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LOOKING AHEAD TO CHOGM 1999
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), established by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1987 as a response to declining mobility of students between Commonwealth countries, has evolved into one of the world's leading distance learning providers. While its early years created the impression that its preoccupation was with post-secondary education, over the past three years COL has shifted its focus to basic education and to non-formal education, technical education and youth programmes. Increasing demands and an uncertainty over long-term funding placed COL's future in doubt. But the implementation of triennial funding pledges after the 1997 Commonwealth education ministers' conference in Botswana and support from more Commonwealth countries, together with success in attracting resources through initiatives with other agencies, has enabled it to concentrate on its objectives. Its use of distance learning and the new communications technologies will enable vast numbers of people to be educated and equipped with the means to develop their skills in a way that conventional education cannot.
FOLLOWING CHOGM 1987 IN VANCOUVER, CANADA, a birth notice appeared announcing the safe arrival of a new concept: the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). The seeds had been planted in the report of a group, chaired by Lord Briggs, called Towards a Commonwealth of Learning. Following approval at CHOGM, Sir John Daniel was invited to chair a planning committee to chart the infant's development and to prepare the ground for member governments of the Commonwealth to sign a Memorandum of Understanding and pledge funds towards its operation.
As a starting point, the planning committee was focused on the r6le of the Commonwealth, the significance of human resource development, and the problems of student mobility. In reflecting on its work, Sir John Daniel provided this observation at COL's Pan-Commonwealth Conference in Brunei in March 1998.
The thinking behind the Commonwealth of Learning grew out of the work of the Commonwealth's group on student mobility, led by a great Commonwealth figure, Sir Roy Marshall. The economic trends of the 1970s and 1980s made developing countries less wealthy and industrialized countries more self-absorbed. There was a downturn in the mobility of students between Commonwealth countries. Worried by this trend, with its inevitable consequences for the long-term weakening of the human glue that...