ATG's chief executive, emphasises the importance of hands-on learning for motivation.

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However, the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of these programmes has been undermined by a lack of adequate resources, an acute shortage of trained manpower, a severe lack of educational and other instructional materials, a shortage of learning spaces and insufficient motivation for teachers and literacy facilitators due to poor working conditions.

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Done well, the competition could be just the national motivation the digital-learning movement has needed to see large-scale adoption of high-quality blended-learning programs.

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It is probably true that you need more self motivation on a distance-learning programme.

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The aim was to raise standards by improving student motivation by promoting personal ownership of learning, offering a wide range of subjects, allowing students to decide how much time they wanted to commit to particular subjects and giving them the opportunity for some specialisation.

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Further education colleges and schools would have to create attractive learning programmes, but everyone had to play their part - resources from government, commitment from employers and motivation from families, he said.

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