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In one
of the most noteworthy successes in the history of OAS development
programs, the online Educational
Portal of the Americas set a record of over 60 million visits
in the first eighteen months of it existence. The Portal, an
innovation of the OAS’ development arm, the
Inter-American Agency for
Cooperation and Development (IACD), fulfills the essence of
the development mission of a regional international organization:
to bring the best of development programs to the widest possible
hemispheric audience at the lowest possible cost. In this case,
the Portal brings the latest opportunities for quality distance
learning to smaller cities and rural areas of the Americas which
are otherwise underserved.
The
latest analysis of the Portal’s visitors demonstrates that people
using the educational opportunities opened by the Portal come from
places as far as Europe, Africa, and Asia. Thousands of pages have
been downloaded in places as far away as Bangladesh, South Africa,
Russia and Japan as well as all of the countries of the Americas.
“The
major divide in the world is the educational divide, not the
digital divide,” asserts
Ronald Scheman, Director General of the IACD, who conceived
the Portal while still serving as U.S. Executive Director of the
Inter-American Development Bank in the late 1990s. The principal
educational opportunities, he pointed out, are still relegated to
the capital cities and large municipalities. Motivated people,
professional and municipal workers in smaller cities and remote
areas have virtually no opportunities for formal learning to
improve their skills. Many of these workers cannot leave their
jobs or their families, and even if they could, could never pay
for--and probably not qualify for--admission to the larger
universities of the world in the developed countries. “Modern
information technology,“ according to Scheman, “makes it possible
for anyone from Chubut to Choluteca to attend Harvard. We designed
the Portal to bring the educational institutions to the people,
instead of bringing the people to the educational institutions.”
Helena,
a Portal user from Brazil attested, "The Educational Portal has
made a significant impact on my life, as well as on the lives of
many other Brazilians, by providing me with access to high-quality
distance learning that I otherwise would not have available.”
According to Carlos Paldao, Director of the Educational Portal,
the online service now provides access to over 4,000 distance
learning courses from the best universities in the world, and in
subjects from Agriculture to Public Administration. He proudly
pointed to overwhelming, enthusiastic response to the Portal,
which now exceeds 3.5 million people per month, as clear evidence
of the thirst for education and the need that it is fulfilling. He
asserted that the major contribution of the Portal is credibility.
“As the communications revolution expands exponentially,
increasing numbers of people can go to the Internet to access
information,” he observed, “but people in remote areas have little
way of knowing quality courses from, in some cases, outright
frauds. When they come to the Agency’s Educational Portal of the
Americas, they know they are going to get only quality. We have
established procedures to certify that all distance learning
courses listed on our Portal are quality courses,” he stated.
“Indeed, the Educational Portal has rapidly gained enormous
credibility as was evidenced by the enthusiastic response at the
Virtual Educa Conference on Education and Technology held in Miami
in June, 2003.
“With almost every government looking for ways to increase
educational opportunities, and the Presidential Summit Meetings
adopting innumerable mandates for this purpose, our goal at the
IACD is to find ways to do it,” observed Scheman. “Other people
talk about what is needed. We see our job at the Agency as a very
practical one: how do we make it happen and how do we be
innovative and creative in applying the tools of information
technology. The Portal is clear evidence that the formula works,
and we have many other similar ideas in the works,” Scheman added,
pointing to the new online
Best Practices Forum sponsored by the Agency to inform
government leaders of the successful experiences of their
colleagues in other countries.
The Educational Portal is preparing to launch several other
innovative programs targeted at increasing the skills of teachers
and government workers. It has launched the concept of
“e-fellowships” because, as Dr. Paldao noted, “even distance
learning courses can be unattainable for many motivated people in
poorer areas. The Agency is building a core group of courses for
which tuition costs are greatly reduced.” According to Dr. Paldao,
“Our goal to open new opportunities for government workers to
improve their skills is an essential building block of democracy.
Decentralization of governmental responsibility requires a trained
work force to function properly.”
Another innovation
is the Virtual Classroom, which is building a full syllabus of
short courses for work certification. All of these courses will be
fee-based, but will have easy access to fellowships covering most
of the cost. “We believe we can convince the private sector that
it is in their interest to sponsor training courses for teachers
and municipal workers,” asserted Paldao. “It is the only
way to bring effective skills building to remote areas considering
the enormous job that has to be done.”
As one teacher from
Tierra del Fuego, Argentina observed, “I live in a town far from
the large urban centers of the country and as a result have few
possibilities for receiving quality training in my field. Thanks
to the Educational Portal and the scholarship awarded me, I am
updating my professional skills today.” Another Portal user
commented that “The Portal has allowed me to work with other
professionals from different countries of the region, exchange
experiences, points of view, and share knowledge. It has been a
valuable tool for continuing my professional development without
taking time away from my family."
As if to
reemphasize Paldao’s comments about the important of bringing
education to remote areas of the Americas, Scheman asserted that
“education is the only avenue of escape from poverty, the only
instrument to achieve productivity and competitiveness, and the
only light to bring good governance.” He added that “the Agency
has been proud to demonstrate that the OAS can be an enormously
useful vehicle to provide direct services to the people of the
Americas on a regional basis and to put muscle behind the mandates
of the Presidential Summits.” The Educational Portal of the
Americas has a bright future blazing new trails to help the
governments do just that.
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