Online Learning: Opening Post-School Education in South Africa through Multi-Modal Offerings

Abstract

South Africa’s long history of racial exclusion has led to high levels of inequality in terms of access to quality higher education and training for certain population groups (Foko 2015; Letseka & Pitsoe 2012; Walton et al. 2015). It is one of the reasons why higher education is such an aspiration for South Africans. It is considered a ticket to escape individual and intergenerational poverty. And it has “the potential of breaking the links that bind together low-income, inequality, and unemployment” (Walker & Mathebula 2020).

For most South Africans, higher education means traditional, full-time, campus-based face-to-face instruction (Letseka & Pitsoe 2012). But the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) acknowledges that the current post-school education and training (PSET) system does not have the capacity to provide diverse and affordable access to full-time, face-to-face education (DHET 2017a).