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Prime Minister of Jamaica to open Fourth Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning

Issued: Wednesday, 23rd August, 2006 08:00:00 AM

Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, will be guest speaker at the opening ceremony of the Fourth Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF4), to be held at the Sunset Jamaica Grande, Ocho Rios, October 30-November 3,
2006.

Organised by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in association with a Caribbean consortium led by the UWI Distance Education Centre, the theme of PCF4 is “Achieving Development Goals: Innovation, Learning, Collaboration and Foundations”. Other members of the consortium are the Caribbean Association for Distance and Open Learning (CARADOL); the Jamaican Association for Distance and Open Learning (JADOL); the Trinidad & Tobago Distance Learning Association (TTDLA); and the Office of Continuing Education, Open and Distance Learning (OCEODL) at the University of Technology, Jamaica.

Mr. Winston A. Cox, will deliver the Asa Briggs Lecture during the Forum. Mr. Cox is the Inter-American Development Bank’s Alternate Executive Director for the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago and a former Deputy Secretary-General (Development Co-operation) of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Lord Asa Briggs of Lewes was the first Chairman of COL and the lecture in his name is given from time to time by a distinguished Commonwealth figure.

Other keynote speakers at PCF4 include Sir John Daniel, COL President and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Sugata Mitra, Senior Vice President (Research & Development), NIIT Limited, India - a global information technology learning solutions corporation; and Professor Penina Mlama, Executive Director of the Forum for African
Women Educationalists (FAWE).

The Forum will bring together stakeholders from governments, educational institution and allied professionals from throughout the world. Through discussions and panel presentations based on some 300 papers, participants will share ideas and help to set the agenda for using open and distance learning to advance international development through widening educational access, bridging the digital divide and applying advances in connecting technology to teaching and learning for development of communities and nations at large but especially in the less developed countries of the Commonwealth. COL’s Excellence in Distance Education Awards will be presented at PCF4.

For further information, please visit the PCF4 Web-site at: www.col.org/pcf4 or contact us by email at pcf4.information@gmail.com, fax: (246) 421 6753; telephone: 246-417-4563.