Broadcast Satellites; Their Potential Use for Educational Purposes, and Their Relationship to International Understanding and Cooperation. Occasional Paper Number Three.

Although the United Nations, through its Working Group on Direct Broadcast Satellites, and the United States, through its Communications Satellite Act of 1962, have directed attention to satellite communication systems, a gulf exists between the available technology and the educational planners concerned with the potential use of such systems. Yet, in the developing countries, no other aspect of modern communications has so much interested the planners as the possibility of using broadcast satellites for educational purposes. India and Brazil, with large land areas, have been especially enthusiastic. Problems to be met in the developing countries include: illiteracy, shortage of vocational and technical skills, the level of agricultural skills, community development, public health, population control, national and international awareness, delivery of education to remote areas, and the need for capable teachers. Primary among the requirements for successful exploitation of satellite television is the existence of at least the beginning of an educational system and the maintenance of hardware for good transmission. An important consideration of the foreign policy of the United States should be the development of the most effective means of assisting other countries to participate in satellite programs. (MF)