Factors Impacting School Dropout and Criminal Activities in Urban Belize. Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Belize, Belize C.A.

Abstract

One of the challenges facing Zambian Vocational Training institutions is increased enrolment of geographically distributed students and limited institutional resources to scaffold learning. This challenge is compounded by increasing competition among higher and vocational learning institutions on one hand, and the changing nature of 21st century learners. In response to this challenge, some public Vocational Education Institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education have identified and prioritised educational technologies to have a critical pedagogical role in Open, Distance and Flexible Learning (ODFL) programmes. However, there is still a mismatch between policy intentions and the educators pedagogical practices. Thus, this paper reports on an approach that seeks to build capacity of ODFL educators teaching with educational technologies. The paper seeks to develop a framework for building capacity in in the use of educational technologies in Open, Distance and Flexible Learning in Zambian Vocational Colleges by teaching staff to guide Colleges seeking to offer effective ODFL programmes. //

The paper discusses the methodology involved in the study which included the phases of monitoring and evaluation of twelve (12) public vocational training and a second phase involved three (3) capacity building workshops conducted in February, March and May 2018. The workshops were held in three provinces. The propositions on the way forward from participants arising from the capacity building workshops were issues surrounding institutional focus, pedagogical focus, technological focus and personal focus. The paper proposes a model for strategic stakeholder participation and regional institutional collaboration in the effective integration of educational technologies in Public Vocational Training Institutions contexts who are offering ODFL programmes.// Paper ID 238