For a good example of common wealth, picture an electronic library with more than 10,000 video and radio programmes in 10 languages, on 65 subjects, from 150 international organisations in six countries; then locate this library in developing Asia. The library is in an open learning university and is part of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA). CEMCA is an educational resource organisation with a mission, and is also the regional arm of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).
Among CEMCA's many achievements, perhaps the most crucial is in offering the Commonwealth a prototype of successful regional co-operation.
Almost as old as its parent organisation, CEMCA was conceived as a catalyst for the use of electronic media in distance education in Commonwealth Asia. Under the umbrella of COL's Commonwealth Educational Media Resources Programme (CEMREP), Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka presented educational media resource profiles to education experts at a 1993 meeting in Singapore. A decision to establish a regional database of educational media resources resulted in another meeting in Malaysia later that year, where a COL task force developed a firm outline for CEMCA.
Still needing a home for the facility, COL solicited proposals from major Asian education organisations; the Open University of Sri Lanka and India's Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) each had exemplary portfolios, but in the end, it was decided to accept IGNOU's offer. CEMCA was officially born at its host institution in 1994; in 1998 it came of age when an agreement between COL and the Indian government gave CEMCA the full rights and privileges of an international agency.
CEMCA's mandate is to provide consultancy and technical infrastructure for audio-visual production and programming, training in electronic media for education, and a locus for networking efforts. To form broad policy and to evaluate CEMCA's work, a director and a technical and administrative team networks with an advisory council of representatives from major regional open learning institutions.
Director since 1998, Dr. Usha Vyasulu Reddi has worked toward consolidating CEMCA's role as an educational video production centre. CEMCA is on the steering committee for India's new national education television channel, Gyan Darshan, and plans to provide monthly programming for a one-hour slot by 2001. In 1997, the organisation produced a documentary on the role of Indian women in agriculture for WETV, the international education television network. CEMCA's networking-oriented newsletter EduComm Asia has been published since 1996; conceived as a quarterly, initial staff problems and high costs contributed to an erratic publishing schedule. During Reddi's tenure, the newsletter has come out thrice yearly. She hopes to make this quarterly by the next fiscal period.
Workshops on electronic media topics are also big on the agenda. CEMCA has conducted participant-paid workshops since 1996, often with regional organisations like the Commonwealth Information Technology Network (COMNET-IT), the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. Topics include educational broadcast interview techniques, educational television scriptwriting and developing multi media courseware. The latest CEMCA offering is MEDLIB, a Windows-based software package for electronic media library management, developed in collaboration with IGNOU's Electronic Media Production Centre and INFOTEL India.
Other regions of the Commonwealth have recognised the value of the CEMCA model for regional co-operation and are incorporating similar components into their programmes. Although CEMCA has no direct role, this is a clear endorsement. Imitation is, after all, flattery at its most sincere; among CEMCA's many achievements, perhaps the most crucial is in offering the Commonwealth a prototype of successful regional co-operation in sharing educational media resources.
- Grace Chin
(COL Clippings article - November 2000)
