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QUESTION;

Trace the historical background of Open University of Tanzania and


its challenges
The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) refers to a self-instructional University, offering
independent educational through media such as television, computers and mailed course
materials. In Tanzania Open University was the third Government owned university to be
established in Tanzania through the Act of Parliament No. 17 of 1992, (Huria, 2012)

The following is the historical background of the open university of Tanzania this is according to
Albert Z. Memba who is a Director in Communications and Marketing of the Open University of
Tanzania, (Tanzania and UNESCO journal)
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania under the leadership of Mwl. Julias .K.
Nyerere, had a long established interest in exploiting the Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
mode of delivery particularly for university level education starting with the Anglo-Tanzanian
study report titled “Education Media in Tanzania: Their Role in Development” (1979) that
recommended establishment of a Correspondence Institute at the University of Dar es Salaam
(UDSM).

Establishment of Open University of Tanzania was based on the recommendations of the


Kuhanga committee (appointed by the Minister for Education and Culture in 1988) that produced
the Kuhanga report, which was in turn adopted by the Government of Tanzania and led to the
ultimate establishment of Open University of Tanzania in 1993 following enactment of the Open
University of Tanzania’s founding Act No. 17 of 1992. Prior to moving the Open University of
Tanzania headquarters to the current temporary headquarters at Kinondoni in 2001, it was
assumed that the Government would have been able to fully establish infrastructure at Open
University of Tanzania headquarters and in all regions latest by 1998. This assumption was
however never realized and until the year 2005, when real efforts to get Open University of
Tanzania’s own infrastructure started. The efforts have borne substantial positive results.
Nevertheless, it is felt that the current efforts of construction of its permanent headquarters at
Bungo, Kibaha in the Coast Region, as well as some selected regional centres, ought to be better
supported by the Government of Tanzania, its development partners and other local and external
funding sources.
Vision
The vision of the Open University of Tanzania is to be a leading world class university in the
delivery of affordable, quality education through open and distance learning, dynamic
knowledge generation and application.

Mission
The mission of the Open University of Tanzania is to continuously provide quality Open and
Distance Education, Research and Public Services for sustainable and equitable socio-economic
development of Tanzania in particular and the rest of Africa. (Mbwette, 2015)

The open university of Tanzania is experiencing many challenges in general. The following are
the challenges facing the open university of Tanzania:

Unreliable Infrastructure. Infrastructure to support Open university initiatives in Tanzania is still


a most challenge to our country. Issues like network connection, computers and associated
facilities, electricity in some areas are not available to users easily. The ICT infrastructure and
facilities are still inadequate, but the prevailing issue of broadband connection and availability of
high bandwidth through National Research and Education Networks is believed to solve the ICT
infrastructure in terms of broadband connectivity, but unfortunately while solving the issues of
broadband connectivity, electricity is becoming a scarce resource in most of African countries
(Huria, 2012). Also other infrastructures like enough building is still a problem to this university.
Lack of Training, Acquiring technological skills is not easy, and many instructors get
discouraged by the effort to produce online courses when they lack technical knowledge. Lack of
training was the major barrier to using the Moodle ELMS. With the increase in number of
academic staff who are located all over the country it becomes hard for the University to train all
these academic to use Moodle ELMS and hence failure of those staff to use the systems and
interact with students.

Availability of Academic Staff, At Open University of Tanzania, most of the academic staff has
other responsibilities that they have to attend to on a daily basis and therefore it becomes very
hard for them to concentrate on using the ELMS (e learning management system) to interact with
students even after they have been trained to use the ELMS. The challenge of academic staff
being engaged with other demanding responsibilities is not a new theme. (Huria, 2013)
High Cost and shortages of funding for running the university, The cost of implementing ICT
infrastructure for e-learning and train academic staff, on E-learning is very high. With the
lecturers residing in centers located all over the country, it would mean training staff over the
internet or organizing the ELMS (E Learning Management System), (Huria, 2013)

Training from the centers while most of the ELMS (E learning management system) experts are
found at the Headquarters.

High rate of students drop out and late completion of programme; some students drop out due to
financial problem, poor learning environment and lack of time to study.

Information dissemination; technical competence needed in order to have effective access to


contemporary Information and communication Technology. skill needed to operate the hardware
and software of Information and communication Technology, including the skills of using
networking system to access and share information. Lack of these skills is a critical challenge in
Open University in Tanzania in which a learner may fail to use the various physical, digital and
human resources involved Information and communication Technology, (Spodick E, 1995)

Lack of study materials; delayed or lack of study materials affects students economically as
they waste resources in terms time and money patiently waiting for arrival of study materials.
This leads to poor performance to the students.

Individual challenges; The students can faced with different challenges in open university such
as lack of sufficient time for study, distance from home to the regional centre, financial
constraints, lack of support from family, employees and lack of training with instructional
technologies.
Lack of supports from social environment and from educational institution offering open
university education can increase burden to open university learners who are naturally isolated
learners. Open University students have been shown to face many challenges related to
individual, institutional and instructional. However, to review the challenges facing distance
learners, it is the literature of student attrition that is most helpful. This makes a sense that; it is
unfortunate we must wait until students drop out before exploring their needs.
The modest course fees are beyond the reach of many Tanzanian learners, the most of the
Tanzania citizen had been employed in the position where by they face a medium salary and
incomes with low or no allowance at all as they will also depending on income for the different
bill payment for the life of their family or themselves which will led to them to fail look for more
studies, refer to the table below as shows the description of Masters Thesis Fee Structure in Open
University of Tanzania, (Huria, 2013)

DESCRIPTION LOCAL (TSH) EAC/SADC (US $)


Application fees 30,000 30
Registration fees 50,000 100
ID processing fee 10,000 10
Examination fee 1,670,000 1,120
Thesis supervision 500,000 340
Tuition fee 1,200,000 800
TOTAL 3,460,000 2400

Masters by Thesis Fee Structure

However the Open University of Tanzania is cost full and low or medium number of the ICT
facilities different scholars should agree with the statement that “Education is cost full in hiring
it” therefore for the Learner to learn they should have to foregone many more things and
investing in the education for their future generation, even go further with the contraction of their
Normal spending so as to afford the Planned goals.

The effort to publicize open university and it is program need to be done more strategically and
extensively .Both traditional technologies and modern technologies should be used
appropriately and in multiple ways .Remote and rural areas ought to be given a special
consideration because they are technologically marginalized .
Regular and more meaningful face to face meetings should be conducted several times in
order to have more meaningful to learners to have opportunity for expressing their general
concerns and academic problems
REFERENCE:

Huria, 2012, Journal of the Open University of Tanzania.Volume 13. Retrieved on 31/12/2015 at
09:30pm from http://www.out.ac.tz/files/documents/huria_journal_vol_13_2012_3.pdf

Memba. A.Z, Tanzania and UNESCO journal, Evolution of the Open University of Tanzania in
the Past 15 Years. Retrieved on 31/12/ 2015 at 07:22 pm from
http://www.natcomreport.com/Tanzania/pdf-new/evolution.pdf

Rogers Bhalalusesa et al (2013), huria, Journal of The Open University of Tanzania Volume 14
retrieved on 6 January 2016 at 11:15pm from
file:///F:/SECOND%20YEAR%201st%20SEMISTA/edu%20201,%202015/huria%20journal%2
0vol%2014%20-%20final%202013_2.pdf

Edward F Spodick, 1995, The Evolution of Distance Learning, Hong Kong University of Science
& Technology retrieved on 6 January 2016 at 11:15pm from
http://sqzm14.ust.hk/distance/distance-6.html????

Prof. Tolly.S.A. Mbwette, Vice Chancellor, (2015) Open University of Tanzania: Accessed on 3/1/2016
from
http://www.out.ac.tz/files/speeches/ACADEMIC%20INTEGRITY%20CHALLENGES%20IN%20OPEN
%20AND%20DISTANCE%20LEARNING.pdf!!!!!

http://www.out.ac.tz/files/documents/huria%20journal%20vol%2014%20-
%20final%202013_2.pdf.!!!!

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