UNESCO URGES NEW IMPETUS IN FAVOUR OF EDUCATION FOR ALL AT WORLD
EDUCATION FORUM
Paris, 26 April 2000 {No.2000-40} - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today
urged renewed national and international efforts to meet the challenge of
providing education for all in a resounding appeal in favour of "an
Koichiro Matsuura and UNESCO Executive Board Chairperson Sonia Mendieta de Badaroux visit Dakar classrooms
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education that is authentic, accessible to all without exclusion or
discrimination, modern and universally affordable" to participants at the
first day of the 3-day World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal.
The World Education Forum, convened by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO, the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank, is
attended by some 1,500 participants - including more than 100 government
ministers - representing 183 States, all the major bilateral agencies,
non-governmental organisations and educational experts.
Speaking about the commitment in favour of education - a right
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Mr Matsuura paid
tribute to the progress achieved by some countries and said "they
demonstrate that the success of education for all hinges first and foremost
on political commitment."
But he also spoke of major failures in the effort to provide universal
education since the international community undertook to achieve this aim at
the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) in Jomtien, Thailand, ten
years ago. "The fact remains," Mr Matsuura said, "that, in at least six
respects, we have strayed from the original objectives:
"1. Formal schooling has been the main preoccupation [...] entailing
neglect of non-formal avenues of learning; 2. Many countries have been slow
to redefine their education needs, in particular concerning education
content reflecting cultural diversity and corresponding to the specific
needs of each society; 3. The inequalities within the education systems have
been increasing, with the result that the poorest of the poor, minority
groups and people with special learning needs have hardly been taken into
account [...]; 4. Early childhood education has shown little development and
still favours the better-off urban populations [...]; 5. The 'digital
divide' has marginalised the poorest social sectors even further [...]; 6.
And lastly, basic education has been chronically under-financed both by most
countries themselves (less than 2% of gross national product on average) and
by the donor community (again less than 2% of development aid) [...]."
The Director-General called "on all States to draw up national plans
of action immediately after Dakar. This will entail a transparent and
democratic process based on all the driving forces of the nation - civil
society as a whole, with teachers in the forefront [...], non-governmental organisations and the private sector.
These plans should ensure in particular that the quality of basic education
is improved and that all forms of discrimination, especially those based on
gender, are eliminated."
Speaking about the funding of basic education Mr Matsuura said: "The
public and private resources to be allocated to education will need to be
proportional to the vital importance we attach to it. Governments will have
to make clear coherent and courageous choices in this respect. I am also
fully aware of the need for a substantial increase in the volume of aid for
basic education. The donor community must undertake to grant any country
submitting a realistic and practical plan in this field the financial and
technical support required to attain its objectives. Special grants, and not
simply loans, and an easing of the debt burden must be proposed in exchange
for social investment programmes, particularly in basic education."
"UNESCO, as the United Nations specialised agency for education,
will go on fully assuming its responsibilities in this global and collective
bid to achieve education for all," the Director-General pledged.
Speaking about the Organization's role as the co-ordinator of the Education
for All movement for the last ten years, Mr Matsuura highlighted the need to
reinforce follow-up by moving "still closer to the countries themselves and
their specific real needs. [...] In particular," he said, "we shall have to
improve monitoring and evaluation tools" [...] and pointed to UNESCO's
Institute for Statistics as an outstanding instrument for this purpose.
Mr Matsuura pointed to four axes along which UNESCO will help States achieve
the aims of education for all and strengthen their capacity:
"1. To create an education whose contents and methods are geared to your
social and cultural realities, your linguistic heritage and your endogenous
potential [...] But this education must also be modern. It is essential in
this regard to strengthen science teaching from primary level [...]. 2. To
develop basic education services accessible to all, including the poorest,
illiterate adults, children outside the school system [...] through a
strategy involving both the formal education system and all the alternatives
offered by the non-formal sector [...]. 3. To harness the modern information
and communication technologies for all [...] to broaden the reach of basic
education, particularly in the direction of the excluded and underprivileged
groups; and to enhance and improve classroom teaching. 4. To replace costly,
rigid and culturally alienating educational structures with less expensive
educational programmes that are more flexible, more diversified and
universally affordable without ever sacrificing quality."
Mr Matsuura listed the resources available to UNESCO: "We have a very
considerable fund of expertise accumulated by our specialists over half a
century. Our ability to stimulate co-operation and the exchange of
experience among the countries of the world has been amply demonstrated.
We are the recognised authority with regard to the training of education specialists, teachers, trainers, rural
community organisers and other educational agents. We also have available to
us highly mobilised professional networks."
"But UNESCO's greatest resource is the sheer diversity of the experience and
initiatives accumulated by its Member States. Let us not forget that UNESCO
is not only the main international organisation with responsibility for
education; it is also the instrument of co-operation among its Member States
within its fields of competence. One of the incomparable assets of UNESCO is
its extensive network of 188 National Commissions, which is unique within
the United Nations system. Acting as an interface between UNESCO and
national authorities, the National Commissions help to relay national
realities and marshal energies and initiatives on the ground which may
enable society at large to take on board the Organization's message. Their
role in the follow-up to major conferences such as this one is therefore
vital."
Mr Matsuura further spoke of UNESCO's "tight-knit network of co-operation"
with non-governmental organisations of which 337 have official links to the
Organization and said he counted on their renewed support "so that together
we continue to wage the battle of education for all."
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