Prime Minister, Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell met Friday with the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning, Professor
Asha Kanwar, who updated him on the organisation’s extensive work in promoting
learning for sustainable development and how the organisation has benefitted Grenadians.
As explained on its website, “The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1987
to promote the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.”
The Prime Minister welcomed the organisation’s invaluable contribution to building capacity among Grenadians.
He said, “It is evident that there was some vision in establishing the Commonwealth of Learning 32 years ago and the technology of today makes it so much easier to fulfill the objective of promoting learning for sustainable
development.”
Dr. Mitchell also noted the significant cost savings for Government when persons are provided with opportunities for online learning. He said, “Through technological advancement and the opportunities such as those created by the Commonwealth of Learning, our citizens can advance themselves academically through online studies
. It saves costs for Government, facilitating greater optimisation of limited resources by enabling a wider pool of persons to benefit from these online learning opportunities.”
By providing greater access to quality education, the Commonwealth of Learning seeks to provide Commonwealth citizens with opportunities to benefit from improved livelihoods, create greater gender equity and overall economic, social and cultural development leading to sustainable development.
The organisation’s work in Grenada is primarily focused in the areas of technical and vocational skills development and tertiary education, through the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth which supports the sharing of open educational resources.
Support has also been given to Grenada and two other regional countries to develop the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) Assessor Training which all teachers and trainers working in CVQs are required to have.
