The MCA was established in 1971 to promote education, arts and science and culture in Mauritius through mass media. When the MCA statute was re-enacted in 1985, distance education was maintained as a major strategy to meet these objectives. Merged with the Audio-Visual Centre of the Ministry of Education and Science in 1986, the MCA has until recently been catering mainly for the primary and secondary education sector through the production of educational programmes for broadcast on radio and television.
The MCA has also been producing educational materials for non-formal or continuing education, for non-broadcast use. Since the beginning of 1995, the MCA is involved in dispensing tertiary level programmes in collaboration with overseas institutions through the distance mode. It also runs programmes in collaboration with the University of Mauritius and University of Technology, Mauritius.