Dilemmas in Open Learning in Developing Countries – a Case in Indonesia

Abstract

PCF2 // There is no doubt that education is the pillar of survival for any country and civilization. Problems that have been faced by people in developing countries in the area of education include access to it, its quality, standard, infrastructure, bureaucracy, budget, teachers’ qualifications, teachers’ professional development and politicization. To these one can add corruptions of all sorts, from direct imposition of illegal costs to parents and students to teachers’ absences from classes while on pay. // Open Learning will surely reduce some of the problems above, but will introduce new ones. This paper discusses a number of issues which can be categorized as dilemmas of Open Distance Learning. For example, while the comparatively low level of formal education will put up some barrier to Open Distance Learning (ODL), it is precisely the very thing that ODL is to address. While ODL is supposed to empower people in their learning, and indeed this is the way of ODL, it is the very empowerment that has been suppressed by the governments of developing countries as witnessed everywhere. While ODL requires a different breed of teachers, it is precisely the breed of teachers that are not being produced by the developing countries. // A model is proposed as a blueprint for producing an educated person in developing countries and several short cases will be presented as examples of preliminary implementation of some of the thoughts manifesting the model. // The conclusion is that, an effective ODL can only be achieved if factors discussed in this paper are considered at the outset and their negative impacts are minimized. //