion today will focus on the idea of how to provide mass higher education, given the dilemma of resource constraints, other economic and social demands and the priorities we must set within the education ministry.
At this point, I'd like to invite the policy analyst in the higher education buffer agency, who has recently completed his doctoral studies to provide some background to this specific agenda on the concept of "higher education without campus". His doctoral study was in the area of policy analysis in higher education. He has written an internal discussion paper for the department as you may have noted from the media coverage on the matter. It is basically about a delivery system being used extensively in some parts of the world. The ideas are somewhat controversial for us and may not jive comfortably with the way we have done things to date and the way many of us think about education and learning. At the same time, we cannot deny that changes are happening constantly all around us. Many of these have implications on whether we can or cannot compete in the global economy. We need people in the work force who can hold their own in having our nation stride along side the rest of the world. We should strive for an educated population to the highest level possible for as many people as possible.
I now call on the director to speak briefly on the agenda and then, I want to allow as much time as possible for questions and clarification. After general questions, I will leave you to discuss the details of the issue and I expect that a report on the discussions be available at the next Social Services Committee meeting Friday, next week.
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