S
tr
engthening C
ommunit
y L
ear
ning C
en
tr
es thr
ough Link
ages and Net
w
or
ks: A S
yn
thesis of Six C
oun
tr
y R
epor
ts
Bangladesh Report, p. 14
The CLC in Zhouxiang Town, Zhejiang Province, was set up in 1985. In 2000, it
was renamed the Zhouxiang Community Education College. In order to fully use
the educational resources and provide more opportunities for local community
members, they used four different ways to set up the network or linkages: 1)
establishing village-level CLCs in 31 villages of this township; 2) building up
the network with 4 other CLCs in nearby towns; 3) setting up linkages with the
Distance Learning Institute of China Geology University, the Distance Learning
Institute of Zhejiang Industrial University, the Ningbao Vocational and Technical
Education College, the Cixi Agricultural Broadcast School, and other educational
institutes; 4) establishing linkages with government organizations, NGOs and
enterprises.
China Report, p. 14
The starting point of the creation of networks for the administration of CLCs mostly
begins with CLC committees, who might be community leaders or community
organization leaders and non-formal education teachers who cooperate in initiating
activities and need additional resources, such as funds, personnel, materials and
equipment. This leads to the search for the cooperation of various organizations both
within and outside the community...
Apart from this, other networks have been formed by leaders or representatives
of state organizations in order to administer the work of CLCs. This creation
stemmed from state policies. These networks coordinate work and request
cooperation from CLCs. Networks that are formed this way often start from
temporary arrangements without the firm intention to enter into cooperative
activities. But later, when a linkage is formed and activities occur on a continual
basis, they then become allied networks.
...external networks, especially state agencies such as community development
agencies, agriculture, industry, the Thai Farmer's Bank, etc., have been appointed
by the government to arrange activities with the purpose of solving the
problem of poverty. These networks participate in the administration together
with internal community networks by having community leaders, who are the
chairmen or members of the CLC committee, as the core in the linking of the
networks.
Thailand Report, p. 29
It is to be noticed from the above that sometimes the initial impetus for this step of
the process comes from outside the community. In other words, a national or regional
agency sees a need or provides a service and approaches a community with an
offered service, product, or programme. Even in these cases, however, enlisting the
community's support and commitment is essential.