The New Zealand Correspondence School has taught nearly 750,000 students since it was established in 1922. Indicators of success are student achievement, parental satisfaction, and cost per student. Possible models for basic distance education are as follows: (1) isolated students learning independently; (2) a partial intermediary who provides organization, encouragement, and supplementary teaching; (3) an intermediary or teacher supervisor as a necessary element; and (4) a combination of 2 and 3, with the intermediary working with several individuals or groups sequentially or a large group simultaneously. There are great variations in the coverage, quality, and the state of communications in countries. People can sometimes be the most convenient, available, and cheapest medium of communication. Common educational problems in many countries include insufficient financial and technological resources, insufficient or inadequate school buildings, teacher shortages, teacher quality, and inequitable access to education for women. A procedure has been proposed for establishing productive dialogue between distance and state educators to develop distance education or multichannel approaches to meet one or more country's specific school level, basic vocational, or community educational requirements. Three stages of this process are visits to each state, regional planning meeting, and regional workshop. To ensure an effective system, regular monitoring is essential. (YLB)