a) Developing countries

Distance education systems have frequently been critised on the grounds that their droupout rates are unacceptably high. Students withdraw from distance education programmes due to a study time, family responsibilities, and work commitment. Other related factors which force distance students to discontinue from programmes are lack of communication infrastructure (telephones, faxes, email, internet) and inadequate transportation facilities. Research studies conducted in India (Mouli, 1995) show that the rates of successful completing distance education students are very low compared to on-campus students. This is not surprising considering that on-campus students are benefit from regular face-to-face interaction with lectures on an almost daily basis as well as available on-campus support services such as academic outselling. The face-to-face interaction and academic counselling are often limited to off-campus students. Individual attention that is possible on campus is impossible to off-campus programmes due to lack of appropriate communication infrastructure and financial and physical resources, and at times large enrolments. Despite the fact that distance learners are often encouraged to be independent, self-reliance, and autonomous, even they need support and motivation from distance education institutions as well as from workplace, family and friends. Distance education institutions may provide such support by, in part, continuously monitoring the academic progress and attendance of the students as well as providing counseling to those students who seem to be experiencing some difficulties and therefore are likely to dropout. The Institute of Distance Education of the University of Swaziland, through the Learner Support Services Unit, is continously monitoring the academic progress of the distance education students as well as providing consoling to those who seem to be experiencing problems and are likely to dropout. The proposed paper will report the impact of the on-line continuous monitoring and co! nseling in reducing dropout rates in the Institute. It will also report the profile of the distance learners, the factors hinder their academic progress, the strategies they use to cope with such factors, and the experiences of the researchers in providing monitoring and counseling.