Malcolm Adiseshiah
From 1 to 16 November 1945 a United Nations Conference was convened in London for the establishment of an educational and cultural organization (ECO/CONF). In the conference, a new organization was created to establish the “intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind” and thus prevent the outbreak of another world war. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded by thirty-seven countries. Its Constitution to promote collaboration between member states in the fields of education, science and culture was signed on 16 November 1945 and came into force on 4 November 1946. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former President of India, was a former student of Adiseshiah’s father. He made a referral to Sir Julian Huxley, then Director-General of UNESCO, who invited Adiseshiah to the organization in 1948. He was posted as Deputy Director of the department of exchange of persons. In that capacity Adiseshiah signed the UNESCO Fellowship letter in 1949 to M. S. Swaminathan, eminent scientist and administrator, to pursue research at the Agricultural University in Wageningen, the Netherlands which was the starting point of his illustrious career.
U.S. National Institute of Education
The U.S. National Institute of Education (NIE) was established in the Education Division, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare by an act of June 23, 1972 (86 Stat. 327). On May 4, 1980, it was transferred to the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, United States Department of Education, by the Department of Education Organization Act (3 Stat. 678), approved October 17, 1979. The Institute provided leadership in the conduct and support of scientific inquiry into the educational process. Among the studies it sponsored was the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study. It was abolished in 1985 with functions dispersed among the Center for Statistics, the Information Service, and the Office of Research, all within the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI).