A DUTY FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE 1990'S

The political changes which have occurred in eastern Europe and the shift of the countries concerned from command to free market economies have created a need for new forms of continuing education for retraining in such areas as management, economics, and political science. Given current technical possibilities, such education and retraining could be offered through modern distance education techniques by means of an international aid consortium analogous in some ways to United Nations peace keeping forces, so that one western institution or nation would not predominate. As human resource development is the first step to other kinds of progress, and distance education in other areas of the world has proven its worth in the field, a well planned project for eastern Europe would attract support from western aid donors, particularly international groupings such as the European Communities. Thus would distance education contribute to the creation of the common European home.