TNAG-2077-FCO40-2957-Hong-Kong-culture-1990 — Page 146

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Higher

proposed the establishment of a Commonwealth Education Support Scheme (CHESS) which would have component programmes in the areas of books,

libraries, harness

learning materials and staff development, and

management, and would the potential of new information technology for those purposes. A copy of their report, Progress Co-operation,

Progress Through was sent to you last considered

year, and was in

also Kuala Lumpur by Heads of Government requested

who me to convene a meeting of agencies

principal donor and selected representatives from countries to consider the possibilities in more detail. I developing propose this meeting should be held in June, and a report on its outcomes will be presented to your October Conference.

In framing their agenda for Barbados, Ministers will also wish once again to respond to Heads' of Government request that they review trends in Commonwealth and the possibility of putting it on a growth path, taking student mobility, into account any proposals that the major host countries may make on the basis of the consideration that they have been asked to give to the matter and also the findings of the Commonwealth Standing Committee in its Sixth Report. of Government expressed great concern at the findings of the Heads Standing Committee that overall intra-Commonwealth student mobility was declining: this was in contrast with increased flows both of Commonwealth students to some non-Commonwealth countries, and of non-Commonwealth students to several major Commonwealth host countries.

Ministers will also wish to review the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, now at the end progress of the of its first thirty years.

Commonwealth of Learning

The new active in across a wide

Since the last Conference in Nairobi, Ministers enthusiastically commended to Heads of Government when Education proposals for Commonwealth education,

co-operation in distance the Commonwealth of Learning created with

(COL) has been its Headquarters in Vancouver. organisation is

now firmly established and is promoting distance education co-operation range of activities

activities including training materials exchange, information services and institutional and consultancies, linkages. In Barbados, Ministers will have review the progress made in the two years since COL was set a chance to up, and to discuss priority needs and future directions. As provided by the Memorandum of Understanding COL is required to submit a progress report to Ministers at their triennial conferences, and it falls to Ministers to make nominations to certain COL Board vacancies which will arise in the triennium 1991-1993.

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