A. Rural women drop out from school
The observation has been made that the rate at which women drop out of school is very high. There was agreement that this high attrition rate was due to several reasons, which may be culture-based, or due to the lack of appropriate rural infrastructures for education. For example, it was pointed out that women usually drop out of school when they get married because they are traditionally expected to stay at home and raise children. Another reason cited was that they are left to do most of the tasks that men have left behind when they migrated to urban centres for new jobs.
Rural infrastructures like school buildings continue to be inadequate or at least have not improved. This has resulted in a situation where due to lack of classrooms only the male students are given the opportunity to go to schools, while the women are expected to give way for them. The relevancy of content and the appropriateness of delivery systems need to be reviewed.
B. The Chinese “Green Certificate” programme as a tool to improve the skills of rural Women
Discussions focused on the “Green Certificate” programme of the Ministry of Agriculture of China. As explained by the Chinese paper presenters, farmers including rural women, undergo a series of five short courses worth 300 hours in a year, which will be followed by one year of practice in the field. Upon completion of the 300 hours of training and field practice and an examination, those who pass the exam, are awarded a certificate attesting to their having gained a certain level of knowledge and skills. Being certified, the farmer is authorised to help train other farmers in topics for which they are certified as knowledgeable.
In the exchange of ideas among participants it was argued that this programme was appropriate and acceptable at the level it was being applied.
C. Orientation in hi-tech delivery of educational services to rural women
This discussion was anchored on the model used by ICT in Malaysia. The Malaysian presentation highlighted the very advanced application of ICT in the country, including the planned deployment of computers in the rural areas to be completed in the next four years. Participants were amazed how Malaysia has developed advanced computerisation especially in the delivery of courses for Malaysians, not only for rural women. It was observed, however, that the Malaysian model was still not applicable in most Asia-Pacific countries because of the huge funding that was required.
The Malaysian presentation explained that the initial stage of the project used Indian experts in consultation. Indian experts thus have contributed to Malaysian computerisation programme. This raised some questions as to why India has not been able to duplicate the Malaysian experience. The reason put forth was the lack of appropriate policy framework at the national level. As a matter of policy, as well, Malaysia decided not to use any funding coming from external sources. It has funded its own computerisation programme.
In this discussion, it was clarified that Malaysia was invited to present a resource paper to indicate certain alternatives that are available to countries in the region.
D. Proposal for a regional distributed distance-learning network
The focus of a brief exchange of ideas was a Philippine proposal to establish a Distributed Distance Learning Network (DDLN) comprised initially of countries represented in the consultation as consortium members. The proposal, it was pointed, was similar to one that FAO was currently conceptualising. It was also suggested that if this network was to be adopted, then the other countries that were represented in the previous expert consultations would have to be included if they are interested. There was agreement that the idea was workable.
E. Establishing linkages, networks and consortia
Participants agreed that establishing linkages is an important part of designing a distance education programme for rural women in the Asia-Pacific region, but there are specific concerns that require attention. First, many networks and consortia may look good externally but they may not really have the appropriate programmes in place. Second, networks and consortia are useful to the extent that each member is able to get something out of its involvement. Third, there are costs involved in any consortium or network, and these costs must be shared. Finally, there is a certain amount of prestige attached to being a member a consortium or network, especially, if the network has established a good track record.
A point that was made clear in the discussions was the need to include networks and consortium in the resource mapping currently undertaken by the FAO.
