Promoting SAARC education

Professor M T M Jiffry

This article is written on the occasion of the inauguration of the first meeting of the Ministers in charge of Higher Education of the SAARC countries and other relevant higher officials held on March 26 and 27, 2009 at the Colombo Hilton.

Ministers in charge of the subject of Higher Education of the member states belonging to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) met for the first time since the formal inception of SAARC. The objectives of the SAARC as defined in its Charter are:

* To promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life;

* To accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential;

* To promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia;

* To contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems;

* To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields;

* To strengthen cooperation with other developing countries;

* To strengthen cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of common interest; and

* To cooperate with international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes.

Under the SAARC Charter, several Inter-Ministerial Committees have already been set up and issues related to various areas of regional interests were addressed during the past two decades.

However, although there were several instances where issues concerning higher education were discussed and related committees were set up, there has neither been a common apex forum nor a body created to discuss all such issues by the respective line ministries of each member State.

Thus Higher Education Minister, Professor Wishwa Warnapala took the initiative in proposing to convene a meeting of the Ministers in charge of Higher Education in the SAARC region to promote inter-Member State Co-operation on all matters related to higher education in the region. One of his prime concerns and interests in convening this meeting is to identify a common policy framework related to higher education within the region recognising the national needs, regional identity and global trends.

Although as mentioned above there were several activities commenced through some of the committees that were already set up on the sphere of higher education such as:

* Committee of Heads of University Grants Commissions, Equivalent bodies;

* SAARC Consortium on Open and Distance Learning,

* Formulation of Common Regional Standards for recognition of professional degrees awarded by the member states;

* SAARC Chair within the member state Universities; and

* Establishment of the South Asian University.

Amidst the above program, it is noteworthy to state here the key activity that has been initiated within the last few years that aroused immense interest amongst the member states as well as outside the region was the setting up of the South Asian University.

This is the concept proposed by India to provide a medium to pool the regional human resources to meet the growing global technological and socio-economic challenges faced within a self-reliant geo-political context and to strengthen the member states with appropriate technologies and capable human resources.

In other words, it is an attempt to utilize the human resources available from the member states suitably trained and adequately equipped to serve the region to make use of the full potential of the natural resources available within the region.

In this background, the meeting that has been arranged to discuss a common framework for a Regional Policy for Higher Education is quite finely and long overdue in terms of the initiatives and major activities that were taken by other regional organizations such as the EU, OAU or ASEAN. In this respect the initiatives taken by Sri Lanka in hosting the inaugural meeting under the guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, more appropriately during the tenure of his Chairmanship of SAARC is a significant achievement to Sri Lanka. In this context, it is noteworthy that even in the Mahinda Chinthana, that one of the priority activities will be the strengthening of the relationships that exists amongst the Asian region in many key areas including education.

The meeting of the Ministers in charge of Higher Education, the region has many responsibilities and issues that need to be addressed. Furthermore it has already generated intense interest within the region as well as outside the region as a forum for easy cross regional dialogue on Higher Education.

Therefore, the meeting should address issues that would be practical, relevant and recognising the regional diversity inclusive of national identities whilst conforming to global trends. Since one of the key outcomes from this meeting would be to formulate a framework for a common Higher Education policy for the region, it is appropriate that such a document should be simple and broad-based to retaining the regional identity.

(The writer is Vice Chairman and Coordinator of the SAARC related activities of the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka)