Networking Learning Communities for Development

Networking Learning Communities for Development

Presented at:
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

Valletta, Malta
23 November 2005

Report to the Foreign Ministers Committee

by:

Dr. Lewis Perinbam, O.C.
Chairman of the Board
Commonwealth of Learning

Honourable Ministers:

On behalf of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) I wish to thank you for the privilege of making this presentation. I want to begin by expressing our gratitude to Commonwealth governments for their support, especially those who are contributing financially to COL.

Our six major donors notably Canada, the UK, India, Nigeria, New Zealand (which plans to double its contribution over the next two years), and now South Africa are COL's financial backbone. During the current three-year plan Sierra Leone and Tuvalu became new contributors and Bangladesh, Ghana, St. Lucia, and Tanzania became supporters once again. We thank them all. Their financial support manifests the value they attach to COL.

The past biennium marked a change in COL's Presidency. Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan (Malaysia) who served COL with distinction for nine years and led it ably during a critical period in its history was succeeded by Sir John Daniel (United Kingdom) who is bringing new ideas and vitality to the organisation. I am delighted that he is here with me today.

COL will celebrate its 20th birthday at the next CHOGM. Commonwealth Heads of Government created COL when they met in Vancouver in 1987. They believed that Governments could only bring education and training to all their people by using media and technology. Twenty years ago the focus was on the mass media. Since then an effervescence of information and communications technologies has created an even richer environment for learning.

These contemporary methods of communication have sparked the revolution in open and distance learning that defines COL's mission. Our task is to enable Governments to harness this revolution to national aspirations. We help them to develop policies for using communications in education, to create distance learning systems and to apply learning technologies for many purposes.

The Millennium Development Goals provide the framework for describing our work. Let me give you a few examples of how we are helping countries towards these goals

Fighting poverty and hunger means empowering millions in rural communities. Working in partnership with key agricultural networks, we are helping farmers in India improve their livelihoods by accessing information and credit. Our goal is to create a self-replicating process.

Achieving Universal Primary Education means training and developing millions of new teachers. Distance education is the only solution to the challenge. COL is helping Zambia and many other countries develop policies and systems.

Success in Primary Education will launch a tidal wave of youngsters towards secondary education. In large-population countries traditional schools will not suffice. We are helping Nigeria to create an open school drawing on Indian experience and Ghana is creating an Open Technical and Vocational School with COL's assistance. COL also promotes the growth of SchoolNets in Africa and South Asia and is the most active Commonwealth agency in bridging the digital divide.

Six million Commonwealth citizens are currently engaged in distance learning at postsecondary level. COL is helping institutions improve programme quality in all Commonwealth regions. South-South cooperation is integral to our work. For example, the Commonwealth Executive MBA and Master of Public Administration programmes that we developed with all the open universities of South Asia have facilitated continuous dialogue between India and Pakistan and are being extended to Africa.

We are working with the Forum for African Women Educationalists on the Millennium Goal of Gender Equality. COL is helping women to access ICTs and working with Caribbean countries on boys' underachievement.

Achieving the health goals requires mass learning as well as better services. In association with the WHO, COL is empowering local people in The Gambia, Sierra Leone and elsewhere to use media to get health messages to the people. This is reducing infection rates.

To promote environmental sustainability COL is supporting the Green Teacher initiative in India, which we shall extend in South Asia and Africa, further manifesting our commitment to South-south cooperation.

Finally, COL is pleased to have been able to respond to the particular needs of the Small States of the Commonwealth. Their Education Ministers conceived the idea of a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth. COL is implementing this project as a collaborative network of 24 countries rather than creating a new institution. Joint production of eLearning materials on topics relevant to national development is a core activity.

Chairman, time has allowed only the briefest sketch of COL's exciting work and mention of only a few of the many Commonwealth countries with which we work. Let add that the Fourth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, focusing on the Development Goals, will be held in Jamaica at the end of next year. We are most grateful to Jamaica and all our Caribbean partners for offering to host COL's major biennial event.

COL's achievements, on a modest annual budget of about C$7.5 million, are impressive and are widely acclaimed. They are due to effective leadership, a small dedicated staff often working far beyond the call of duty and by focussing on realistic objectives. If these efforts are to be sustained and if COL is to rise to meet new challenges and to serve you effectively it will require an increased and sustained budget on a 3-5 year basis.

As COL approaches its 20th anniversary I urge your governments to provide it with the funds to respond effectively to your needs and demands.

I wish to pay tribute to the members of the Board of Governors of COL for their commitment and unfailing support and to the President and staff for their indefatigable efforts in your service.

I trust that the recommendations contained in the booklet "Networking Learning Communities for Development" will merit your support.

Thank you