RURAL DİSTANCE EDUCATİONAND THE TURKİSH EXPERİENCE

ASSOC.PROF.DR. KÜRŞAT DEMİRYÜREK

ONDOKUZ MAYIS UNIVERSITYTURKEY

kdemiryurek@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Agricultural technologies have been constantly changing and rural people should be informed about innovations. However, rural people especially in developing countries usually have less access to agricultural extension and advisory services. Thus, rural distance education is one of the ideal solutions. This paper discusses the importance of rural distance education in developing countries and presents the Turkish experience (i.e. The Project of Extensive Farmer Education through Television, YAYÇEP) in Turkey. Suggestions about effective use of rural distance education will be made.

Keywords: agricultural extension, extension methods, rural distance education, educational television, YAYCEP, Turkey

DISTANCE EDUCATION

• Distance education is:

“…an organised educational activity, based on the use of teaching materials, in which constrains on study are minimised either in terms of access, or time, and place, pace, methods of study or any combination of these (Perraton, 2000)”

• Successful distance education programmes require regular two-way communications, but have not necessarily to introduce face to face;

• However, problems such as lack of interactivity in learning and weakness in skill teaching cannot be overcome unless it is supported with regular advisory services

• Electronic media, such as radio, television, video and recently computer (with internet connection) are some major and suitable media for distance education.

DISTANCE EDUCATION WITH INTERNET

• Although the computer-based media have been recently developed and used in many developed countries, they are not widespread in developing countries due to lack of infrastructure, access (Gelb and Offer, 2005) computer skill and literacy (Koutsouris, 2006)

DISTANCE EDUCATION WITH TV

• television is still more popular and relatively more accessible in many developing countries and does not need literacy to follow.

• especially in developing countries excessive population in rural areas, inadequacy in investments and qualified teaching staff, the use of television became essential

• Besides TV programmes, printed materials and demonstrations, certificate and awards increase the success of distance education.

EFFICIENCY TOWARDS BEHAVIORAL CHANGE

• Mass communication tools

were very effective for

introducing the innovations but

not in other stages like decision

making and application

(Rogers, 1995)

TURKISH CASE: YAYCEP

• Turkish Ministry of Agriculture (MARA) launched distance education in 1991 in order to increase the number of farmers benefiting from agricultural extension activities.

• The Project of Extensive Farmer Education through Television Programmes (YAYCEP) was adopted by a protocol signed by MARA, Turkish Radio Television (TRT), Anadolu (Open) University.

YAYÇEP

• This project based on distance education system is an important application of agricultural extension including agricultural television programmes, manuals, advisory services on village level, exams, certificates and awarding systems

YAYÇEP

• The first ohase (YAYÇEP-1) applied between 1991 and 1997 and comprising about 338 different agricultural subjects

• about 800.000 books were printed and distributed to the 113,123 registered farmers involved in the project

• Open University made examination and 77.424

successful farmers were qualified to obtain

certificates and 33.205 were rewarded

YAYÇEP

• “Agricultural Directorates” were made responsible

for continuous advisory services

• Total cost is about 5 million US$ and 44 US$ per

participants

• In the second phase (YAYÇEP-2) between 1999 and

2009 previous programmes with some supplementary

topics were broadcasted and 413.400 farmers

registered and 488.952 new manuals distributed

(MARA, 2010).

Some Results on YAYÇEP

• Farmers who applied the techniques suggested by the programmes: – relatively older, with a higher level of formal

education and income levels– regularly watching TV within the scope of the

Project and reading printed materials and obtained benefit from them

– frequently contacted with extension staff about the Project materials, and consulted with each other

Results on YAYCEP

• YAYÇEP programmes were very effective in increasing the awareness about agricultural techniques.

• However, their effectiveness was limited as to the process of adoption and field applications.

• This was mainly due to the lack of suitable advisory services and demonstrations at the field level

• Moreover the time schedule for project broadcasts, the duration of the programmes were not appropriate according to most of the farmers

CONCLUSION REMARKS • Larger population of farmers were informed

about the technology in agriculture by this Project in Turkey

• The manuals were found simple and clear to understand by most of the farmers

• The videocassettes are still used for farmer education

• Beside these positive aspects, there were some crucial problems of the project

RECOMMENDATIONS TO SIMILAR PROJECTS

• Conduct field demonstrations with farmers’ condition

• Encourage women’s participation

• Adapting broadcasting time schedule to farmers’ wishes

• Conduct pilot trials, monitoring&evaluations

• Farmers with certificates should have the priority

• Coordination among the actors should be made with the continuous feedbacks taken into consideration

IN CONCLUSION• For the efficiency of agricultural

distance education, the further projects have to be integrated whole with:

1. appropriate television broadcasting, 2. simple manuals and 3. regular advisory services and of course motivations like certification

and prizes

SELECTED REFERENCES

• Batey, A. and Cowel, R.W. 1986. Distance Education: An Overview. Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Washington.

• Cook, F. J. 1998. Distance Education for Agriculture and Rural Development: The Third Wave. Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Department (AERDD), The University of Reading, UK. http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/ea/distance/third.pdf

• Demiryürek, K. 1993. A Research on the Farmers’ Participation of YAYÇEP in Gölbaşı District of Ankara (in Turkish with English abstract), Turkey. MSc Thesis (unpublished), Institute of Natural and Applied Sciences, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.

• Gelb, E. and Offer, A. (eds.). 2005. ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html

• Koutsouris, A. 2006. ICTs and Rural Development: Beyond the Hype. Journal of Extension Systems, Vol.22 (1), 46-62.

• Perraton, H. D. 2000. Open and Distance Learning in the Developing World. Routledge. London and New York.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• I acknowledge GFRAS and the organization committee for providing fund for my participation to the Annual Meeting and International Extension Conference.