JAMAICA HOSTING DISTANCE-EDUCATION MEETING

Experts in distance-education are set to gather in Montego Bay, Jamaica, August 27 and 28 to advance a strategy to connect the countries of the hemisphere onto a common distance-education link-up that uses satellites and land-based technologies.

The meeting of the Organization of American States/NETO/EDSAT-Americas Technical Planning Team will be held at the Ritz Carlton Rose Hall Hotel, under the auspices of the Jamaican Minister of Education, Youth and Culture Burchell Whiteman, who will inaugurate the event along with former U.S. Congressman John Buchanan and Ambassador Odeen Ishmael of Guyana serving as co-chairs.

The experts will discuss progress on the initiative to establish a hemisphere-wide infrastructure to support the satellite-based link-up and will finalize a report on the feasibility of the project. That report will be submitted to the Hemisphere's education ministers for consideration at their meeting in Uruguay in September. NETO/EDSAT-Americas is a non-governmental organization that is coordinating the initiative to deliver distance-education and other services to subscriber countries that so far number 16.

Minister Whiteman explained: "The Ministry of Education in Jamaica is looking forward to this meeting. We are at the stage where critical decisions have to be taken in respect of the NETO/EDSAT-Americas project, which has the potential to revolutionalize both the quality and reach of education within our territories and across the region."

The Jamaica meeting is being organized with panels to involve ambassadors to the OAS, Denis Antoine of Grenada and Albert Ramdin of the Caribbean Community, along with Ambassador Ishmael. There will also be a university panel on international distance- education programs, involving the University of West Indies, University of Guyana, University of Central Florida and George Washington University, located in Washington, D.C.

Don Brown, a vice president of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, one of the many sponsors of the meeting, will be involved as well, to review the state of new technology in distance-education. 

A representative of the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank will discuss the distance-education in the context of follow-up to the Third Summit of the Americas, along with a senior technology expert from the US Department of Education, as well as Bolivia's Vice Minister of Education, Alberto Gamarra. Representatives of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus have also been invited.

According to Shelly Weinstein, EDSAT-Americas President and Chief Executive Officer, "with the countries joining together to connect new information and communication technologies, they are faced with exciting challenges and opportunities rather than road blocks to achieve their goals for making quality educational opportunities available to all children in the Americas."

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