World Bank

"The knowledge-based economy is having a profound impact on all societies, including developing countries. This is a particularly important development for the tertiary education sector, as it must adapt to related educational needs throughout the world. "

http://www1.worldbank.org/education/tertiary/

Greenstar

Greenstar builds a solar-powered community center that delivers electricity, pure water, health and education information, and a wireless Internet connection, to villages in the developing world.

http://www.e-greenstar.com

Online Learning
and Library Centres

Paul West
Director: Centre for Lifelong Learning, Technikon Southern Africa

The ICB Programme can be described as a `tree roots', rather than a `grass roots' programme.
Grass is expected to be very uniform and it can also be expected to be trampled upon.

• to improve levels of co-operation, transparency, mutual trust and respect
• to unleash the latent creative spirit and enterprise of people
• to generate wealth and job creation
• to improve communications, both within the community, and with external sources of expertise and finance
• to improve the quality of leadership, interpersonal relations, decision-making and planning
• to build appropriate development structures for project management and implementation.
  

http://pgw.org/cll/

The African Digital Library

The African Digital Library allows free access to anyone living in Africa. Please go ahead and register free of charge to use the library if you live in Africa!

http://www.africaeducation.org/adl/

African Online Digital Library.

MATRIX, working in cooperation with the African Studies Center at MSU and in partnership with premiere research institutions in Africa is pioneering the African Online Digital Library.

The goal of this fully accessible online digital repository is to adopt the emerging best practices of the American digital library community and apply them in an African context.

AODL benefits a wide variety of scholars, students, and institutions by producing multilingual, multimedia materials for both scholarly research and public viewing audiences. AODL serves scholars and students conducting research and teaching about West and South Africa as well as teachers and students of African languages in both the United States and Africa. It also provides a valuable model for creating and distributing a diverse array of materials in a region with very limited electronic connectivity.

http://africandl.org/index.html

Science in Africa

UN Secretary-General Names Five Key Areas
Where Johannesburg Summit Can Make a Real Difference:

Water and sanitation, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity: these are the five key areas where concrete results can and must be obtained at this August's World Summit on Sustainable Development, according to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan....

...By concentrating on these five areas, Mr. Annan said, in a speech at the
American Museum of Natural History, the Summit could produce an ambitious but achievable programme of practical steps to improve the lives of all human beings while protecting the global environment.

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2002/may/wssd.htm

Taking IT Global

TakingITGlobal is an international youth-run not-for-profit organization that inspires young people to create positive social change in the world by providing them with information, connections, resources, and the knowledge that their involvement will make a difference.

Our Purpose:
To inspire young people to follow their dreams.
To inform young people about the wealth of opportunities that surrounds them.
To involve young people in online and offline communities where members & mentors contribute to, and gain from the TakingITGlobal experience while fostering a sense of global awareness, collaboration, and leadership.

What We Do:
Create a global platform for dialogue, self-expression, community involvement, and cultural exploration to ensure that the voices of youth are heard and that their initiatives are supported and acted upon.
Develop and support a peer-to-peer learning environment where youth teach each other through workshops aimed at skill-building, showcasing projects, and building mentorship relationships among the network.

http://www.takingitglobal.org/

Tlholego Ecovillage

Over the past decade, one of the Tlholego founders, Ashoka fellow Paul Cohen, has established a small rural 'living and learning centre' together with previously disadvantaged farm workers and city folk from the area. The idea has been to pioneer ecological approaches to building sustainable communities in South Africa.
http://www.sustainable-futures.com/

Nahoon Montessori School
East London S.A.

A small privately owned school (30 children). Originally the school was a Montessori pre-school, but due to parent demand we have now extended to accommodate children up to 12 years of age.
Although we are essentially Montessori we have been heavily influenced by un-schooling philosophies and a number of democratic school approaches.
The result is a flexible environment where the children direct their own learning.

Summerhill School U.K.

To allow children freedom to grow emotionally;
To give children power over their own lives;
To give children the time to develop naturally;
To create a happier childhood by removing fear and coercion by adults.
Summerhill has now been running continuously for seventy-five years. Its success in providing a happy environment for the kids, and in producing happy, well-balanced men and women, stands as a continuing proof of the Neill's notion that `The absence of fear is the finest thing that can happen to a child'.

http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk

Sands School U.K.

Sands School is the only school in the English education system which began as a result of students and staff collaborating to design an ideal place of learning. The school started in 1987, and has always looked to its students as well as its staff to continue developing its identity. The result is a school that values the need for academic and technical qualifications, that allows students an equal voice in school affairs, and that has removed petty rules and punishment in order to solve disputes non-aggressively. In a broader context, the school works to develop the students' emotional and social skills, which are felt to be as important as any qualifications achieved during their school career.

http://www.sandsschool.demon.co.uk/mainindex.htm

The Sudbury Valley School

The Sudbury Valley School is a place where children are free. Their natural curiosity is the starting point for everything that happens at the school.

Here, students initiate all their own activities. The staff, the plant, the equipment are there to answer their needs. Learning takes place in formal and informal settings, in large and small groups, or individually. All ages are free to mix at all times. The dynamics among students of different ages, helping each other learn about everything from human relations to math, is one of the greatest strengths of the school.

Students share responsibility for their own environment, and for the quality of life at school. The school is managed by the weekly School Meeting, where every student and staff member has a vote: an education at Sudbury Valley is also an education in hands-on democracy.

http://www.sudval.org/

Dartington Hall School

The Elmhirsts came to Dartington with at least two basic ambitions - to create a school and to rehabilitate the estate. Initially the school was amongst the most revolutionary of its time.

If the mind be curbed and humbled too much in children, if their spirits be abased and broken by too strict an hand over them, they lose all their vigour and industry... dejected minds, timourous and tame, and low spirits are hardly ever to be raised, and very seldom attain anything......he that has found a way how to keep up a child's spirit, easy, active, free and yet, at the same time, to restrain him from many things he has a mind to, and to drive him to things that are uneasy to him, he, I say, that knows how to reconcile these seeming contradictions has in my opinion, got the true secret of education.

John Locke (1632-1704)

http://www.dartingtonhallschool.co.uk/index.htm

Schumacher College

Through interdisciplinary studies, the College aims to explore the foundations of that new vision. At the College, a unified residential education involving physical work, meditation, aesthetic experience and intellectual inquiry creates a sense of the wholeness of life.

Evidence of planetary crisis confronts us in the despoliation of the environment and the loss of meaning in the lives of individuals. Increasing numbers of people are seeking to understand the complexities of this breakdown and are wondering whether and how to invest their own lives in making a difference. Through action or reflection, they seek to contribute in their own unique way to the resolution of the challenges facing us.

Schumacher College offers rigorous enquiry to uncover the roots of the prevailing world view; it explores ecological approaches which value holistic rather than reductionist perspectives and spiritual rather than consumerist values. It also offers a learning experience that is consistent with a holistic philosophy. At Schumacher, people find refreshment, and often new direction. They find they have touched a source of inspiration and are reminded that others share their deepest values about life and its meaning.

http://schumachercollege.gn.apc.org/

A Selection of Quotations on Education
Compiled by Roland Meighan