INAUGURAL MEETING

REPORT OF ACTIVITIES

The Secretary reported on progress in the first two years of the Consortium's existence. The first few months were devoted to setting in place operational arrangements including the establishment of an Interim Steering Committee. In Colin Power's inevitable absence as Chairman because he resided in Australia, Kabir Shaikh had acted as Alternate Chair for the first year, and on his appointment to UNRWA in Amman he had been succeeded by Dennis Chisman in late 2002. Peter Williams had acted as Secretary and Anna Tomlinson as Treasurer. The Steering Committee had consisted of seven or eight members and had met about a dozen times in the two-year period, most frequently at Marlborough House but occasionally, through the generosity of other organisations, elsewhere in London.

Apart from putting in place the working arrangements, the Consortium had focused initially on making a submission to the High-Level Review Group on the Future of the Commonwealth, urging it to include education development and co-operation as a Commonwealth priority. The submission had been sent to all Governments, and Colin Power and others had attempted to further the cause at the postponed Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Coolum, but to no avail as far as the text of the HLG Report was concerned..

Thereafter the Consortium's efforts had been mainly focused on the 15th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers (CCEM) in Edinburgh and preparations for its own inaugural Conference. A successful application had been made for accreditation as an observer at 15CCEM. The Acting Chair (Prof Power) and Acting Secretary (Mr Williams) had been nominated to attend the CCEM on behalf of the Consortium. The Consortium had made a submission to Ministers and had circulated it to every country. Entitled Opportunities for Partnerships in Education in the Commonwealth, it had been prepared by a specially constituted working group chaired by Stephen Matlin, who had also been chief draftsman. The report had been well received.

The Consortium had successfully applied for a Commonwealth Foundation grant to support its initial start-up costs, to help fund a series of Briefing Notes on Commonwealth Education, and to support participants from developing countries in its Inaugural Conference. The Consortium had also successfully applied to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for funds to bring developing country participants to the Parallel Symposium and to its own Conference.

The mounting of the inaugural Conference had been a major enterprise. About 70 people had attended including participants from 15 countries. There had been a high degree of enthusiasm and a good professional interaction on the Conference theme of Recruitment, Retention and Mobility of Teachers in the Commonwealth. The success of the Conference had depended on the hard work of Consortium members, the generosity of the Commonwealth Foundation and FCO, close co-operation with teacher unions in the Commonwealth, and notable assistance from the University of Edinburgh.

Four (numbers 2-5) of the first series of Briefing Notes had been finalised and printed for distribution at 15CCEM and a fifth one (no.1) was available in time for CHOGM.