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The first global consultation of Telecentre.org Academy – Delhi, India
In November 2006, Telecentre.org Foundation and India’s Department of Information Technology (DIT) organised a global consultation in Delhi among projected stakeholders of a proposed Telecentre.org Academy. The talks concluded with stakeholders voting for the creation of the Academy at the global level, and a taskforce to develop its conceptual plan.
At their annual team meeting, team members of Telecentre.org Foundation recommended that Basheerhamad Shadrach, the Asia Programme Officer, IDRC should take the role of lead officer of the Academy. It also endorsed that the Academy be developed with a bottom-up approach, starting at the national level of participating countries that would build towards the proposed global entity.
The second global consultation of Telecentre.org Academy – Barcelona, Spain
A second global consultation at the Esplai Foundation in Barcelona on September 22-24, 2008 gathered 41 participants from 18 countries from national telecentre networks, academe, government agencies and those promoting telecentre training work. The follow-up forum sought to expedite the goals set in the Delhi talks.
Three separate working groups were established to investigate each of the following: standardising a global curriculum; investigating the most suitable technology solution for the Academy; and producing the Academy’s charter.
Meeting of the Consortium of Universities hosted by IGNOU – New Delhi, India
By mid-2009, stakeholders revisited the need to further consolidate the 14 existing national academies under the programme and take the next step towards a global institution. In line with this, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in August 2009 hosted a meeting of a consortium of universities interested in the project to discuss the academic standards required for implementing the global curriculum. The talks included the matter of credit transfer opportunities for Academy learners who want to pursue university studies, particularly for diploma and post-graduate degree programmes.
A letter of intent to collaborate was signed by IDRC and IGNOU, mainly to constitute a Global Secretariat with associated governance mechanisms to help steer the Academy for the telecentre.org 2.0 phase from 2010 to 2015. The Vice Chancellors and Pro Vice Chancellors present witnessed the signing ceremony while agreeing to enter a memorandum of agreement with IGNOU that hosts the Global Secretariat.
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