Distance Education: Crossing the Distance in the Commonwealth

Abstract

The Commonwealth of nations is home to 1.2 billion people; one out of four human beings on earth lives in one of the 53 Commonwealth countries. Almost half these nations are small with populations under a million while three (or four) of them are among the nine populous countries of the world. Except for the richer countries of the Commonwealth (Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) which are aging, the others have populations that are young (those under 15 far out number those above 65); those with younger populations are also among the poorest having a higher percentage of illiteracy and employing the working populations in less skilled and low paying jobs. The need for more education and training in these less well endowed nations is clearly obvious. // By and large, this group of nations subscribe to decent and participatory government, preservation of human dignity, improving the health and well being of its individual peoples and sharing of experience with member Commonwealth countries.