MINUTES OF THE CORE ADVISORY GROUP (CAG)
HELD ON 31ST OCTOBER 2005 AT SLIDA
Present
Ms. Jezima Ismail
Prof Swarna Jayaweera
Prof Uma Coomaraswamy
Ms. Seela Ebert
Ms. Ranjini Manuelpillai
Ms. Indrani Sugathadasa
Mr. T.M.K.B. Tennakoon
Mr. H.M.P.B.Herath
Apologies
Ms. Leelangi Wanasundera
Ms. Indrani Iriyagolla
Ms. Jezima Ismail chaired the meeting.
Confirmation of the Minutes – The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 23rd
September 2005 was confirmed unanimously.
Matters arising out of the Minutes
1. Model Village at Udayapuram
Mrs Ismail informed that it is impossible to get the woman leader (Ms Habeeba) from
Udayapuram to get back to the normal activities of the model village, but the work
will be continued with others. She has been engaged to work for an NGO called
WDC and she does not want to work with other NGOs.
Most of the villagers too have taken loans from WDC and are afraid to come forward
to work against the leader.
2. Certificate Course through the Distance Mode by the OUSL
Prof Coomaraswamy on her visit to USA has managed to go to DeKalb and visit the
Northern Illinois University. She had met the Advisory Group members of the NIU
Project on the 14th of September. The Advisory Group was happy to view the power
point presentation on the Open University, Sri Lanka (OUSL). This enabled them to
realize that OUSL is a well-established organization with a vision and aim. This has
also strengthened the belief in the Sri Lanka group of the sustainability of the
programme. She has also had consultations with the Commonwealth of Learning on
her visit to Canada. As OUSL will be the APECS body for Distance Learning and
the new modules by distance mode could also be used in other Asian regions. The
possibility of collaboration with other South Asian countries will be explored. As the
GROW III project will be conducted in Chennai, India the Sri Lanka model could be
easily adopted as a learning experience. Dr. Murali Krishnamurthi from NIU will
assist the programme in Chennai.
When Prof Coomaraswamy visited the
Commonwealth of Learning she has been asked to send a proposal within 10 days.
The NIU has to give the consent for the OUSL to conduct the programme in the
distance mode. COL – was happy to hear that transformation and the translation will
be done by OUSL. The response was very positive and the budget has already been
given for transforming the contents. The State Department will be contacted by NIU
to get permission.. This exercise would enable to build the image and uplift the status
of the Diploma programme.
Ms. Ismail and the other members wanted to know what activities will be left for CAG to
carry on in the future. This to be discussed with Jaya on the future direction of CAG.
On the 2nd of October at the meeting held at Ms. Ismail’s residence only Ranjini and
Amara have turned up. It was suggested to send a letter to the newly elected President on
the request to increase representation of political participation of women.
Diploma Certificate Course
Mr. Tennakoon and Mr. Herath reported on the Diploma Certificate Course as follows :
A) The ongoing programme will end on 9th December. The certificate award
ceremony is scheduled to be held on 16th December, 2005 when Dr. Murali
from NIU will be in Colombo. The next CAG meeting too to be held on the
same day at 10 a.m.
B) More than 100 applications have been received for the next year programme
which will commence from 13th January 2006. Mr. Tennakoon, Seela and Herath
will have a full day interview to select the participants.
C) The list of participants who have completed the Diploma Course should be given
to Ms. Ismail as she will be able to find employment for some of the people
trained.
D) Evaluation of the batch will be necessary.
E) Ms. Ismail informed the possibility of getting outside funds to conduct the
programme after NIU moves out if we could submit a viable and sustainable
project proposal. Mr. Herath will give the draft proposal to Ms. Ismail. This
could be modified to suit the local situation to improve the NGO capacity.
F) Create a mechanism to start a network of trained people.