At the Kayal South Indian restaurant, Granby Street, for a farewell dinner in honour of Rohini Corfield and Annette Jarvis, who have been running the East Midlands Network for Global Perspectives in Schools (EMNGPS). Involvement with EMNGPS loomed large in the first year or so of my post and helped shape what I do to this day. I first met Rohini when we were both new in post, at a seminar run by the Runnymede Trust on the role of faith schools in promoting community cohesion. When I saw the name of the organisation she was representing there, I fastened myself to her and after that, took every opportunity to be involved in anything I could that EMNGPS was running or helping out with. This led to more regular involvement with Global Education LeicesterShire (which started life as EMNGPS's "locality group" for the city and county. My ongoing association with GELS and its members is well documented, in this blog and elsewhere.
The support I got from EMNGPS as an organisation, and from its staff as colleagues and friends, contributed a lot to the sustainability of my post. I made sure that the EMNGPS logo went on the leaflets and posters produced by Leicester Council of Faiths during this time, in acknowledgment of this positive association with EMNGPS. My involvement with them opened many doors for me that I could not have opened by myself.
Halfway through what was supposed to be a guaranteed ten-year long supported programme, the Department of International Development (DfID) earlier this year pulled funding from its national network of Development Education Centres and the regional organisations that supported them. In virtually one and the same breath it congratulated EMNGPS for being arguably the most successful of these regional bodies and withdrew its financial lifeline, effective from the end of August 2010. Efforts were made to save EMNGPS, of course, but they have been to no avail. Another useful and distinctive educational service for the teachers, pupils and students at schools in Leicester and Leicestershire has been lost. Now we can only hope that the kind of work that EMNGPS has been doing can be carried on by other people through other means. EMNGPS leaves a considerable, powerful and positive legacy and there are lots of us who won't let that just dwindle away to nothing.
Good luck Rohini and Annette - we'll miss you!
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