DUSHANBE, August 14, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Cooperation in the field of distance education plays an important role in creation of a common educational space of the CIS countries, the first vice-chancellor of Eurasian Open institute within the Moscow University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics, Sergey Isayev, remarked at a session of the expert group of the CIS council for educational cooperation in Minsk, Belarus yesterday.

According to the CIS Executive Committee, the meeting participants are discussing draft resolutions on the plan of interaction on extending usage of distant learning technologies for the period till 2012 as well as changes making to the regulations on the CIS basic organization for usage of dataware in the education system.

The plan of interaction on extending usage of distant learning technologies is aimed at promoting distant learning within the CIS area.  This document provides for improvement of legal foundation, means and methods of distant learning technologies, as well as creation of compatible informational and technological infrastructures, conducting researches in the field of distant learning technologies.

Adopted in 2007, the concept of development of the distance education within the CIS area reflects the basic principles, tasks and directions of cooperation in this sphere.

The plan of interaction on extending usage of distant learning technologies provides for holding a number of joint events and conferences in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia to work out common approaches to application of the distant learning technologies.

Changes to the regulations on the CIS basic organization for usage of dataware in the education system are made following reorganization and liquidation of the Center for Educational Policy within the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, which was the basic organization for the CIS states on researches in the field of educational policy.  In the future, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia will be engaged in conducting these researches.

The expert session that was launched on August 13 is concluding today.