UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OUTLINES HIS VISION OF EDUCATION FOR ALL
Paris, February 15 { No.2000-11} - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura
presented his vision of how the Organization must work with other
intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations to promote basic
education ahead of the World Education Forum which will be held in Dakar
(Senegal) in April this year.
Mr Matsuura cautioned that "schools are becoming more and more
fortresses of the past rather than avenues for the future" and that they
have been outdistanced by the fast pace of change in society and technology.
"Students sense that schools are becoming less and less useful in preparing
them for the future", he said. "Education will never live up to its promise
unless there is a quiet but fundamental revolution in the way teaching takes
place."
To provide education for all, "to reach the unreached", Mr Matsuura said,
"requires new and innovative modalities, often beyond the scope of
established education bureaucracies and systems." He argued that "the seeds
for such new approaches are often to be found in the experiences of NGOs or
entities concerned with rural areas, poverty alleviation, or special
populations."
The Director-General was speaking on Monday at a Steering Committee
meeting of the organisations of the International Consultative Forum on
Education for All (EFA) established at the 1990 Jomtien Conference on
Education for All to extend the reach of basic education world-wide and
reduce illiteracy. The Forum includes the United Nations Development
Programme, UNDP; UNESCO; the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF; the
United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA; and the World Bank, major bilateral
donors, education NGOs and representatives of governments from all regions.
Praising the Steering Committee for keeping the issue on the "priority
agenda of world development," Mr Matsuura spoke of the 2-year assessment of
trends in basic education through the 1990s now coming to an end and said:
"It is my primary concern that the momentum generated by your efforts and
those of the 183 countries participating in the assessment exercise be
sustained and accelerated". He pledged to "keep UNESCO squarely within the
strong inter-agency alliance supporting EFA."
Mr Matsuura said that the global EFA assessment "ought to give us
the best reality-based picture of EFA the world has ever had," and said the
initiative may be "the single largest piece of research conducted at the
close of the 20th century."
He predicted that the World Forum in Dakar, April 26-28, will forge
"a new and dynamic Framework of Action by which all stakeholders -
governments, NGOs, civil society and agencies - can be guided to accelerate
progress towards education for all." But, he argued, the crucial follow-up
and implementation of the Framework will call on each country and each international agency "to [...] determine a vision and
a corresponding strategy according to which it can mobilise its own
resources in the cause of EFA". He added: "As the United Nations agency
mandated for education, and as the intergovernmental body of ministers of
education around the world, UNESCO must undertake this [...] task with the
utmost commitment."
Outlining UNESCO vision of EFA, Mr Matsuura pointed out that much of
the discourse so far has focused on the modalities of providing education
for all "rather than on what exactly should constitute a quality basic
education for the 21st century." He pledged that "UNESCO will continue to
advocate that special attention to the inclusive notion" of EFA and said
that, to that end, "expanded partnerships and new modalities will be
sought."
UNESCO, he said, considers EFA to encompass more than "schooling for
children but also out-reach to youth and adults, early childhood learning,
adult literacy, skills training and non-formal education." Mr Matsuura
expressed concern "that not enough attention has been paid to the content
and fundamental messages of basic education" and stressed that "the basic
education required today cannot just be a matter of reading, writing and
counting."
"Each community needs citizens able to seize scientific progress and
its essential applications in health, sustainable development and the battle
against scourges such as HIV/AIDS. Individuals and communities need to
harness the potential of culture to ensure that globalisation and the
consequent homogenisation of knowledge is counterbalanced by the
preservation of cultural diversity and individual identities. [...] Each
society and each citizen needs the values and skills to counter intolerance
and conflict at the root," Mr Matsuura explained.
"UNESCO will bring its inter-sectoral competencies [...] to meet
these urgent social and individual needs," the Director-General promised,
adding that the results of the EFA assessment have created "a wellspring of
renewed advocacy, public awareness, and social mobilisation", Furthermore,
the assessment makes possible the "analysis of data that translates into
policy decisions, programmes, projects, and re-alignments of priorities and
resources."
"UNESCO will sustain this momentum," Mr Matsuura pledged,
"developing [...] a culture of information analysis at country level. We
will be [...] a storehouse and a channel of information on what is taking
place in basic education". He further explained: "As the
institutionally-mandated United Nations repository of statistics on
education, UNESCO's [...] Institute for Statistics will continue to work
closely with you and all partners in sustaining your initiatives." He also
highlighted the contribution to changing content, new systems and pedagogy
of UNESCO's World Education Reports and of the Organization's education
Institutes - in Paris, Hamburg, Geneva, Addis Ababa and Moscow - and singled
out their academic focus and established networks.
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