 the NTI, President of the Commonwealth of Lining, A. Meraj, Director of the Commonwealth of Lining, the person of Alhazji Hafiz Wali and Mr. John Quigley, staff of the National Teachers Institute Kaduna Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen. It is indeed my pleasure and a privilege to welcome Dr. James A. Meraj, President of the Commonwealth of Lining, on the second leg of his visit to Africa and, indeed, his first to Nigeria and the National Teachers Institute in Kaduna. The President of the Commonwealth of Lining, we are aware of the temporary setback which your country, Tenerife, is now experiencing. I therefore wish to extend my sincere sympathy and that of the entire staff of the National Teachers Institute, the current happening in Trinidad. We pray, Almighty Allah, to restore peace and tranquility to your country. The National Teachers Institute attaches great importance to our visit in many respects. First, the institute is solely established for the purpose of distance learning system to assist the teaming population of the young men and women of this country, who are yearning for further education. In the second vein, in the same vein, your organization happened to be established purposely to facilitate broader opportunity for young men and women throughout the Commonwealth to improve themselves academically. The cordial relationship which exists between Nigeria and the Commonwealth of Lining and indeed between the National Teachers Institute and the Commonwealth of Lining have been growing from strength to strength. First, Nigeria is one of the main voluntary contributors to the development of the Commonwealth of Lining. Second, the pioneer director of this institute, Alhazji Hafiz Wali, is now a staff member of your agency. And third, Mahambu Salsa happens to be a member of the Board of Governors of your agency. With this connection, we regard your visit as an extension of our friendship and an opportunity for you to see for yourselves what we have been talking about on distance learning of the National Teachers Institute Kaduna. Because of the time factor, it is not possible to show you all the programs, structures and developments of the NTI. However, we shall try to acquaint you with important aspects that you wish or you may wish to know during your one day stay in Kaduna. You should please permit me to give you a short brief on the National Teachers Institute. First, the function of the institute. As I mentioned earlier, the National Teachers Institute Kaduna was established by the federal government of Nigeria in 1976 as an institution to train teachers throughout the distance learning system or through the distance learning system. This was done in response to a dear need to produce teachers of the right caliber and inadequate numbers to manage the nation's primary schools. There was also a felt need to do this outside the conventional institution so that teachers could upgrade themselves educationally and professionally while remaining on their jobs. The need becomes more urgent as government had earlier launched the universal primary education, popularly known as UPE program, which increased markedly the population of people in our schools. Decree number seven of 1978, which established the institute, formally summarizes its function as follows, one, to upgrade under qualified and untrained teachers, two, to provide the fresher and other upgrading courses for teachers, and three, to organize workshops, seminars, and conferences which would assist in the improvement of teachers. On the basis of these functions stipulated for the institute, its focus initially was to assist needed teachers throughout the nation to obtain the teachers grade two certificates which was the traditional qualification demanded from teachers in primary schools. In 1979, however, government promulgated a national policy on education, which, among other things, prescribed that the Nigeria certificate in education will eventually be the minimum qualification for teachers in the primary schools. Continues to run teacher grade two by DLS for those teachers who still need the program. It has also mounted a new program of NCE, which is the Nigeria certificate in education by DLS, to enable others to obtain the required certificate. The program has been launched in virtually all the states of the Federation, and so far about 32,000 teachers approximately have registered for this course. Over the years, also, the institute was given some artillery assignments, including the following, the conduct of TC2 examination nationwide in the five centrally examined subjects, i.e. education, English language, mathematics, integrated science, and social studies. The conduct of teachers' census in primary and post-primary institutions throughout the nation was also added to the desk of the NTI. This has led to the production of national teachers' registers showing both relevant data on teacher population and some salient information on each teacher. These registers are available for you, Mr. President, and your team, for inspection on your way out. And the third one, the annual conduct of the interview examination for the candidates wishing to enter the junior secondary schools in the nation's unity schools. This assignment was also given to the National Teachers' Institute, and, hopefully, the institute has been carried out this assignment with success. I now turn to the organization of the institute, as it may please you to note that for the purpose of carrying out its functions, the institute is organized as follows, the directorate. The director, as the name implies, is headed by the director, who is also the chief executive of the institute, and the department comprises several units which include computer type setting units, estate division, information and publications unit, facilities, which is media resources center, including the library, audiovisual aid, et cetera, internal audits, and the printing press. We have the administration and the personnel department, which is headed by the registrar, basically providing administrative support for the various operations of the institute. It is also divided into two major units, namely, personnel and general administration, handling all personnel matters, including staff recruitment, training, discipline, welfare, et cetera. And second is the council matters, which takes all necessary arrangements for meetings of the governing council of the institute and follow-up actions on the scene taken at such meetings. Third department is the professional and field operations department. This department is headed by a deputy director, who is responsible for the development and management of the institute distance planning system. It comprises three units, namely, the professional operations, which belongs, develops all NTIs course materials using the workshop system, essentially. Second, the institute's distance planning system in the field and the city centers throughout the Federation. And third, this education for serving teachers of various categories through workshops, seminars, conferences, et cetera. The fourth department is the exonations department. Principally, the department is headed by the deputy director, who is responsible for the conduct, marking, and release of results of the examinations conducted by the NTI. The department comprises essentially three main units, namely, the test development, which, as its name implies, develops test items for the various examinations conducted by the institute. Second, test administration, which administers the actual conduct of the examinations. And third, the security printing, which requires and statistics. The fourth department is the planning, research, and statistic department. The planning, research, and statistic department handles the initial planning, detailed modalities and implementations, as well as costing of all of the NTI's academic programs. The department consists of three sections, namely, statistics and records, programs, schedules, research, and evaluation. The department is headed by a deputy director. The sixth is the accounts department. The accounts department manages the accounts of the institute. It is headed by a financial controller, now the assistant director finance, who is a responsible director, the director, and the chief executive. The department has three main units, namely, administration and management information, finance and accounting, budget, costing, and stores. In addition to the sixth department mentioned above, the institute has an office in the capital of each state of the federation, and the federal capital, Thursday of Abuja. Each state office is headed by a state coordinator who handles the operation of the institute in the state. Then we have the physical facilities of the institute. Mr. President, I would not like to burden you with naming of all the facilities that are available in the institute, as you are likely to see a lot of these when you go around at the end of this meeting. However, it is my pleasure to mention the few of them. These are the normal office buildings, as you can see all around. The modern printing press, which you will see after going out. The computer, computer setting, outfit, the audio, visual, and photographic unit, the library, language laboratory, and the conference center where we are now. Staff of the institute. The staff of the institute, both at the headquarters and the state offices, now numbered about 852. The present challenges. The present challenges facing the institute includes the need to build the various schools of education in the degree established in the institute, namely the School of General Studies, School of Advanced Studies, and School of Educational Innovation. These schools are yet to be developed, and it is the intention of this institute and the management to forge ahead and see that these schools are provided as finances could permit. An intensive effort also to improve and upgrade thousands of teachers in our primary school and junior secondary school will continue. In this direction, you and your team may wish to know the following developments, Mr. President, that since the establishment of the institute, and the time it has taken the registration of teachers for distance learning, it has, in a short note, got nearly one million candidates who registered for the examination. I said nearly one million because so far we have 940,578 who registered from 1982 to 1989. And this year alone we have 51,485 who registered for the 1990 examinations. This gives us just a little under one million. However, the total number who actually set for the examination, excluding this year's registered students, is 852,643. The total number that have passed so far is 301,070. Mr. President, as you have listened to me in Banjul, the Gambia last week, you can see the figures I have mentioned here include also those who have been in teachers' colleges. If we were to separate these, we can humbly say about 186,000 have gone through the doors of the distance learning, while the others were students in teachers' colleges but using the NTI system, books for print for the DLS. This activities creates a lot of requests for books throughout the year. This is for the National, Nigeria Certificate in Education, which has just been introduced and the teachers' RTC2 examinations. In all, the institute has committed nearly 11.7 million naira on the printing of books and other materials for the candidates so far. This, Mr. President, I think I will give opportunity to some of the directors to acquaint you with a bit of the activities of their departments before we go around to see the departments physically. I would now have the pleasure of asking the director, the deputy director, professional operation to say a few words about his departments and we go from there to the next director as I will call him later. It is an honor to be called upon to speak very briefly on the professional and field operations department. Our department, as you have been told, is responsible for two major activities. One is the development of course materials for the distance learning system and the other is the administration and management of the distance learning system itself. A third one, which I didn't consider as major, is in-service education. I say it's not major because it looks to me like it's a subsidiary to these major functions of the institute. Our course materials go through a series of activities before we can finally put them to the students in the field. There is the writing stage which involves the development of the curriculum itself in form of sequencing charts, the writing activity which actually brings writers from various higher institutions, editing and sometimes critiquing. This ensures that the materials themselves are of a sufficient standard. I don't want to mention of course that even before these stages that a lot of research goes into the writing and developing of the curriculum, so far we have been concerned mainly with two areas, the upgrading program for unqualified teachers and the MCE DLS. The writing of the books for the upgrading of the teachers, unqualified grade two teachers, I would want to say is as old as the institute itself. I believe that it started as soon as the institute itself was established. That was the first assignment. So the writing of course materials I believe goes as far back as 1976, but the actual administration of the distance learning system started in 1984, it started first lot of students numbering about 45,152. Ever since then we have trained well over 185,513 teachers. I must now mention sir the mode of administering this distance learning program. We have as you know 22 or shall I say 21, but including the federal capital territory, we have 22 capitals in this country and we have a state coordinator located in each one of these capitals. His responsibility is to ensure that the program reaches every student that desires it in that particular state. Here we have 22 coordinating offices which we call field centers. In each of these field centers there is or there are a number of study centers. For the MCE DLS we have a present 106 study centers. For the TC2 upgrading program the number of study centers varies from year to year. But all together for the period that we have been running this program that is since 1984 we have used all together 1104 study centers. Some of these centers of course may be the same 145,725 books whereas in the MCE DLS program we have distributed so far 102,889 books. The two programs employ essentially two methods of evaluation. One is a continuous assessment and the other one is a final examination. Incidentally in the first one that is the TC2 upgrading program. The final examination is one conducted by the National Teachers Institute. I do hope also that the final examination for the MCE DLS program which we are doing will also be conducted by the National Teachers Institute examinations department. Let me mention very briefly that in the in-service education programs we have tried to reach serving teachers. Most of them have been teachers who are working in our teacher training colleges. But I dare to say to you that many of the teachers who are working in other secondary and sometimes tertiary institutions have found this program these programs useful and have benefited from it. By and large what I would want to say here is that both the TC2 DLS upgrading program and the MCE program have produced one result that sometimes people do not mention, coordinated effort which have a broad national outlook and which are acceptable throughout this country. This is one major achievement that I would want to think that the distance learning system of the National Teachers Institute has made. With this, sir, I do hope that you will have time to have a look at some of our programs and at the books that are displayed at the door. Director sir, Mr. Gentleman, I believe that's what I would like to say. Mr. President, I have now the honor to ask the deputy director exams to enlighten on the activities of his department. One NTI council, director NTI director circle colleagues. As the director has said, the exam department is made up of three major sections, test development, test administration and the security printing records and statistics. Our circle of activities under the new calendar year of the school system in Nigeria begins in January stroke February. This is usually the time after we have released the result of the previous year. We advertise for candidates wanting to see for the examinations and these candidates are usually in two categories. The group which are regular students in the teachers colleges we call the internal candidates. Then the groups which are referred in one paper or the other we call the external candidates. And the NTI students fall into the second category, external candidates. After this have registered for the exam the few various forms we have been told that we have state offices. So we have decentralized all our activities and that makes it easier for us to conduct the exam for a large country like Nigeria and for such a large number of candidates. These candidates register in the various states and their materials are brought to headquarters. Some say that over the years we have computerized all our activities in the examination matters from registration to the release of results and that has made it very possible for us to handle such a large number of candidates at the same time. I reckon that maybe when we get to the computer center this afternoon you are likely to see them working on some of such forms we use. Have registered the candidates we produce the printouts from the computer center. We send to colleges to validate that is to ensure that in other candidates we say they have registered and the spelling errors are not must have been taken care of. When they have validated the sent to us we now have a good list of registered candidates. The examination itself is divided into two major sections we have the oral part and we have the written part. The oral part is essentially in English language and just coincidentally yesterday was the beginning of the oral English examination in the various centers. We have centers all over the country we assemble teachers from various locations. We put them through our oral English procedures and they go into the field to do the exam. And this exam is usually conducted three months before, about three months before this main examination. Maybe briefly how we come about our questions. We organize the item writing workshop. We do this with practicing teachers at the TC2 level, the university level, the colleges of education. We assemble them, they develop these test items which we bring back here. Our subject officers do go through the stage of editing. We call another editing team or moderating team to look at these questions. They now agree on various standards. The objective items that is the multiple choice questions we try to test why the essay question we accept at that level when they have been given to us. After the trial testing we call another group to look at the results from the trial testing and now do a little modification where necessary. These items are now accepted into our bank. So we usually have a bank of items and the development of an item could take up to two years when you go from stage to stage that we are going to form a paper. I remember that a former director used to help us but we are not able to continue with that. He uses his small micro in his office to give us a set of questions. At that stage, even the person going to print the question doesn't know what is going to come out. So as such a notice, he gives us a question paper which we now take to camera. That helps us in reducing the number of hands that will touch a question paper and improves our security system. The security section of the department now takes over and from the highest to the lowest we get involved and we ensure that whatever we are doing we do it under security conditions. We also transport these questions through security using security vehicles. We had a radio communication system where we can talk to all our state offices. We are able to monitor the movement of our question papers because the country is large and it might be very sad. If you are in Cardona you think the question has got to maybe Calabar, another end of the country. If you don't know, if something happens midway and the exam is supposed to be done at the same time all over the federation but with our communication system we are able to monitor it. We rely so mainly on the state ministries of education to nominate supervisors for us to take charge of this examination. We do that because these supervisors are staff of the various ministries and we expect they should do their best. If we find any supervisor not doing the right thing we report him to his employer. So with that we are able to ensure the security of our papers and that the examinations are conducted under very good conditions. We also send out our staff from the various offices, I mean from headquarters to assist in the various offices. This is to act as an inspection team because we found over the years if we don't have our INH center we may not have situations we cannot explain but we have been able to monitor it and with the help of our law enforcement agencies we ensure that nothing goes wrong. When the exams are conducted we retrieve all the papers, we bring them back to Cardona we are now arranging for marking. The objective papers we, computer help me we scan where necessary, then your theory papers we have to physically mark before the excursions, the excursions are fed into the computer again. And that one we organize in six zones. We have divided the country into zones. We assemble teachers from a particular zone to mark. But we ensure that papers from a particular zone is not being marked in that zone. That is to say there is sort of cross-zones movement of scripts. This is to make sure that if I'm a teacher in the particular zone I'm not likely to come across the script of my students. When they have finished marking we now assemble the materials back, the scores are recorded and we go back to the computer center. They now take over in processing the results. Usually we have irregular cases, one problem or the other. These are also investigated and taken care of. By the time they enter in we have done first, second and third proof reading. We are reasonably sure that these scores are recorded are correct. So we now call a meeting, we call an awards committee meeting. The function of this awards committee is to fix the grade points and as well to resolve the malpractice or irregular cases. That committee comprises members from various parts of the country. I think the director of the institute is the chairman. We have representative of West African Examination Council which is another examining body. Parasat also the federal ministry of education and the chief examiners. We deliberately exclude the state ministries of education from that exercise. The university's institutes of education also send their directors to represent them. The state ministries of education are excluded simply because we want to be sure those who are taking decision are not connected in any way with any of the students. With that matter we have been able to ensure that we get uniform standard from year to year and since 1982 when we started this we haven't had any major problem. We handle five subjects nationally. The other papers are being handled by the various states and we have a joint certification system. But then CHIP gives the certificate in conjunction with the state ministries of education. One innovation which we introduce in the other English procedure over the years has been as a teacher's institute we said we are not only interested in examining and passing students we also want to see how well our teachers are doing in the field. So in the other English aspect we are worked at a system whereby the teacher testing the student in other English has a way of also telling us what he has done. So we now record the performance of the teacher as well as the student. So in the school of say 100 students we arrange in such a way that the teacher when he is assessing students is able to record put on cassette tapes about 10 of them. Those cassettes are brought back to us and we now call experts in various universities to come back and assess we call it a vetting exercise. In other words we are vetting the performance of the teacher in scoring the students. By that method we have been able to find out the teacher who is very good, the teacher who needs a little brushing up before he goes for the next exercise and that has helped tremendously in improving the teaching and learning of Fiora English in our schools. Thank you Mr. President. The President of all Deputy Directors and colleagues the planning research and statistics department is the newest it came into being last June. I think one of the reasons why it was established was the fact that the Federal Ministry of Establishment demanded that every parasitic law every department must have a planning research and statistics department and so it became mandatory for the NTI to have one. More than other departments have been doing the work of the planning research and statistics work. Now since it came into being we have been involved in collecting, collating and ensuring that records and statistics are made available. In this regard we have been given the responsibility of collecting and updating the statistics for the registers, for the teachers registers that you have over there. Right now we are working on collecting the data for the tertiary institutions in Nigeria including the universities, the colleges of education, the polytechnic and all other teachers that are registrable in Nigeria. When we have, we would have finished that assignment, we would have got all registrable teachers registered in Nigeria. The department also has what we call the program schedule unit which liaises with the professional department in the institute namely the professional and field operations and examinations department. We discuss academic matters and make sure that we are all thinking alike and that what we are doing is what is best for the country and for our students. The department is also responsible for research and evaluation. We feel that this is a very important aspect of our work because not only do we train the teachers who go into the field but we want to monitor the activities in the classroom to make sure that the newly acquired knowledge or the knowledge they are acquiring from our training is put into practice. In this regard we are very, very fortunate because our students are teachers and so while they are learning they are also teaching and it is very important for us to find out what they are doing in the field. Now this department has the major task of liaising with international bodies and in this regard we have been able to make contact with the UNESCO, the Open University, the overseas development administration and call and right now we have somebody from the Commonwealth Secretariat who is doing a case study of the institute and we do liais with all these international people and make sure that they get the right type of information they want. Our dream is to make sure that the National Teachers Institute is made a first class distance education establishment and that we are looking forward to call to make it possible for us to have a kind of satellite village where we have all our modern gadgets, electronics and what have you and we will be able to press the button and call Mr. President in Vancouver. Thank you sir. DATION which will be also available for the participants. I hope this is a center for excellence which will be used both nationally and internationally for various conferences and seminars. It offers an opportunity for the NTI and indeed the distance education system to facilitate these happenings which are now taking place not only in Nigeria but throughout the Commonwealth countries. I'm happy to say that perhaps in the few years or in few months to come we are expecting some visitors from other member countries of the Commonwealth in West Africa and we intend to use the facilities available intensively to assist other countries. I have purposely laid the introduction of the principal officers of the Institute not only because you have met them at the airport but I feel that round up by welcome address I need to show you to the left we have the registrar Mr. Ajayi. We have the deputy director, exams Mr. Itama, we have a newly of course taken up just about a week old new assistant director of finance our Haji Bello Kawaji. We have also a new chief estate engineer in the part of Haji Bello Kawaji today, a professional in field operation, Francis Mutua, next not next after him, Mrs. Bako who is also the head of department of planning research and statistics. The other staff you see around the table are all staff of various units, has various units that you are likely to meet as you go around. I feel there is no point of introducing them now but when we go around the departments they are likely to meet. This Mr. President I wish once more to welcome you and your team to the National Teachers Institute. I wish you a very happy stay with us and also a very safe journey back to Vancouver Kenneth. Thank you. Mr. Gansal, Mr. Director, colleagues and friends, although this is the first time that we are physically present at the institute, I feel as though we know something of the institute for quite a while and that of course is partly because on the first board of governors of the Commonwealth of Learning we had Al-Haji Hafiz Wally representing Nigeria and he has been sent to students, people of the Caribbean have this very strong connection with West Africa and also professionally as I come out as I said at that table. So it is a specialty like Mr. German and Mr. Director for me to be here. Perhaps I'd better try and say a thing or two about why we're here. We have an obligation, indeed it is our wish, that in shaping the programs in which the Commonwealth of Learning would be involved that we should have very close consultation throughout the Commonwealth. We have been in business, if you like, for just over a year, really. I assumed duties in Vancouver in January of 89, the first professional member of staff arrived in July of that year, Al-Haji Hafiz himself didn't come until last November, so he hasn't even done a year yet, so we are rather new. But although we are new, we feel that until we can talk face to face directly with the key people in the various Commonwealth countries, it is very difficult for us to determine not only how to interpret our mandates, but how we might execute that mandate in different countries. Indeed, I do not believe that education itself is a panacea for the problems of development with which we are all faced. I have said in other places that education might well be unnecessary, but not a sufficient condition for coping with the problems of development. There are many countries in which the level of education has increased remarkably in the last two decades, and the development problems remain the same. So let us see the jobs which we have to do in their proper perspective. That I believe will derive from the nature of the consultations which we hold. Having begun the West African consultations in Gambia, we felt we should come to Nigeria specifically because Nigeria is a large country, specifically because as one of the founding members, if you like, of the Commonwealth of Learning, it has had a major financial and professional contribution to make. And also because I feel very strongly that it is high time that the rhetoric about South-South cooperation seated under action follows. This is not to say, Mr. Chairman, that there isn't much to be learned from the more developed countries, but it is to give due recognition to the fact that there is a great deal of benefit to be gained by closer interaction among the developing countries. An interaction which I put before you has so far been under-exploited. It struck me as I listened to the reports that perhaps I could share a moment usefully with you in trying to clarify the mandate which Kahl has, because we would want to regard this institute as one of the prime institutions with which we are working. Another institution that falls into that category is the Indira Gandhi National University in New Delhi. Indeed, I hope that there can be a close link between the Indira Gandhi National University, which is an open university, and this institution and other institutions in the network in Nigeria. And I believe that unless you understand and appreciate how we have interpreted the mandate, then the nature of our own interaction cannot be fulfilled. I said earlier this afternoon, when we paid a courtesy call on the military governor, that the stimulus which gave rise to the creation of the Commonwealth of Learning was the introduction of economic fees in some of the major metropolitan centers. It was the introduction of those fees which led to a decline in the number of students going overseas for higher education that caused the setting up of the committee on student mobility, from which committee, or from which committees work, heads of government eventually agreed to create the Commonwealth of Learning. Having said that, let me make it very clear that whereas because of that genesis, the expectation was that we would concentrate on higher education, we are not making higher education the primary focus of our work. Because in the discussions which we have carried out with governments, what governments have been saying to us is that their interest is in the development of human resources. And the development of human resources is not the prerogative of higher education. There's a whole range of institutions concerned with the development of human resources. Let us take as an example Namibia, which has recently become independent and joined the Commonwealth as its 50th member. If in Namibia the development of human resources puts as a priority literacy for returning refugees then the Commonwealth of Learning. If in many of the countries the development of human resources places technical and vocational education at the height of its priorities then we must do that. Equally, if in another country the gaps seem to be in the higher education sector, a sector incidentally from which the major development agencies appear now to be averting their gaze, many of the major institutions are now claiming that it is primary education, far beat from me to challenge any of those assumptions, but it is the right of governments to determine in their own countries whether resources are going to be channeled towards one sector or towards another, or whether they will invest differentially in a number of sectors because progress in these countries cannot take place evenly across all the sectors. Of course we have a board of governors on which Dr. Bonza sits, they have established priorities, we meet key officials, we meet political leaders and we get an indication from them as to what we ought to be doing, and when I shake all of this out like a bag of colds, you shake it and see what is left after all the dust and so on comes out or as I have said in some other places, when all of the excess baggage disappears, what are you left with? You are left with a mandate that requires you to help increase access to education. You are left with a mandate that wants you to help improve the quality of education, a mandate that addresses human resources development, so you will be not living only in the education sector. If agricultural extension becomes the important thing we will do that, if it is primary healthcare we will do that, but we do it through distance education techniques, and central to distance education techniques is the convergence between the new technology and the demands of education. So your plea for a satellite village does not fall on deaf ears. John Piggly is not hard of hearing and I am sure that when you have an opportunity later you will be able to take that proposal further forward. Let me make the point however that the common word of learning is not addicted to high technology. I tend to be rather pragmatic and a realist in these matters. Over 70% of the materials used in distance education today are still print based materials and if in any given country it is print, so be it. If it is a question of using audio tapes to supplement we will do that too. We are not, I'm not here as a salesman with a little black box asking you to buy certain forms of technology. Nonetheless in a country like Nigeria with its vast population and with many needs needing to be met in a short time we must look quite hard at the use of mass communications in certain instances or we will not reduce the gap which exists. So that in a sense is our mandate and that is what we are trying to do. All organizations have to have a president. Somebody has got to answer the telephone but apart from myself there is a vice president and now that I am in Nigeria the vice president is looking after the shop but we have in terms of our own structure five directors with the vice president also serving as a director in that context. We have used a peculiar structure. Each director has a geographical responsibility and he also has a functional responsibility. So let me illustrate from the director you know best. Alhaji Afiz Wali has responsibility at this stage for African programs. In that role he's assisted by Peter Kinanjui from Kenya. Another moment Peter seems to be doing more in East Central and Southern while Alhaji Afiz is going to concentrate his attentions on West but the overall responsibility is his. So that's his geographical responsibility. In addition to that he has responsibility for information services which I might say in deference to him almost in mitigation is perhaps the most difficult of the functional areas with which we are currently concerned because of our funding pattern. I will come back to that in a moment. So that's Africa. Professor Ram Reddy three times a vice chancellor is responsible for Asia and for training. Dr. Dennis Irvin former vice chancellor of the University of Guyana and member of the United Nations University and so on is responsible for Caribbean programs and for materials acquisition and development. Peter MacMeacon who comes from New Zealand handles the Pacific as well as professional continuing education. I don't think I have left anyone out. I was talking about directors with functional and a geographical responsibility. Of course this stranger here John Quigley spans the whole lot. John's responsibility for technology and telecommunications will be in support of all of the directors both in terms of geography and in terms of their functional matters because if you deal with information services there's a technology component. If you're dealing with materials development there's a technology component. So John is indispensable to the lot. That kind of structure makes each of them a king geographically. So when you have problems in when you address Africa don't ask me. But they are less than kings function so that if any of the other directors want to deal with matters concerned with information they'll have to go to have these. If he wants to deal with matters concerning training he has to go and consult Professor Reddy and so on. So we've developed a collegial team in which while in one sense they act independently in the geographical territorial division they cannot act independently in the functional division. They have to act collegially. That gives you a feel of how we structure it. It also gives you a feel of the kinds of things on which we put emphasis. We put emphasis on information services, on training, on materials acquisition and development, on communications and technology and interestingly on professional continuing education. I'll tell you why we have done that. I don't know Mr. Director what kinds of problems you run into in your interaction with the academic fraternity. But let us be under no misapprehension. Whenever you try to develop an alternative system like one based squarely on open learning or distance learning they will inevitably be problems associated with what the academics call parity of esteem. How good is the program that you are putting on through a distance modality when compared with group at a convention. The problems associated with senates and academic boards and all of that kind of thing. A jungle in which I lived for over ten years then you have to find other ways of addressing those issues. I have a strong feeling and it will not happen in my lifetime that the time will come possibly within this decade when people are going to ask whether what is happening in the conventional institution match what is happening in the open learning institution. Because at the moment the body goes into a lecture room and performs and leaves. There is no means by which you can assess the efficacy of that. But when you produce your materials everybody can go through those materials in every way to find out whether this matches up. And the other difficulties that are creeping into academic life. I am an academic too. But I share with you as colleagues some of the problems you have to face in this difficult job you do. The question of parity of esteem is one that will continue to bug open learning systems for a while until we are able to ensure that the quality of what we are doing is like Caesar's wife above reproach. There is no substitute Mr. Director none for quality and in distance education you will do yourselves your individual reputations and the entire movement if I can call it that. Tremendous house. If you settle for less than high quality. It is better not to put the program on than to put it on in a way that allows people to make general criticisms which then have an influence across the whole business of open learning distance education. I have recently heard the chairman of the university grants committee in India put an argument with which I must say I have more than little sympathy. It is perhaps an idea whose time has not yet come. But I assure it with you he asked open universities not to try and do what the conventional universities were doing. He argued that the countries were already disenchanted were unsatisfied with what was coming out of conventional institutions. That the development tasks of the country were not being addressed by those institutions and therefore open universities were being created to do other things. There may be the germ of some truth there. I would not be surprised if within this decade the funding patterns for higher education change in such a way that open learning institutions receive a lot of share because the delivery systems in which they are engaged are much more open to scooting. When people tell me about accountability and when they tell me the distance education is second rate if not second best because you're not sitting at the feet of someone. I ask myself who is doing the teaching in the conventional institutions. And if you look at it quite hard the senior most the most able are not involved in the instructions in instructional tasks. A lot of the instructions being left to the junior most because that is the culture in which you publish or you perish. I thought I should share these few thoughts Mr. Director with colleagues because the way we evolve as a commonwealth of learning will have implications for a lot of what you are doing here nationally. Let me say that the two basic premises on which we were founded was the faith that heads of government have. They said that among commonwealth countries there must be a lot of material and there must be a lot of experience and expertise. So if you could only put it together everybody would not have to remake the wheel. That is what the best thing. And heads of government being heads of government and people whom we must accord the highest respect were right but right only up to a point in the sense that the fact that you say materials exist does not mean that they are available. Culture of intellectual property. The belief that from all countries we will be able easily to mobilize this material has not proved within our experience to be the case. If the present patterns of funding continue or get extended in which funding is tied to the goods and services of particular countries that will provide a further constraint. But fortunately Brunei, Nigeria, India, Canada and several other countries now totaling 22 have provided the kind of core budget that will enable to hold hands with you and make some of this happen. It is for that reason Mr. German that I would like to encourage the director to take through call from other countries such materials as we are happy to make available to him and also to share your own materials with others. That will be testimony that developing countries are prepared to help themselves. Let me, because I am so comfortable and at home, put two other thoughts to you. With a first I will take a sit in liberty, but I know because you have been so generous and so warm and you are welcome that you will accept it in the spirit in which I make it. I want to encourage you to look ahead. Each person brings to a new position a new range of talents, new kinds of experiences. The talents that I have given to you, he now gives to us under Dr. Bunza's stewardship. I hope that NTI building on the gains of the past will see itself as entering a new era so that the programs on which you now engage will take off. Building on the past but also facing the challenges that are different. As I listened to some of the reports director I couldn't help as a professional myself reflecting on the fact that teacher education, which is the number one problem in every Commonwealth country today, wherever we have been, systems are coming apart. In fact in the consultation last week in Gambia the percentages were almost the same. In nearly all of the country 60% of the teaching force at primary level is untrained. In a number of others the secondary level graduates without professional training and so on. I mustn't run a seminar. But let me say that it is an area of professional interests which throughout the Commonwealth is raising new problems. And I have a feeling that NTI can in the next decade develop for itself an image beyond Nigeria and perhaps provide some lessons for other developing countries. If you will not only continue in the ways you are doing but begin to look at some of the problems perhaps with slightly different lenses. You have made a case for satellite village. So be it. Maybe, maybe don't start wanting to do the technology. But if in order to improve the quality of a given program a technology may be applied that will make it more effective. Why not? Let me challenge you to rethink the emphasis which we have all placed on skills required of a classroom practitioner. You can turn your thoughts back a little to the 50s when the first Sputnik went up. All teacher education programs began to emphasize the subject matter. We have lost a generation of people who as teachers were community developers and what we have produced is a generation of teachers as classroom practitioners. Perhaps more competent to transmit information and material. Perhaps. We have inherited a generation in which it seems as if people are going to go into teaching if they can't find anything else to do. It seems as if whereas the previous time the cut from our own societies of the kind of people who went in is very different from the kind of people going in now. Now are there not implications there for what we do in teacher education? And if that is so then I believe Mr. Director that there is sufficient talent in this room to begin to look anew at the kinds of programs which you will yourself develop over the next decade and you will demonstrate a quality of thinking and approach that is born of your own confidence from which many others might benefit. If that Mr. Director becomes the norm through which you seek to operate let me as the President of the Congress of Learning give you the assurance that we walk every mile along the way with you. And let me say also as I worked very quickly through the figures that you presented that it is significant than the eight years on which you have reported the pass rate has been of the order of 35 percent and that if you discount the highest figure of 68 percent in 1983 and the lowest figure of 25.9 in 1988 that pass rate drops to 30 percent. I do not draw your attention to this Mr. Director for reasons of criticism because graciousness dictates otherwise but we have to do better. We cannot only improve access we have to improve quality and we have to make sure that those who will follow the lines which we direct are worthy of the certification and worthy of the profession to which they are called. I am delighted to say that the Congress of Learning has made provision for three senior professionals from the Gambia and from Sierra Leone to come and spend time with you here to look at your materials and to benefit from those in terms of their own programs. They will not be the only ones who will come. If at any stage you feel that as you take up the reins and as we keep our hard to please Wally busy in Vancouver that this institution in which the country has such great faith is one which with our help we hope will become a model for the Commonwealth developing countries. Thank you. Members of the Executive Council, Director, Chairman of Council, colleagues and friends may I say sir that the Commonwealth heads of government just about two years ago when they met in Vancouver decided that it was important to establish a new international organization primarily concerned with promoting the development of human resources through distance education. I think the stimulus for this was the fact that a large number of people from the third world countries who used to be able to go to the metropolitan countries for higher education found that they could no longer do so in large numbers because of the introduction of economic fees. That was the main motive and in the course of the deliberations which heads of government engaged in they came to the conclusion that no country developed or developing will be able to meet the increasing demands for access to education, higher education as well as other forms of education or in fact improve the quality of education unless they turned increasingly to distance education because we cannot build more colleges, more universities, use more resources and so on. And that was what led to the birth of the Commonwealth of Learning which I have the privilege to head. I think an interesting feature of its development is the fact that for the first time the major resources were provided by the developing countries themselves and in that regard Nigeria led the way. Nigeria has a very strong financial commitment and a professional commitment to the Commonwealth of Learning and as you would know sir perhaps gratuitously the Commonwealth Secretariat itself is currently headed by one of your distinguished sons. So as a Commonwealth servant of long-standing it gives me particular pleasure to be in Nigeria at this time. We have just held a major consultation of the West African countries beginning in Gambia and I'm delighted to say that it was a highly successful meeting, successful in the sense that the sub-region appears ready to work together in the kinds of activities which we've been able to put before them. It is a special delight to be in Kaduna State from which we have been able to draw the talents of Alhaji Hafeez Wally, Dr. Bounza's immediate predecessor. But also because the major problem which many of the third world countries seem to be facing today derived from the problems of teacher education in a strange kind of way despite all of the efforts over the last ten years. In nearly every situation it is teacher education that people are calling for and your own institute here has developed a very enviable reputation because you have now trained nearly 200,000 teachers using distance. So we have come here to learn. We have also come to help in whatever way we can and I'm delighted that my colleagues who are here and those who have remained behind have pledged themselves in this new enterprise to give attention to the priorities which governments themselves determine. We did not come with any prescriptions. We did not come with any priorities of our own. To the extent, therefore, that it would be of service, we would be delighted to do so. And I'm most grateful to you for your courtesy in receiving us and for giving me this opportunity on behalf of the Commonwealth of Learning to make few remarks. Thank you. The President and the Director of Directors of College of Learning in Vancouver, Canada, the Chairman and the Director of National Children's Institute, we are here for education and medical information to know the price. I would like to thank the government and people of the state to more sincerely extend on behalf of all of us our warm congratulations to Dr. James Morage for his appointment as the first President of these very important institutions. The same goes for all others who are now regarded as the pioneer staff of this institution which hopefully in the future will not only attain the very objectives which were set to result from the decision of the various heads of Commonwealth nations some three years ago, but also to become a model for developing nations to be able to set up certain institutions having similar motives towards the betterment of their own people. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge and also appreciate the kindness you have done by paying a courtesy call on the office of the military governor of the state and for being so generous to spend some days in our midst. And thirdly, for the most humble comments you have made on the National Institute based here in Canada, which they are either to have had or had to have his wali as the director before his nomination by the Nigerian government to become one of the pioneer staff representing Nigeria. You have very extensively briefed all of us here seated on what the Commonwealth Project Learning is, how it came about, and how you set about doing precisely what the objective of this institute should be in the near future. I believe the establishment of these institutions is not only timely but will go a long way in alleviating some of the problems which are the moment quite a number of people from the developing nations would love to follow their education, but due to certain constraints, basically economic being introduced by sponsored and made by the nations where they would love to go had become a near impossibility and therefore for the head of nations of the Commonwealth to set and decide I think that they not only realize as a fact the relevance of education in the development of mankind, but probably have thought of a solution without a serious rupture of diplomatic relations between nations within the absence of this which definitely would have affected the would have been beneficiaries of what had been before the venues for such education development. Due to the economic situation in the world today, different nations of the world have to come up with policies towards arresting the deteriorating economic situations of their respective nations and therefore one cannot grudge certain nations for taking steps towards the betterment of already very bad economic situations which globally have become a phenomenon which each and every nation has to grapple with and with different strategies are so doing. And I believe the College of Learning now established will feel the gap that has been so created and in time of cost inconveniences I think it will be a lot more than the practice that had been where you find even people at very advanced ages had to abandon their families where they can't afford going with them all the shows of their respective nations will be viewed to betteren their education but now this is the learning process I am with a firm belief that one the rich will be wider and probably deeper than it had been and the recipients will be looked more than it had been in the some past. As you might have probably noticed, you have a major representative and he is very well known in the education sector in this country and who for years had been the director of the National Teachers Institute and it is a credit that whatever achievement had been made in that institute had been due to his efforts and that management staff in that institute so sincerely hope that the good work he has established and the reputation he has established which among others warranted the government to approve of his commitment to that institute you will find most valuable and sincerely hope that time would have finished and then that institute would have founded him a worthy ambassador of Nigerian people and Nigerian government Dr. Bullzer has just assumed office as his successor he was at one time a commissioner of education in Sokota State and we hope that with him there the link it is will still be sustained and we hope that as we rightly pointed out that the two have been here is to find precisely how it has been over the years without the NTI he would be very much positioned to give you the necessary direction and whatever it were to the days when indigenous of the state would very much share the joy of the efforts they are putting together and sincerely hope about the time the institute of a commenced operation the performance of us here would love to see the impact of such in our midst as we go around the state and probably interact with the people who sincerely hope you pick up a lesson or two on what areas of cooperation would be available between your institute and the government and people of the state once more on behalf of the government and people of the state I would like to most sincerely welcome you in and sincerely hope that you may not be the very first and last of such visits to this part of the country and thank you very much indeed for coming Thank you Counselors of the Zaria Emirate Council we are visiting president of the commemores of learning Dr. James A. Maraj distinguished ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to be at the Amos Palace today despite the postponement of the earlier visit which was scheduled I would like to seize this opportunity to formally apologize to his highness for the earlier postponement this was due to the events in the country at that time which led to the postponement of the visit by the president of the commemores of learning I am happy to say today we have got the president of the commemores of learning Dr. James A. Maraj and his entourage I would like to have his wali and Mr. John Wigley with him who felt it is an opportunity that the Emirate had agreed to see us and hence this courtesy visit we are grateful and now wish to introduce Dr. James Maraj to this highness the Amos Zaria your highness distinguished counselors colleagues friends I have the honor your highness to pay our respects to you and to your counsel on what has become for me a very special occasion our visit to Nigeria on this occasion arises from the decision taken by heads of government Commonwealth heads of government some two years ago to create a new international organization with headquarters in Canada the purpose of that organization is to try and increase the access to education and improve the quality of education for all the people in the Commonwealth and to do so using distance education techniques your highness to hold discussions with the government and with the leaders of various institutions to see in what ways we can join hands in improving the educational provisions in Nigeria I should like to take the opportunity to congratulate Nigeria on its achievements and to say that there is much in this country from which the other countries in the region can benefit there is also a great deal from which other countries in the Commonwealth can benefit it is my honor and privilege on behalf of myself my counselors and the people of Zaria to welcome you very warmly to my fellas in particular and Zaria in general we are very much delighted that we have found time to pay a courtesy call on me this is indeed an honor to me and to the entire people of Zaria your current visit to Nigeria is very much welcome and we feel very much delighted that you are going around to see what we have especially in the field of education Nigeria as a developed country is spending a lot of money in education but whatever amount of money we spend we are still unable to provide enough education to our students your organization I'm sure will be very useful in solving part of our problems that is if your organization can arrange to establish a proper link in the field of higher education and even in the field of in-service training of other students who are unable to get into learning among the students of Commonwealth I do hope that after your tour when you study what we have will benefit from your enormous ideas in the field of education we look forward very much in a very short distance when your organization will make a concrete arrangement for a change of students throughout the Commonwealth countries by doing so our system of education will be very much similar and will be in a position to inculcate unity among Commonwealth's nation I wish to thank you once more for finding time to follow me I wish you a very successful show tour in Nigeria and we do hope that we will see much of you here so that we shall continue to benefit from your experience thank you very much Vice Chancellor of Nigeria University had a privilege to sit on the council of ACU in London and even now we have a seat there so I think it's a welcome idea to have you visit here so that we carry new acquaintances and hopefully develop further cooperation strategies between our two institutions you are most welcome and I hope you have a pleasant stay in Nigeria and please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for further details thank you very much Thank you Vice Chancellor Perhaps I could begin by thanking you for the cordiality of your welcome on behalf of my colleagues and myself and also perhaps on behalf of people from the Federal Ministry who are also accompanying us as a former Vice Chancellor myself in the South Pacific with very strong connections to the Association of Commonwealth Universities having served on this council on a number of occasions I'm well aware of the extremely high reputation which this university enjoys internationally and if I may I should like to congratulate you on the progress which this university has made not only in terms of its international reputation but the service that is provided nationally here in Nigeria I think that it might be useful if I perhaps gave you a brief introduction to the way the Commonwealth of Learning has developed since the earliest consultations you will recall of course that the stimulus for setting us up at all arose from the frustrations over the introduction of economic fees and fewer students being able to go overseas I think because of that people who have not been consistently involved in the evolution make the assumption that we are an institution of higher education you will remember at Perth at the 75th anniversary of the ACU that the original suggestion for a Commonwealth University did not really fly academic colleagues no doubt recalling the experience of the United Nations University did not quite see the need for a Commonwealth University so that from the earliest beginnings with a focus on higher education I think I am obliged to explain that our mandate is rather wider it was thought at one time that the Commonwealth of Learning would almost be a network of higher education institutions and there are places in the Commonwealth where that model still lingers in people's minds so that if we do things that are different it might even be concluded that we have lost our way for that reason I think it is important to clarify that the mandate which we have received is one that focuses on the development of human resources using distance education and I am sure you will agree that the development of human resources is not necessarily the prerogative of higher education institutions because the members of the Commonwealth of Learning are the member countries of the Commonwealth we are expected to respond to the priorities those are laid down by governments so that if individual governments feel that the priorities they wish to have addressed relate to technical vocational education or literacy or women in development then the Commonwealth of Learning is obliged to make its genuflections in that regard and as you well know as an experienced Vice Chancellor even national universities from time to time have had for reasons of survival to do that I used to say when I was a Vice Chancellor dealing with 14 separate governments that often if we do not do what the governments require us to do we shan't survive long enough to do what we want to do and I think there is more than a grain of truth in that we are therefore working on a number of fronts and our own structure provides for a focus on distance education my own view is that there is a fair amount of confusion across the Commonwealth on what is distance education so much of the efforts which universities have put into distance education has been modeled on the British Open University that I think we really have to clarify in our own minds each of these but I am not here Vice Chancellor to run a seminar on distance education I am here to say that we are an independent autonomous international organization we are not part of the Commonwealth Secretary we have the freedom as universities have the freedom to work with each other I happen to hold a view as many of my colleagues do that no country is going to be able to meet the demands for greater access to education including higher education no indeed are we going to be able to improve the quality of what we are offering if we rely only on the conventional system as resources are getting harder and harder and even if we had the financial resources the question of staff, libraries, laboratories and so on would make it extremely difficult so I think there is a case for a greater use of distance education and your university of course is a pioneer in that regard you have over many years one cannot but be impressed one of the reasons it makes me particularly happy to be here for example is that the model you have described is precisely the model which I use in my own university where for each of the faculties we had an institute which was concerned with the outreach function and we had a number of centers which also cut across these I believe that there is tremendous scope here for closer work I understand that the Ministry of Education is proposing the creation of a network in Nigeria of the institutions concerned with distance education one of the basic premises that heads of government operated on was that there does exist in the Commonwealth a considerable amount of materials and expertise and if only we could mobilize some of this then each of us wouldn't have to start to stretch if therefore in your own developments we are able to facilitate your at least reviewing materials with a view to broadening the range of your offerings or perhaps deepening them then that is a service that we are in a good position to follow I have with me my colleague John Quigley who was the director responsible for technology and telecommunications has a particularly crucial role to play in strengthening the distance education dimensions and there are some ideas that we will be discussing with the Ministry later this week as director of African programs and also with responsibility for information services you probably remember Professor Ram Reddy who was Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi who is Vice President and who was responsibility for training and for Asian programs Dennis Irvin who is an old colleague of yours who has worked in Nigeria for some time and was formerly Vice Chancellor of Guyana Dennis is head of Caribbean programs and materials acquisition and development Interesting, he was a teacher Yes, that's right Still going strong Yes If you join the conference of learning you tend to have a new lease on life and this has certainly been Dennis's experience I'm sure it will have his experience as well So let me assure you by chance that it is I do not say this for reasons of courtesy only it is a great satisfaction to me because of my own background to be once more in the university framework and to say that I have a great deal of respect and regard for what has been achieved here I think within the framework of a network of institutions there must be a major role for this university and if the Conference of Learning can help you both in the development of the institution and in serving this country and perhaps lending from your many talents to the region if not the continent and indeed other parts of the Commonwealth then I believe that by working together perhaps we might leave the world a little bit better than we found it Thank you Thank you very much I believe in these two areas technical, education, communication African Studies we have a lot to do One program that readily comes to our mind is that we are trying to establish a Department of Communication Communication Mass Communication That is an area that it is mass communication so it means it has to be distantly mass educated you know that's an area that and talking about technology and communication the world is really getting the whole world is getting into a society and if you are not careful you will be left out of the society this is a realization which some of us are aware but a lot of our people are not fully aware the world is now really getting into a world society of communication the kind of network that we know exists between Europe, Canada, America, Japan and some other countries that does not exist here is frightening somebody said in our meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1988 that if we are not careful in the next 25 years the world will change completely and those who do not join the race will be left behind the whole problem of the third world the whole business south-south I think we have a problem and I hope your institute will find a solution somehow well I think we might manage together because neither you nor we can do it alone I am sure you will find it useful I would be delighted to refresh by memory on some of the things that we do here so one of the books is for you personally and the other one for the institution we can browse through and see what areas we will that's very kind indeed thank you very much indeed I would like to address the university this is another knot and perhaps you would like to have it in the office yes thank you very much indeed I have almost become a graduate of a mother yes thank you very much indeed very kind