§ Hugh BayleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what support(a) his Department and (b) UK educational institutions have given to develop courses for African educational institutions in respect of (i) teacher training courses, (ii) training of health professionals, (iii) distance learning courses and (iv) other courses; and if he will make a statement. [164422]
§ Hilary BennThe existence of high quality teacher training institution's and infrastructures is central to the delivery of Education For All in Africa. Likewise, well-educated health professionals are critically important for the delivery of programmes designed to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Appropriate distance education programmes, delivered in part through if the use of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), can help to provide courses and resources to teachers and health professionals who would not otherwise have access to them.
DFID is therefore committed to providing support to African Governments and educators to help them to develop sustainable and relevant programmes that will deliver such training. We do this both through the substantial budgetary support that we provide for African Governmets, and also through more focused programmes of technical assistance. The Department for International Development is committed to spending over £1 bilion for education in the next three to five years, including a substantial investment in Africa. Furthermore the £7 million Prime Minister's Imfundo initiative (www.imfundo.org) is working in eight African countries to use ICTs to deliver enhanced educational programmes in association with partners drawn from the private sector, civil society and academic institutions, and focuses particularly on teacher training. We are also working closely with 1447W colleagues in the Department for Education and Skills, to help ensure that best UK practice in educational training can be shared with our partner governments in Africa.
Other relevant initiatives supported by DFID include £2 million support for the African Virtual University (www.avu.org) which delivers distance based university level courses across Africa, and £l million a year funding for the Commonwealth of Learning (www. col.org), an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.
The UK Higher Education Institutions are independent and autonomous bodies, and as such no central record is kept of the number and range of distance learning courses suitable for delivery in Africa, or indeed elsewhere. The Higher Education and Research Opportunities (HERO) website (www.hero.ac.uk) has details of courses available at UK Higher Education Institutions, including those delivered by distance learning. However, many UK institutions do indeed provide support for capacity building and course development in the fields of education and health. DFID has, for example, supported specific distance-learning initiatives between African and British universities in these fields through the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, and organisations such as The British Council also help to co-ordinate such collaborative activities.