D.Ed. / You all know about population growth. When Oxford University was founded in the 13th Century there were about 500 million people in the world. When the Open University was set up there were 3 billion and when we celebrate our thirtieth anniversary at the end of this century there are likely to be 6 billion. To situate the same phenomenon ... in Africa you only have to note that in 1960 there were only three African cities with populations of over half a million. Now there are 28. In many countries population is increasing faster than gross national product. The conclusion is simple. By the next century the world will not possibly be able to train and educate its people by conventional means. We shall face the challenge of mega-education and mega-training. By the year 2000 half of the world's population will be less than 25 years old and half will live in the cities. In the developing world one third of the population will be under 14. The response to this challenge will determine the future of the world and we, as distance educators, have the nearest thing to a solution for educating and training the people of the 21st century" (Daniel, 1992:4). Seligman (1992:13) continues the above line of thought when he states: "We need a class of modern educators who are Ghandian in their commitments and concerns but who are at the same time highly modern in their technological competence and sophistication in the field of communication. This means they combine social sensitiveness with the technical capability to bend modern technology for a mass orientated education". The researcher in this study is therefore of the opinion that within the context of South African education, training and development of the workforce conventional training methodology as well as conventional delivery of programmes would futuristically not be appropriate if we consider the changing nature of local and global economies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9312 |
| Date | 15 August 2012 |
| Creators | Pailman, Kenneth David. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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