BBC Janala, the multiplatform English language learning service by the BBC Media Action (new name for the BBC World Service Trust), Bangladesh has recently won 3 (three) more prestigious international awards. One is World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) award in recognition of innovative approaches and positive impact on societies and education, ‘eAsia Award 2011’ in the category- Building Capacity: Best Open and Distance Learning Programme, and finally ‘Manthan Award 2011’ in the category- `e-Education & Learning’.
BBC Janala is the part of English in Action, a major educational initiative launched to raise the English language skills of 25 million people in Bangladesh by 2017, funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development (DFID).
The WISE award aims to promote projects that spread best practices and help building the future of education, and BBC Janala was one of the six winners of the year. The WISE is an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, launched in 2009 under the aegis of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser (Queen of Qatar). The WISE Award has been promoting education all over the world by identifying and showcasing innovative education projects. Their aim is to ensure that education stakeholders globally are informed about best practices, so that education systems all over the world can be improved and strengthened. The WISE Awards scheme selects 6 (six) original projects every year, which have made a real and positive impact on education. Since its inception, projects from 116 countries have participated in the award programme. 98 of these projects were shortlisted as finalists, and 18, one of which is BBC Janala, received the award.
The eASiA 2011 Awards have been instituted with the primary aim of felicitating and acknowledging unique & innovative initiatives in the use of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D), based on the themes of the conference. This award would be instrumental in promoting the most innovative initiatives in the domain of ICT4D and to spread awareness about the role of ICT in addressing social concerns. This year, Dhaka hosted Asia's prestigious ICT event-5th Annual eAsia 2011. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the event. The event was held from December 1-3, 2011. The event was organized by Bangladesh Computer Council under the Ministry of Science and ICT and Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), India and Supported by Access to Information (A2I) Programme at the Prime Minister's (Bangladesh) Office.
Manthan Award is the first of its kind initiative in India to recognize the best practices in e-Content and Creativity. Its aim is to create an information rich society, where everyone, irrespective of caste, religion, race, region, gender etc. is empowered to create, receive, share and utilise information & knowledge through digital content, for their economic, social, cultural & political development. It was launched on 10 October 2004, by Digital Empowerment Foundation, in partnership with World Summit Award, Department of Information Technology, the government of India, and various other stakeholders, such as: the civil society members, media and other similar organizations engaged in promoting digital content inclusiveness, in the whole of South Asian nation states for development.
BBC Janala had previously been awarded by ‘Microsoft Education Award 2010’, the ‘GSMA Award 2011’, and ‘World Summit Award’ (WSA) and the ‘M-billionth Award 2011'.
