Health education through distance mode in developing countries - Bangladesh model

Bangladesh is a highly dense populated country with very low GNP, high rate of illiteracy, inadequate education facilities and few numbers of resource personnel. It is an accepted fact that the ultimate goal of development is to improve the quality of life for everyone and to provide educational facilities for all. Distance education is, therefore, considered as necessary to achieve mass education. The concept of distance education is a new approach in developing countries like Bangladesh. In Bangladesh the health education through distance mode is considered a new approach. Health education has been identified as the important way to ensure health and hygienic consciousness of any family and all citizens of the country. Like other developing countries, limitations in ensuring infrastructure and resource personnel is an important problem for such educational program. The use of electronic educational technology in health education in distance mode is the most rational approach. This paper focuses on the graduate program on the 'Bachelor of Nursing' Program and the certificate program on 'Certificate in Primary Health Care', which has been developed and implementation by Bangladesh Open University (BOU). The need assessment of education and necessity for such a program offered by a distance mode is described. The program design, development and implementation have been discussed.