CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN PARTICIPATING IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNINGAT THE ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY:A Case of Matabeleland North and Bulawayo Regions

Year 2012, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 35 - 47, 01.04.2012

Enna Gudhlanga Onias Mafa Sian Newsome Magadza

Abstract

This paper recognizes that women‘s participation in higher education is very low.

Women’s marginalization in higher education stems from the traditional patriarchal

tendencies, customary law and colonialism. The paper discusses the opportunities and

challenges that female students face in trying to access distance education in Zimbabwe.

Female students are under-represented at ZOU, the sole open and distance learning

institution in Zimbabwe. The female student population is worsened by the fact that a

larger proportion of them than male students drop out. The reasons for this are multiple

but revolve around women’s multiple roles of home keeper, wife and mother. The paper

focuses on Matabeleland North and Bulawayo Regions in order to compare a rural and an

urban set up. Data was collected from ZOU students and lecturers through in-depth

interviews. It is hoped the paper will bring to the fore the various challenges that female

students encounter and finally emerge with some possible intervention strategies that

could help increase the number of female students’ participation in distance education.

The Gender approach to development (GAD) will also guide this study. GAD analysis

highlights the incentives and constraints associated with the work of women and men

and highlights differences in their roles, workloads, access to resources and decision

making opportunities, the impact of interventions on them and the implications for

planning and implementation. The gender approach to development advocates for the

lessening of social inequalities between men and women. Gender as a policy criterion has

been found to reduce poverty, raises farm efficiency and improves natural resources

management (Ellis, 2000). It also emphasises participatory approaches as a tool to

empower women through their articulation of their needs, rights and capabilities.

Communities should be encouraged to embrace the gender approach when focusing on

development issues in communities. Once women are empowered and have the social and

economic resources the quality of life of their households improves. If women therefore

contribute so much to the social well-being of families in particular and communities in

general it is therefore necessary for policy makers to develop policies that enable

communities to improve women’s access to resources like distance education.

Keywords

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References

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