Technology Assisted Open Learning - the Alternative to Increasing Learning

Abstract

Nigeria is a developing country struggling to reach the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education. The population profile of the country, 2005, shows a high population figure of children and adolescents between the ages of 5-24 years. Majority of the children within this age bracket are the focus of the educational development policies of the country. Educational developmental problems unresolved at the primary education level are carried over to the secondary level where they become magnified leading to disastrous consequences since it has the secondary level as its pivot. This is the bridge between the primary and tertiary education. It is the junction from where all the boulevards of higher education take off and all primary school leavers must successfully pass through it to become useful to themselves and the society. Failure to navigate successfully secondary education has resulted, over the years, in poor academic skills, low problem solving skills, high dropout rates, gross exam malpractices, school cultism, teenage prostitution, pregnancy and abortion and other vices leading to the production of ill equipped individuals lacking necessary skills to make meaningful contributions to national development. Unfortunately some of the ‘fallouts’ of a degenerate secondary education are involved in political leadership in the country today. // Paper ID 162