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| Inauguration of the ‘Education for All’exhibition - HRH Princess Firyal donates US$ 100,000 to the Education for All initiative |
05-10-2005 6:00 pm In the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Talal Bin Mohammed of Jordan and Ms Margaret Spellings, US Secretary of Education, the Education for All exhibition at the 33rd session of the General Conference was opened by the Director-General of UNESCO on 5 October 2005. On this occasion, he also launched the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). Welcoming the participants, Mr Matsuura said that HRH Princess Firyal, the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education for All, had been prevented from attending the event but, through her son, Prince Talal Bin Mohammed, she wished to re-affirm her strong and unwavering support for Education for All. Prince Talal spoke of Jordan’s successes in expanding women’s education, and announced a personal contribution of US$ 100,000 by HRH Princess Firyal in support of Education for All.
In her message HRH Princess Firyal said: “For, where as in the West there is a saying that ‘knowledge is power’, in my own culture we say ‘knowledge is light’. My personal commitment to Education is reflected by the policies long adopted in my homeland, Jordan, where we have achieved an adult literacy rate of nearly 90%. I am also proud to say that half of all high school students and university undergraduates in Jordan are female. Thus, my first-hand experiences with these farsighted policies have taught me two valuable lessons: First, education is the great equalizer. It has the ability to level any playing field between individual human beings, different societies, economies, nations and cultures. Education is the bedrock of all civilization. Second, the surest, most effective and fastest means of eradicating poverty and especially extreme poverty, is the emancipation of women. It goes against all common sense, all common interest, and all common humanity, to deny education to fully half of the members of every society on the planet as women are.”
The Director-General said that “the Education for All exhibition is designed to provide you with an informal and informative environment during the General Conference, enabling you to discover the activities undertaken by UNESCO’s Member States, its Programme Sectors and its partner organizations as they work together to achieve EFA”. On this occasion the Director-General also launched UNESCO’s new Literacy Initiative for Empowerment – LIFE. This initiative is the main substantive thrust of UNESCO’s strategic action for literacy at the country level within the overall context of the United Nations Literacy Decade, for which UNESCO is the lead agency and international coordinator. “Through LIFE, UNESCO is launching its own programmatic action within a global strategic framework aimed at reaching the large number of people without literacy skills and related capabilities, particularly women and out-of-school girls in rural areas. LIFE will address 34 countries with the highest absolute number of illiterate adults or where 50 per cent or more of the population is illiterate. LIFE will be a country-led process and will operate in phases starting with 10 countries in January 2006. I am pleased to announce that the following 10 countries have been invited to participate in this first phase – Bangladesh, Egypt, Haiti, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal and Yemen”, he said.
In her remarks, Secretary Spellings said that literacy must be at the heart of our work to advance education worldwide. “This is an important step in helping some of the world’s most challenged countries address this issue,” she said. “When you teach people to read, you help give them control over their lives and a voice in their nation’s future.” The Director-General also reminded the audience of the purpose of the United Nations Literacy Decade, for which UNESCO is the lead agency and international coordinator.
Mr Matsuura recalled that the Decade has received the strong support of Mrs Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States, who serves as UNESCO Honorary Ambassador for the Decade. Mrs Bush renewed her support through a message that Secretary Spellings conveyed on this occasion, in which she encouraged “each and every nation to join in UNESCO’s important goal to make literacy the birthright of every person (...) Governments must make education their first priority.”
Mr Matsuura highlighted that the Decade, which will conclude in 2012, “is a major aspect of the EFA drive and is important not only for education but also for the whole development process and, therefore, the Millennium Development Goals as a whole. Through the Decade, UNESCO is working hard in several areas – advocacy for literacy; the mobilization of resources; the coordination of action at international and regional levels; the sharing of information and good practices; the promotion of partnerships; and overall monitoring and reporting.”
Photos: Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Peter Smith, Assistant Director-General for Education, Mrs Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education and H.R.H. Prince Talal Bin Mohammed of Jordan, during the inauguration of the exhibition on 5 October 2005 at UNESCO Headquarters
Photos ©UNESCO/Danica Bijeljac
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