To meet the challenge of providing access to education for millions of students, several African countries are opting for distance learning. Since 24 March 2022, the Africa Digital Campus project at the Virtual University of Burkina Faso, together with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and the West and Central African Research and Education (WACREN), has been investing 2.85 billion euros to strengthen cooperation in distance learning and infrastructure.
Modou Diouf, project manager of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie for West Africa, states that “everything is in place for this e-learning model so that registered students can continue to follow courses at a distance without having to travel. Indeed, this project has already started to train and bring together teachers to support this model. In parallel, the Africa Digital Campus project is developing a regulatory framework and an economic model for distance learning in Benin. The aim is to produce a bank of free courses and educational resources.
This digitisation project is part of the DIRECCT programme, financed by the European Union and implemented by AFD and Enabel.