The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has initiated stakeholder engagement to solicit input for a draft policy on a framework to regulate distance education in the country.
The engagement formed part of the Commission’s effort to enhance the content of the framework before its implementation.
The major components of the new framework included an enabling environment, access, equity, inclusivity, external quality assurance, internal quality assurance, and partnerships.
Mr John Dadzie-Mensah, Director of Accreditation at GTEC, speaking at the forum in Accra, said the decision for the framework was necessitated due to the increasing demand for distance education and the varying challenges affecting the sector.
The challenges included the absence of policies for regulating distance learning; a number of institutions are operating distance education with no internal distance learning policies; and the insufficiency of current policies from tertiary institutions.
The forum brought together heads and representatives of various tertiary institutions in the country to chart the path to quality education.
Mr Dadzie-Mensah said that as regulators, it was imperative to regulate the sector to prevent any problems with the quality of education under the distant programmes.
Professor Goski Alabi, the President of Laweh University College, said the dialogue was timely in building on existing structures to ensure quality in distance education.
She commended GTEC for the forum, adding that it would afford stakeholders the opportunity to look at the draft policy and make significant inputs.
The inputs from the stakeholders, she stressed, would give the country a policy that would enhance higher education in all aspects.
Prof. Olivia Oppong, the Dean of Continuous and Distant Education at the University of Ghana, praised GTEC for showing interest in the activities of distance education in the country.
The Professor said the policy framework, when implemented, would influence the delivery of distance education at universities and establish a national standard in the country.
She advised the Commission to incorporate the needs of international students in the framework to open up to other nationals who were interested in accessing a degree from Ghana.
Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, the Vice Chancellor for the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, said the draft policy aligned with the university’s internal policy on distant education, as his outfit would make the necessary changes to reflect national policy.
