The preriquisite for degree courses through open and distance learning: a case of the university of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The government of Kenya has recognised education as an important pre-requisite for it to become an industrialised country. This realisation has necessitated the need to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at all levels of education. The participation rate in higher education is of importance for the populace to be able to acquire high-level skills necessary for development. This is however not possible through the traditional conventional education methods only but also through Open and Distance Learning approaches to be able to reach a large number of students. In this regard, the University of Nairobi runs a course in distance education. It has been observed that many students fail to score a total of 40% in a given course and they re-sit the failed units. The failure rate goes up to 63% with 27% out of 38% cases, which is a very high failure rate. The high failure rate and the ever increasing time taken to graduate are chronic problems in distance learning. One of the reasons why there could be poor performance is lack of post-secondary experience of whatever kind. It is therefore worth finding out how efficiency in distance learning can be enhanced. To find out the relationship between postgraduate qualification and performance in B.Ed courses, a total number of 347 students were selected using stratified random sampling technique. This sample was taken from 4,500 University of Nairobi students who were registered for the B.Ed degree in different parts of study in the School of Continuing and Distance Education. A mixed mode method approach was used in data collection. The study investigated if the independent variables ( academic qualifications ) had a relationship with the dependent variables (academic performance). Pearson correlations were used to establish if there was a relationship between the variables. The analysis indicated a strong relationship between post-secondary qualification and academic performance