Commonwealth Consortium for Education (CCfE)
Commonwealth Consortium for Education (CCfE)
The Commonwealth Consortium for Education has been established by a group of education-related Commonwealth NGOs, to coordinate their efforts on behalf of Commonwealth education, to stimulate more coherence in their work and to provide a collective mechanism for interaction with ministries and official Commonwealth organisations. There are currently 24 members.
CCfE activities have so far been mainly in the areas of advocacy, information sharing, and research and development of policy. One particular concern is with the strengthening, development and extension of the Commonwealth infrastructure for education co-operation: another is promotion of education about the Commonwealth and its fundamental values of democracy, tolerance and respect for diversity. With assistance from the Commonwealth Foundation the Consortium has published a series of 12 Commonwealth Education Briefing Notes and a Directory of Commonwealth Education. Its Commonwealth Education Calendar, listing future events, is issued quarterly.
The Consortium is accredited to the Commonwealth and has had observer status at recent CHOGMs and Conferences of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEMs). CCfE made representations to Commonwealth Governments regarding the place of education in overall Commonwealth priorities and programmes at the time of the Coolum summit meeting in 2002 and the Heads of Government Meetings in Abuja (2003) and Valletta (2005). CCfE participates in the Commonwealth Peoples Forums accompanying CHOGMs, organising workshops on Commonwealth co-operation in education in Valletta and Kampala (2007).
CCfE interacts closely with CCEMs and in both Edinburgh (2003) and Cape Town (2006) it arranged international workshops on themes of interest to Ministers that were subsequently taken up in their Communiques. In Edinburgh the theme was recruitment and retention of teachers in the Commonwealth and CCfE was subsequently invited to serve on the Working Group that devised the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol: in Cape Town it was school and college linking.
Contact:
Commonwealth Consortium for Education
Hon. Secretary: Peter Williams (CEC)
6 Upper Rose Hill
Dorking, Surrey
RH4 2EB, UK
Tel. +44 (0)1306 501788
Fax: +44 (0)1306 501788
Email: peterrcwilliams@onetel.com
Web: www.commonwealtheducation.org
