The first step towards realizing the SAF Distance Learning programme was taken when Vice-chancellors of leading Open universities across the SAARC countries met for the first time on September 28 and 29, 2002 at Villa Surya, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. To avoid costly duplication of work, they decided to cooperate with each other and jointly design courses of study. A Steering Committee of SAF Learning Initiative (SAFLI) was set up, comprising eight Vice Chancellors/Rectors and a representative of the Director-General of UNESCO.

Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Amartya Sen (seated second from left), with the members of the SAFLI Steering Committee, at the meeting on 12 December 2002, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They decided to initially offer a Post-Graduate Diploma course in Environment and Sustainable Development (PGD-ESD), with optional courses on Information and Communication Technology.

The resolutions adopted in France were endorsed by the Vice-Chancellors of ten Indian Open universities at a meeting in New Delhi on November 24 and 25, 2002. A second Steering Committee meeting was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from December 12-13, 2002, at which it was decided to initially offer a Post-Graduate Diploma in Environment and Sustainable Development (PGD-ESD), together with optional courses on Information and Communication Technology.

This time-bound plan of action was finalized jointly in Sri Lanka by all the SAARC Vice-Chancellors/Rectors and approved by SAF Chairpersons at the Second SAF General Conference in Colombo on 18 February 2002.

They also accepted SAFLI Academic Council recommendations that courses on teacher’s training, human rights, gender justice and so on should be developed in subsequent phases and incorporated in the SAF Distance Learning prograpmme.

SAF- India Chairman, Hon. Inder
Kumar Gujral, gifted a number
of computers to the students
of Sharda Sarvodaya Vidyalaya,
a school for orphaned and
disadvantaged children in one of
Delhi’s suburbs. Computer literacy
will help the students to eventually
benefit from distance learning. In a
similar endeavour, SAF has linked up
some 50 SOS villages across South Asia

Launching of the Post-Graduate Diploma course in Environment and Sustainable Development (PGD-ESD) at the Third SAF General Conference in Delhi on 14 December 2003, is a significant landmark in distant learning. It is in tune with the foundation’s belief that against the background of cultural diversity and common traditions rooted in centuries old interaction among the people of South Asia, education, too, must be shared to promote regional cooperation and secure lasting peace and stability in the region.

The seed of distance education in South Asia was sown by Prof. D.S. Kothari, as Chairman of a committee set up by the government of India in 1961, which established the School of Correspondence Course (SCC) in Delhi University. Institutions of Distance learning were subsequently set up in several Indian States, starting with the establishment of the Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU, Delhi; B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad was established in 1985, followed by Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata; Vardhaman Mahavir Open University, Kota; Madhya Pradesh Bhoj Open University, Bhopal; Nalanda Open University, Patna; U. P. Rajarsi Tandon Open University, Allahabad; Karnataka State Open University, Mysore; Y. Chavan Open University in Maharashtra; B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad; and most recently Tamil Nadu Open University, Chennai.

In other South Asian countries, Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan was the first to be established in 1974, followed by Sri Lanka Open University in Colombo and Bangladesh Open University in Dhaka.

Nepal has also decided to establish an Open University, a project which is in charge of Prof. Hom Nath Bhattarai, Member Secretary U.G.S., Kathmandu. During the Second SAF General Conference in Colombo he proposed that initially a department of distance learning be set up in Kathmandu University which could then develop into a full-fledged Open University.

This proposal was seconded by Prof. M. Akbar Popal, President of Kabul University, as well as by the Vice-Chancellor of the newly established Royal Bhutan University, Prof. Dasho Zangley Dukpa. Hence this item has been included in the agenda for consideration of SAF Distance Learning Academic Council during the Third SAF General Conference in New Delhi.