Kursat demiryurek

1. RURAL DISTANCE EDUCATIONAND
THE TURKISH EXPERIENCE
ASSOC.PROF.DR. KÜRŞAT DEMİRYÜREK
ONDOKUZ MAYIS UNIVERSITY
TURKEY
kdemiryurek@gmail.com

2. 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

3. 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)”

4. • 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.

5. 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)

6. 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

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

8. 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)

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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).

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.

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