Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Access to knowledge and information is found to be the cornerstone in the road to knowledge economy transformation whereby the utilization of knowledge is the key engine of economic growth, where knowledge is acquired, created, disseminated and used effectively to enhance economic and social development. This means that the more people acquire knowledge, the more they will begin producing new products or improving systems and existing products, thus adding value to local products and improving the GDP of the country, as well as improving their social livelihood. Therefore, the primary role public libraries have is being the knowledge hubs, to make provision of higher quality knowledge and to make information accessible to the public to equally contribute to all NDPs towards achieving the Namibia Vision 2030 for a knowledge economy. This research study discusses “The contribution of the Public Library services towards a knowledge economy transformation readiness which is envisaged by the Namibia Vision 2030. In achieving that, the study has investigated the state of the Namibia legislative and policy framework reflections of access to knowledge and information as provided by libraries. The study further examines the availability and accessibility of knowledge and information resources, including ICT infrastructure at public libraries in remote rural areas. Moreover, it discusses the types of education and training programmes conducted by public libraries in ensuring that users have the necessary information and retrieval searching competencies and skills for accessing and navigating available information infrastructural resources. Finally, it explores innovation systems, technologically and non-technologically initiated by librarians for library services enhancement, and how library users have tapped into the growing stock of knowledge and information, and adapted them to local needs for economic and social development. The study has employed the four pillars of the World Bank Knowledge Economy Framework, namely an economic and institutional regime; information, knowledge and ICT infrastructure; education and training, and an innovation system as the lenses through which to investigate the research questions understudied.

This research studies and documents the barriers to remote rural students' access of distance education support services offered by the centre for external studies at the University of Namibia The intent of the researcher is to investigate the question: What barriers do remote rural students face when accessing student support services offered by the CES-UNAM? The purpose of the study is to promote the growth of open and distance learning in the area of student support for students in the remote areas of Caprivi and Kavango regions in Namibia. The aim of the research is to provide evidence that open and distance learning students in remote rural areas face academic, administrative and logistics, personal and natural disasters as barriers as they study through the Centre for External Studies, University of Namibia. Six students were interviewed and studied over a period of two months. The students were followed to their places where interviews were held. Several written documents from students registering their grievances with CES-UNAM were requested from the office of the Director and were reviewed and analysed. The results thereof were recorded in thick verbatim as students personally engaged themselves in narrating the barriers that they face each day during their study periods. The results showed that Open and Distance Learning institutions in the world should practise and enhance sound academic, administration and logistics management systems to help students in remote rural areas. CES-UNAM has a challenge to ensure that students in remote rural areas are adequately supported. The researcher recommends that studies in the area of student support in should focus on their transactional, interactional and social contexts in order to enhance their opportunities to continue with their studies. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Distance Education)

This research studies and documents the barriers to remote rural students' access of distance education support services offered by the centre for external studies at the University of Namibia The intent of the researcher is to investigate the question: What barriers do remote rural students face when accessing student support services offered by the CES-UNAM? The purpose of the study is to promote the growth of open and distance learning in the area of student support for students in the remote areas of Caprivi and Kavango regions in Namibia. The aim of the research is to provide evidence that open and distance learning students in remote rural areas face academic, administrative and logistics, personal and natural disasters as barriers as they study through the Centre for External Studies, University of Namibia. Six students were interviewed and studied over a period of two months. The students were followed to their places where interviews were held. Several written documents from students registering their grievances with CES-UNAM were requested from the office of the Director and were reviewed and analysed. The results thereof were recorded in thick verbatim as students personally engaged themselves in narrating the barriers that they face each day during their study periods. The results showed that Open and Distance Learning institutions in the world should practise and enhance sound academic, administration and logistics management systems to help students in remote rural areas. CES-UNAM has a challenge to ensure that students in remote rural areas are adequately supported. The researcher recommends that studies in the area of student support in should focus on their transactional, interactional and social contexts in order to enhance their opportunities to continue with their studies. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Distance Education)

PhD (Physics) / Department of Physics / The knowledge of solar radiation in this dispensation is crucial. The lack of grid lines in the remote rural areas of South Africa necessitates the use of solar energy as an alternative energy resource. Solar radiation data is one of the primary factors considered for the installation of renewable energy devices and they are very useful for solar technology designers and engineers. In some developing countries, estimation of solar radiation becomes a challenge due to the lack of weather data. This scenario is also applicable to South Africa (SA) wherein there are limited weather stations and hence there is a dire need of estimating the global solar radiation data for all climatic regions. Using a five year global solar radiation (𝐻) and bright sunshine (𝑆) data from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and South African Weather Service (SAWS) in SA, linear Angstrom – Prescott solar empirical model was used to determine regression coefficients. MATLAB interface was used whereby the linear regression plots were drawn. Annual empirical coefficients of 22 stations were determined and later the provincial values. The range of the regression coefficients, a and b were 0.216 – 0.301 and 0.381 – 0.512 respectively. The 2006 estimated global solar radiation per station in a province calculated from the modified models were compared with the observed and statistically tested. The root mean square errors were less than 0.600 MJm−2day−1 while the correlation relation ranged from 0.782 – 0.986 MJm−2day−1. The results showed the regression coefficients performed well in terms of prediction accuracy. / NRF