UNESCO and education throughout the world;...

Unesco and education throughout the world

UNESCO

Unesco and education

throughout the world

Composed by Unesco and Soregraph Printed by Damien, Paris, 1985

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France

Document for information Reproduction authorized

CONTENTS

MAJOR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION: UNESCO'S ANALYSIS 7

A right universally recognized 7

... but still only partially guaranteed 8 • The scourge of illiteracy 8 • Precarious conditions and resources 8 • Persistent inequalities 8

Lagging behind reality 9 • Lifelong education: a challenge to be met 10 • Curriculua with built-in obsolescence 10 • Education and the world of work: a gap to be bridged 10 • Values to be assimilated 11 • T w o schools back-to-back 11

A major sphere: international co-operation 11

SPECIFIC FEATURES AND FORMS OF UNESCO'S ACTION 13

Unesco's mission 13

H o w the programme is drawn up 14

W h a t Unesco cannot do 14

... and what only Unesco can do 15

Knowledge and understanding: springboards for action 16

Interest in concrete realities 17

C o m m o n standards 18

... and direct co-operation with the countries of the world . . . 18

S o m e forms of action . 19 • Unesco and educational information 19

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• Standard-setting instruments 21 Against discrimination 21 Recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees in higher education

• A new form of consultation 24 • Educational innovation networks 26

PROGRAMME AND RESOURCES 27 Three integrated major p rogrammes of action 27

Operational action 30 • Sources of financing 31 • Areas of co-operation 33 • Services rendered to M e m b e r States 34

Sectoral studies 34 Provision of specialists 35 Training 35

REFLECTION AND ACTION: A FEW EXAMPLES 39

Universalization, equal opportunity and democratization . . . 39 • Education as an integral process: from literacy training

to adult education 39 • Providing disabled young people with every opportunity

for social integration 46

Identify, modernity and development 48 • Education in one's mother tongue; language learning 48 • Teaching science and technology to prepare

for today's world and stimulate progress 51 • Technical and vocational education: an ideal instrument

for development 54

Training educational personnel 57

Logistics 62 • Educational buildings and furnishings adapted to the

surroundings 62 • Self-sufficiency in equipment: education industries 66

Other, less traditional areas 67 • Environmental education 67

W h y this form of education? 67 Knowledge and know-how 69 Awareness and social mobilization 69 Unesco's action 70

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• The Unesco Associated Schools Project 72 Peace can also be learnt 72 T w o major stages 73 A worldwide network 74 A new departure 74

N E W VISTAS 77 Education and the world of work 78

Education and culture 79

Education and communication 81

Informatics as a new field in education 84

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MAJOR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION:

UNESCO'S ANALYSIS

A right universally recognized...

This second half of the twentieth century will be noted for its recognition of education as a fundamental right of every individual. At the same time, education is universally acknowledged to be a major factor of economic progress and a pre-condition of social change. This worldwide realization has gone hand in hand with the remarkable expansion that education has enjoyed everywhere during the past twenty years. Between 1960 and 1982, enrolments of pupils and students at the different grades almost doubled, rising from 455 to 930 million. This growth has been particularly marked at the secondary and higher levels: the number of secondary school students has increased slightly more than two and a half times, rising from 69 million in 1960 to 180 million in 1980, while that of students enrolled in higher education almost quadrupled, swelling from 13.2 million to over 47 million.

This unprecedented expansion of education throughout the world has enabled tens of millions of individuals w h o would otherwise have been deprived of the opportunity, and indeed whole new sectors of the population, to gain access to knowledge, thereby raising the general level of education within their societies. This then contributes to the creation of the essential bases for improving individual living conditions and promoting social, economic and cultural progress. Thus the expansion of education represents a major aspect of the thorough-going transformations which are taking place in the present-day world and is a phenomenon whose long-term impact will be considerable.

Such progress has not been achieved without mobilizing substantial material, financial and h u m a n resources. Viewed globally, the percentage of created wealth, measured in terms of the portion out of the Gross National Product that is devoted to education, has risen from 3.7 in 1960 to 5.7 per cent in 1980. In the developing countries alone, the number of teachers rose from under 5 million in 1960 to nearly 15 million in 1980.

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UNESCO AND EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

. . . . but still only partially guaranteed

However , despite these endeavours and notwithstanding the progress accomplished, full exercise of the right to education is still far from being a reality on a global scale; the situation varies considerably from one region to another and from one country to another.

T h e scourge of illiteracy

Illiteracy, which is one of the major problems of our time, affecting as it does over 800 million individuals —living mainly in the developing countries— has come to be considered a veritable scourge. In 1980, 60 per cent of the adult population in Africa was illiterate, while in Asia the percentage was 37, and in Latin America it stood at 20. M a n y industrialized countries are themselves not entirely spared: a form of functional illiteracy is developing in some of them and already affects 2 to 10 per cent of their adult population.

Precarious conditions and resources

Universal primary schooling, which has virtually been achieved in the industrial countries, is hampered in the developing countries by several series of obstacles: the inadequacy of material, financial and h u m a n resources results in a dearth of teachers, classrooms and equipment; family poverty causes children to suffer from malnutrition and preventing them from attending school because of their obligations to help in productive work, and sometimes even to bring in an actual income; and added to this is the inadequacy of the educational services themselves, reflected in unsuitable curricula, equipment and teaching materials and, frequently, teachers w h o for the most part are woefully underqualified.

Persistent inequalities

Despite the often substantial expansion of education systems, one of the most serious forms of discrimination, which generates m a n y others and is a source of untold inequalities, remains; it is the restricted access of girls and w o m e n to education. Doubtless there are reasons of a historical, social, economic and cultural nature for this situation. It m a y be accounted for by the low level of school attendance during the colonial period, the inadequacy of family resources, numerous cramping domestic burdens, premature marriage and early pregnancies. It nevertheless

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continues to be an injustice, and to explain it is not to accept it. The small percentage of girls and w o m e n enrolled in scientific and technological courses is another manifestation of inequality in m a n y developing and industrialized countries.

Most of the world's population, as is well k n o w n , lives in rural areas. However , it is in these areas that the shortcomings of the educational services, in terms both of quantity and quality, are most flagrant. A s a result, the contribution m a d e by education to the advancement of rural communities remains meager in m a n y countries, particularly owing to the limited provision m a d e for certain types of education, primarily agricultural but also technical and vocational training.

Other groups have access to schooling only in extremely unfavourable conditions. This is true in particular of disabled children and handicapped youngsters, migrant workers and their families, refugees and members of national liberation movements. Special arrangements, taking account of the specific nature of such groups, are needed in order to enable them to receive the benefit of education in conditions comparable to those enjoyed by the majority of the population among w h o m they live.

Despite the efforts m a d e to promote general access to education, and despite all the measures taken to overcome the social, economic and cultural obstacles that afflict children from modest social backgrounds — w h o nevertheless form the majority— throughout their academic careers, inequalities all too often persist, with the result that a great deal of progress still needs to be accomplished in order to give everyone the best possible chance, to ensure 'equal opportunities for all' and thereby to guarantee for each and every one the full exercise of the right to education.

Lagging behind reality

Most societies, both industrialized and developing, are experiencing, albeit to different degrees, the same difficulties in reconciling the conflicting demands placed upon education which is called upon to safeguard and transmit the cultural heritage of each people while at the same time to ensure its renewal by developing attitudes and aptitudes that m a k e it possible for people to take part in and control change. While in the past education has often been severely criticized for the gulf that has separated it from various aspects of social life, the criticisms being levelled at present are of particular significance owing to the ever more rapid

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advances in knowledge and the growing complexity of today's swiftly changing societies. A few examples follow by way of illustration.

Lifelong education: a challenge to be met

The accelerated pace at which science and technology are advancing, the emergence of n e w fields of knowledge and new types of activity, and the increasingly rapid evolution of employment patterns and job qualifications generate in turn the need both for an ever higher level of initial general training and for frequent refresher and retraining programmes. Hence derives the importance of lifelong education, conceived not solely as a supplementary form of vocational training or a re-adaptation scheme but rather as an integral educational process begun in early childhood and pursued throughout a person's life, predicated on the intermeshing of school and out-of-school forms of training designed to cope with the multifarious needs and aspirations of individuals, groups and societies. Despite the unanimous support for these concepts, however, it is surprising to see h o w slowly lifelong education is being introduced into practice.

Curricula with built-in obsolescence

Another instance of this lagging behind is the way in which the curricula and content of education fail to keep pace, often quite significantly, with the advance of knowledge, particularly in the fields of science and technology —this despite the fact that it is education's very mission to pave the way for the future! The main question all too frequently remains: what is the role that education can play as a vehicle of and stimulus to culture in the broad sense of the term, and in particular scientific and technological culture, in a rapidly evolving society?

Education and the world of work: a gap to be bridged

A further indication of this lag is to be seen in the divorce, condemned countless times, between education and the world of work, which is reflected alike in the inadequacy of practical training and indeed its omission from general education, in the resistance frequently encountered by those seeking to introduce productive or socially useful work into general education, and in the continuing gulf between formal education systems and vocational training schemes. This state of affairs is exacerbated by the limited development of technical and vocational

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education, by the low level of attraction that manual work exerts on the young —as a result of the scant prestige it enjoys and the inadequate wages it pays— and, finally, by the unsatisfactory distribution of pupils and students a m o n g the different training streams, including those in higher education. In this regard, the unemployment created by the economic recession, which affects several million educated young people and adults (while at the same time certain n e w sectors of activity are looking for qualified manpower) points up this gulf even more clearly.

Values to be assimilated

T o pursue our analysis, the fact has frequently been noted —and denounced— that education prepares people to live in a type of society that is already a thing of the past. Indeed, m a n y countries experience difficulties in reconciling certain conflicting demands that education is required to meet: to encourage people to weave themselves into the fabric of national and local life by giving pride of place to traditions and values that contain the seeds of the future, while at the same time opening their minds to the international environment by developing a better understanding of major world problems and the different values of civilization that constitute mankind's c o m m o n heritage.

T w o schools back-to-back

Thé process of devising and implementing coherent educational strategies would seem to be all the slower because such strategies do not appear to turn to account as they should the impact that the mass media have upon children and adults alike. So true is this, indeed, that to speak of the media as a form of 'parallel education' is equivalent to regarding the break between institutionalized education and the mass media as already an established fact.

A major sphere: international co-operation

Today, the complex question of h o w best to harness all available educational resources for the benefit of each individual and of society as a whole is of the highest priority. The fate of nations, both large and small, will in the coming decades be contingent upon their ability to mobilize and turn to account the h u m a n resources that they possess.

International co-operation, thanks to its capacity to stimulate the exchange of experience and new thinking, has over the past decades been

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accorded a key role in this respect, one which Unesco has helped significantly to promote and strengthen by constantly seeking to bring about a synthesis of the needs and aspirations of all its M e m b e r States. Such co-operation cannot but develop along these lines.

Given the need to diversify and adapt the structures, content, methods and institutions of education and training, and to m a k e them more responsive to the requirements of today's world, the difficulty of securing n e w resources for education, and indeed of maintaining resources at their current levels, has become a major consideration. This difficulty is augmented in m a n y developing countries by the crisis affecting international technical co-operation, which is reflected in particular in the reduction in the flow of resources to these countries, thus providing grave cause for concern, and not only among the beneficiaries of education.

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SPECIFIC FEATURES AND FORMS

OF UNESCO'S ACTION

Unesco's mission

International co-operation in the field of education m a y take the form of bilateral and multilateral exchange or it m a y occur within the broader context of the United Nations system. Through Unesco and other Specialized Agencies and with the support of international funding bodies and programmes such as the United Nations Children's Fund ( U N I C E F ) , whose mission is to improve the living conditions of children, and the United Nations Development Programme ( U N D P ) , the community of nations pools its intellectual and material resources, its theoretical and practical knowledge and the experience it has amassed in the course of three decades. The energies of a very large number of international nongovernmental organizations, such as teachers' associations, are also mobilized to the same end.

Within the United Nations system, Unesco, the linch-pin in the field of education, offers the main framework for co-operation in that domain. B y the terms of its Constitution, Unesco's M e m b e r States have explicitly laid down that its responsibility is 'to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world'. This means that its mission is first and foremost an ethical one, and that its action to promote education throughout the world is geared wholly to the attainment of these ideals.

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UNESCO AND EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE W O R L D

H o w the programme is drawn up

It is the M e m b e r States of Unesco, meeting once every two years at the General Conference, that decide upon the Organization's education programme for the succeeding biennium. This programme sets out in detail the activities to be initiated and those to be continued, with the corresponding appropriation of resources. A draft programme is prepared for this purpose by the Director-General in accordance with the main lines of emphasis defined in the Organization's Med ium-Term Plan which is approved by the General Conference for a six-year period after a broad consultation has been conducted among M e m b e r States and governmental and non-governmental international organizations. In the fields of action that it defines and the relative importance assigned to them, the programme reflects the consensus of the international community regarding the areas in which its efforts should be focused. The M e m b e r States expect Unesco to serve as a beacon, helping them, in the light of an analysis of world problems and in particular the problems of education and its evolution, to work out approaches and methods that m a y make it easier to solve those problems and to m a p out trends for the future.

What Unesco cannot do...

Unesco's mandate requires it to give a vigorous impetus to education, but it has only limited financial resources with which to do so. The funds allocated to education for the 1984-1985 biennium under its Regular Programme1 amounted to U S $86 million, i.e. only a fraction (in some cases scarcely one-tenth) of what certain large universities in the industrialized countries will spend over the same period. T o be sure, this appropriation is supplemented by funds deriving from extra-budgetary sources2 which amount to a sum more or less equal to that of the Regular Programme. The total amount of these financial resources (see Part III) nevertheless remains extremely low in relation to the needs to be satisfied. The paucity of these funds indeed merely reflects the slenderness of the Organization's overall budget. Although the proportion of the allocation m a d e to education is relatively substantial (38 per cent of all funds

1 Intellectual co-operation activities are the exclusive responsibility of the Organization and are financed for each biennium by a budget voted by the General Conference.

2. These comprise all the resources other than those of the Regular Programme and are mainly used to finance operational projects in the M e m b e r States.

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earmarked for programme activities in the Organization's fields of competence: education, the natural sciences, the social and h u m a n sciences, culture and communication), Unesco's overall budget, which amounted to U S $374 million for 1984-1985, remains less than, for example, the cost of one nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (approximately $500 million in the early 1980s)1

Unesco is therefore not in any position to tackle head-on, by engaging in direct, extremely large-scale operations, such crucial problems as illiteracy, and the reproaches that are sometimes levelled against the Organization on this score are based on a misunderstanding. Moreover, it is not these financial constraints alone that place a limit upon what Unesco can undertake. Its very nature, as an international institution required to work in conjunction with its M e m b e r States while strictly respecting the sovereignty of each of them, obliges it to follow clear-cut courses of action without ever seeking to usurp the place of the national authorities.

... and what only Unesco can do

Today, Unesco has 160 M e m b e r States. Having virtually attained universality, it is on a worldwide scale that it can generate n e w thinking among educationists, draw upon the wide range of their experience and marshal their energies in order to build the future.

- It is this unique position that constitutes its strength and its originality, and that determines the methods and forms of its action. Such action is more concerned with quality than with quantity. Whether it involves promoting information exchanges between countries, convening meetings of ministers of education, drawing up and securing the ratification of international conventions, providing advisory services or carrying out, as part of its operational work, specific practical projects in its various M e m b e r States, the role played by Unesco is essentially one of conceptual stimulation, clarification and enrichment, encouraging action and giving focus to it, catalysing efforts, providing technical support and generally striving to ensure that all educational work produces a m a x i m u m multiplier effect.

1. International Social Science Journal (Paris, Unesco) Vol. 35, N o . 1, 1983, p.66.

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W h a t this means is that Unesco acts as a dynamo sparking international co-operation in the field of education and exerting on all those actively involved therein throughout the world (and they are legion —decision-makers, the various categories of educational staff and specialists, not forgetting the general public in certain cases) a far-reaching impact, the effects of which go well beyond what can be immediately measured. W h e n the Organization decides to launch a world campaign, for example to save the ancient monuments of Nubia, public opinion is able in a short time to appreciate the results. Likewise, when the aim is for a group of states to pool their scientific k n o w - h o w and their material resources in order to explore together a still little-known ocean or continent, it is relatively easy, once the campaign has been completed, to assess what the undertaking has achieved. B y contrast, when Unesco sets itself the goal of fostering equality of educational opportunity for each and every individual and for all peoples, or of adapting educational systems and content to the needs of present-day societies, the impact of such undertakings obviously cannot, with certain remarkable exceptions, be either immediate or easy to quantify.

Knowledge and understanding: springboards for action

Unesco carries out its programme by deploying clusters of activities, and w e shall give a number of examples of these in the following pages. However , it is by considering first the modalities of its action that w e shall best be able to grasp the unique nature, and also the extent, of the services which the Organization renders in the field of education.

First and foremost, Unesco endeavours to promote, among educationists and education officials of all categories, a better knowledge of experiments, problems and trends throughout the world, and to encourage more intensive thinking about them, with a view to making available to M e m b e r States data and frames of reference that will help them to define more clearly the objectives and priorities of their educational development, and the most appropriate means of attaining them. It thereby helps to establish sound foundations for educational planning and to enhance the efficacy of the educational process and its contribution to personal fulfilment and to economic, social and cultural development.

T o this end, it encourages in a general way the flow of ideas as well as the exchange of information and experimental data by facilitating their

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collection, storage, processing and dissemination at all levels, national, regional and international. This task is undertaken, in various forms, by the different units operating at its Paris Headquarters, by the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva, by Unesco's regional offices, which are the Secretariat's outposts in the regions, and by the International Institute for Educational Planning ( H E P ) , located in Paris, which provides training courses for educational planners and administrators from m a n y countries throughout the world. The publications of the Office of the Unesco Press and periodicals such as Prospects, issued in six languages, represent a further contribution to this effort.

Unesco also endeavours, more directly, to further knowledge of educational problems from an international standpoint, by carrying out or by commissioning studies on a range of subjects: studies on school zoning, on the relationship between education and the media, and on future trends in education, for example. Studies are also focused on particular regions and educational problems arising in individual countries. These various studies all provide the information, the methodological tools and the technical recommendations that serve to clarify and give focus to the Organization's practical action, and to meet the requests of M e m b e r States.

But it is above all by giving considerable prominence in its programme to activities involving international consultation, by organizing regional conferences of ministers of education, international intergovernmental conferences (such as the International Conference on Education), international congresses and meetings of specialists, in whose work it associates the non-governmental organizations specializing in education and the teachers' organizations, that Unesco helps countries to clarify their approach to educational problems and to work out the means best calculated to solving them. In addition, such consultations provide a useful opportunity for co-ordinating policies and action plans at the international or regional level.

Interest in concrete realities

In order to enable M e m b e r States to turn the knowledge and experience m a d e available to them by the international community to optimal account, Unesco seeks to encourage practical applications thereof, in specific contexts, with a view to providing solutions for practical problems

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and developing innovatory approaches designed to improve performance in various fields of education. This activity takes the form of pilot projects carried out in M e m b e r States, or large-scale regional projects, such as the Major Project in the Field of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is supplemented by the publication of handbooks and guidebooks (on the teaching of science and technology, literacy training) and synoptic studies (on the planning and financing of education, educational content and methods).

Common standards...

Unesco makes it its business to prepare, with a view to their adoption by M e m b e r States, different types of instruments (recommendations, conventions) that lay d o w n standards and governing principles at the international level in such important fields as, for example, the struggle against discrimination in education, the recognition of studies and diplomas in higher education, the status of teachers, technical and vocational education, adult education, education for international understanding, co-operation and peace, and education relating to h u m a n rights and fundamental freedoms.

This standard-setting action is of paramount importance, both in its spirit —for it reflects a n e w awareness of an essentially ethical kind— and in its practical applications. This major Unesco contribution to international life is an integral part of the Organization's programme in the field of education and has developed in conjunction with it.

. . . and direct co-operation with the countries of the world

Unesco also endeavours to support national and regional efforts to promote education through various forms of direct practical co-operation.

For example, it provides its M e m b e r States, at their request, with advisory services for the purpose of helping them to analyse their needs and to formulate policies, plans and programmes tailored to meet these needs. This activity extends to the fields of educational administration and planning, and also embraces teacher training. The Organization likewise does its utmost to help those countries that so wish to obtain financing for their projects from external sources.

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O n e of the fields in which Unesco strives most resolutely to develop its co-opèration with the different countries is the key area of educational personnel training. It encourages such training throughout the world in particular by organizing courses, seminars and workshops for the different categories of personnel, and by awarding fellowships at the national, regional and international levels.

A s part of its operational action, Unesco provides support for the execution of national projects financed, through it, from other sources, by helping, at the technical level, with the recruitment of experts and consultants and the purchase of equipment and materials, for example, and more generally by providing intellectual and logistic support. M a n y training establishments have been set up or strengthened thanks to operational projects. In addition to enabling it to contribute directly to the efforts of its M e m b e r States, the Organization's operational action, which puts it more closely in touch with national realities, has given it a better appreciation of the needs and aspirations of peoples, the complexity of educational problems and the multi-dimensional nature of development.

Operational action has thus come to be a precious source of enrichment for activities focused on the exchange of experience and information, studies and intellectual inquiry. It has helped to define more precisely the priorities of the Organization's programme, to clarify the aims of different activities, to work out n e w concepts and to promote their practical application.

Some forms of action

Unesco and educational information

Unesco has very extensive international documentation which it keeps for the use of its M e m b e r States and all interested specialists. This documentation has been constantly added to and m a d e available since Unesco was founded.

It is maintained at the Organization's Headquarters by the Documentation and Information Centre for Education (CDI) , which works closely with the documentation centres of Unesco's Regional Offices for Education in Africa ( B R E D A ) , the Arab States ( U N E D B A S ) , Asia and the Pacific ( R O E A P ) , and Latin America and the Caribbean ( O R E A L C ) , as well as the documentation centres of the regional Centres for Higher Education in Bucharest and Caracas. This

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documentation covers the main aspects of the education programme in M e m b e r States i.e. educational policy, planning and administration, including: the planning of facilities; financing; structures, content, methods and techniques of education; science and technology teaching; higher education and training of educational personnel; special programmes of education for international understanding, co-operation and peace and education relating to h u m a n rights; the education of disadvantaged groups; literacy; adult education; the education of girls and w o m e n ; etc.

The I B E has the task of co-ordinating all the Organization's information and documentation activities relating to education and has launched an International Network for Educational Information ( I N E D ) . The national organizations involved in I N E D activities circulate information received from the network nation-wide and act as intermediaries between local institutions and the I B E , the co-ordinating organization. Regionally, the I B E co-ordinates its information and documentation activities with those of the Regional Offices and other Unesco centres, and also with the specialized networks being developed as part of the Organization's specific educational programmes.

I N E D publishes a liaison bulletin and an international directory of educational documentation services, and is developing a data base, the contents of which are made available to relevant institutions in the M e m b e r States by means of a biannual publication. In addition, the I B E Documentation Centre provides M e m b e r States with a question-and-answer service and prepares a certain number of reference works, such as the Education Thesaurus.

The Documentation Centre of the H E P deals with research and training in the field of educational planning and helps to disseminate knowledge on this subject. Since its foundation in 1963, the Institute has circulated a large number of publications and documents, including research reports, case studies, documents for seminars, series papers, reference works, etc.

There are also two regional centres, the European Centre for Higher Education ( C E P E S ) in Bucharest, and the Regional Centre for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean ( C R E S A L C ) in Caracas, each of which has a documentation and information centre.

Lastly, the Unesco Institute for Education, set up in Hamburg in 1952 and closely tied to Unesco without being part of it, has a documentation centre which has become a clearing house for information on lifelong education. This centre publishes bulletins and bibliographies as well as a

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quarterly journal, International Review of Education .

Standard-setting instruments

There are no fewer than sixty-two standard-setting instruments, i.e. conventions and agreements, recommendations and declarations, many of which deal primarily with education. Here are two examples which will easily show that without Unesco they would never have come into being.

Against discrimination

In 1960, the General Conference adopted the Convention and Recommendation against Discrimination in Education. The adoption of these two instruments was a historical event in the development of the international consensus on equality in education. The Organization's intention was to contribute in this way to the implementation of Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of H u m a n Rights which proscribes all forms of discrimination, and also to m a k e the right to education — acknowledged for all in Article 26 of the Declaration— an actual fact.

Ratification of the Convention naturally entails the immediate repeal of any existing discriminatory legislation or administrative provisions, but it is above all its practical, positive provisions which should be borne in mind. These aim, through gradual stages over a period of time, at the development of education within a general socio-economic development plan for each country.

It is not enough to ratify or to accede to a convention: it must be implemented. This means that one of the most important functions of an international organization like Unesco is to ensure that the States Parties to such instruments observe all the provisions in them. T o achieve this, a procedure for consulting M e m b e r States about the implementation of the Convention was developed. By periodically reviewing the reports which each State Party to the Convention is required to submit in answer to a questionnaire, the Organization is able to discharge this responsibility.

Since the adoption of the Convention in 1960, three consultations on its implementation have been held and their findings brought to the notice of the General Conference between 1968 and 1980. The fourth consultation is n o w being held.

B y 30 March 1984, seventy-five M e m b e r States had become parties to the Convention which, nearly a quarter of a century after its adoption, has not diminished in scope or relevance.

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Article 4

The States Parties to this Convention undertake furthermore to formulate, develop and apply a national policy which will tend to promote equality of opportunity and of treatment in the matter of education and in particular:

(a) to make primary education free and compulsory; make secondary education in its different forms generally available and accessible to all; make higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of individual capacity; assure compliance by all with the obligation to attend school prescribed by law:

(c) to encourage and intensify by appropriate methods the education of persons who have not received any primary education or who have not completed the entire primary education course and the continuation of their education on the basis of individual capacity.

Convention against Discrimination in Education (Eleventh session of the General Conference of Unesco, Paris, December 1960).

Recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees in higher education

In the view of Unesco, promotion of the recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees is one of the most appropriate ways of fostering the mobility of people w h o have received higher education and of intensifying international co-operation, strengthening national training and research capabilities and facilitating the return to their o w n countries of specialists trained abroad.

Within a period of some ten years, Unesco's standard-setting activities in this field have led to the adoption of six regional conventions covering practically the entire world, all of which aim at 'the recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees in higher education'.

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With a few minor differences, all the States Parties to each of the Conventions have declared themselves:

Resolved to organize their co-operation and strengthen it in respect of the recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees of higher education by means of a convention which would be the starting point for concerted, dynamic action, carried out, in particular, through national, bilateral, subregional and regional bodies set up for that purpose.

Regional Committees, for which the Director-General of Unesco provides secretariat and co-ordinational services, are set up by the States Parties to these Conventions in order to monitor their implementation. Following on the regional conventions, the aim is now an international convention for all countries. Unesco is working towards this.

1974: Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean

1976: International Convention oh the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in the Arch and European States bordering on the Mediterranean

1978: Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in the Arab States

1979: Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees concerning Higher Education in the States belonging to the Europe Region

1981: Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in the African States

1983: Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in Asia and the Pacific

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These are only two examples, the first going back a quarter of a century and the second includes one convention as recent as 1983. Other standard-setting instruments, agreements, international recommendations and charters on education have been adopted and ratified. They have all been adopted either by the General Conference of the Organization or by intergovernmental conferences convened by Unesco acting alone or jointly with other international organizations. W e might mention, for example, the Agreement for facilitating the international circulation of visual and auditory materials of an educational, scientific and cultural character (December 1948), the Agreement of the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials (June 1950), the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (October 1966), the Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education Relating to H u m a n Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (November 1974), the Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (November 1974), the Recommendation on the development of adult education (November 1976), the Revised Recommendation concerning the International Standardization of Educational Statistics (November 1978) and the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport (November 1978).

A n e w form of consultation

Mention should be made of the regional conferences of ministers of education, which are another of the Organization's means of action. M e m b e r States had felt an urgent need to consult each other and pool ideas and experiences on major educational problems in specific geographical areas, and in response to this need Unesco, early in the 1960s, organized the first round of regional conferences at ministerial level. These conferences have n o w become a unique and original means of international co-operation.

Originally, the major issues examined were faced by countries that had just acceded to independence e.g. h o w to provide elementary schooling to as many children as possible, h o w to increase the number of literate adults quickly, and h o w to transform the education systems inherited from colonization into genuinely national systems that would serve economic and social development.

With the passing of the years and with experience, these conferences have become forums where those responsible for education at the highest level meet periodically, most frequently alongside their economic and

24


social planning counterparts. They review and highlight the trends in education in their different regions, exchange views on aims and priorities, share information on thé policies and innovations introduced and on achievements, examine problems and discuss likely solutions together, m a k e suggestions to M e m b e r States and to Unesco concerning development and regional and international co-operation, and make recommendations on Unesco's programme.

These regional conferences all culminate and converge in the International Conference on Education, organized every two years by the I B E . This Conference is the only one of its kind where ministers and senior civil servants of most countries in the world review major trends in education today, exchange views and information on major issues and m a k e recommendations to ministries of education and to the world community on the development of education and on international cooperation in this field.

1956-1985: Regional Conferences of Ministries of Education

Africa

1961

Latin America and the Caribbean

1956 Addis Abeba Lima

1964 Abidjan

1968 Nairobi

1976 Lagos

1982 Harare

1962 Santiago

1966 Buenos Aires

1971 Carabellada

1979 Mexico City

Arab States

1960 Beirut

1966 Tripoli

1970 Marrakesh

1977 A b u Dhabi

Asia and Oceania

1960 Karachi

1962 Tokyo

1968 Bangkok

1971 Singapore

1978 Colombo

1985 Bangkok

Europe

1967 Vienna

1973 Bucharest

1980 Sofia

Unesco also organized specialized intergovernmental conferences to go deeply into specific issues or major aspects of education. Conferences of this kind were the Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education (Tbilisi, U S S R , 1977) and the International Conference of

25


Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (Paris, 1976).

Far from duplicating each other or even overlapping, these regional and international consultations are complementary, given their single goal, which is to renew education, making it more relevant to personal fulfilment, to economic, social and cultural development and to peace and international understanding.

Educational innovation networks

In renewing its technical co-operation methods, Unesco has played an active part in designing and launching co-operative networks for promoting educational innovations in Asia (Asian Programme of Educational Innovation for Development ( A P E I D ) , since 1974), Africa (Network of Educational Innovation for Development in Africa ( N E I D A ) , 1978), the Arab States (Educational Innovation Programme for Development in the Arab States (EIPDASJ, 1979), the Caribbean (Caribbean Network of Educational Innovation for Development ( C A R N E I D ) , 1981) and Southeast Europe (Co-operation in Research and Development for Educational Innovation in Southeast Europe ( C O D I E S E E ) , 1980).

. These networks, now functioning independently, encourage exchanges and co-operation between national institutions, which are thus able to make their experience with the renewal and adaptation of education systems, processes and methods available to the other participating countries.

Such co-operation has enabled simple but often very ingenious ideas to be tried out and made widely known. For example, the existence of these networks in various countries has made possible the manufacture of sturdy and inexpensive scientific demonstration equipment from local materials, the production of low-cost textbooks and the construction of teaching machines and simple educational toys. They have stimulated literacy activities based on self-management, the use of the profits from productive schools of agriculture to help pupils set up in farming at the end of their course, and the institution of advisory services for students, as part of literacy campaigns or even of formal education. S o m e villages have begun to produce, print and distribute their o w n newspapers thanks to the stimulus of these networks.

26

PROGRAMME AND RESOURCES

Three integrated major programmes of action

Education is the subject of three of the thirteen major programmes in Unesco's M e d i u m - T e r m Plan for 1984-1985, without counting various education components in other programmes.

A s its title indicates, the first major programme aims at promoting education for all. This major programme is in itself an innovation. It includes under the same heading, for the first time, programmes and subprogrammes whose c o m m o n objective is to contribute to making the right of everyone to education a reality as regards both equality of access and equality of chances of success. The themes of the democratization of education in the broad sense of the term and the promotion of lifelong education therefore permeate the whole of this major programme. O n e of the programmes — "Democratization of education'— is devoted to the general questions arising in this connection while the other programmes deal with these problems > from different specific angles: combating illiteracy by making primary education available to all and through the provision of literacy teaching for those w h o did not receive primary education, the development of adult education, and activities to assist girls and w o m e n and certain groups or sectors of the population that encounter obstacles in exercising the right to education. This major programme corresponds to a basic responsibility of the Organization and an essential requirement of our time, namely that of translating into reality the right to education considered both as a fundamental right of all individuals, whatever their age, sex, social, ethnic or racial background, and as a precondition for the progress of society.

In its various programmes, this major programme combines joint activities with M e m b e r States, activities to encourage their efforts and support their initiatives, and activities in favour of regional and international co-operation. It places considerable emphasis on the training

27


of educational personnel, e.g. primary-school teachers, literacy instructors and staff trained to teach both children and adult literacy classes; teachers for rural areas; kindergarten teachers; personnel specializing in education for the handicapped; and adult education personnel.

During the 1984-1985 biennium, various studies are being carried out, the findings of which should provide the basis for practical action and will be put to good use in the activities of subsequent biennia. These studies deal with subjects such as the causes and consequences of illiteracy and the relapse into illiteracy, as well as the factors which put certain groups at a disadvantage and are an obstacle to children's school attendance; the causes of the shortcomings in modern education in rural areas; the socio-cultural aspects of handicaps and the attitudes of communities to handicapped people; and the socio-cultural and educational aspects of the integration of migrant workers into the host countries and their subsequent reintegration into their country of origin as well as the reasons w h y their children are backward or fail at school. Certain pilot projects, experimental projects and operational seminars envisaged for 1984-1985 reflect a similar concern. In addition, some activities are designed to enlist the support of public opinion in solving major problems in education, such as those concerning illiteracy, education for refugees and members of liberation movements and education for migrant workers and their families.

This major programme received 36 per cent of the resources allocated to the education programme as a whole, or a total of U S $31,130,700 for 1984-1985. The programme for the eradication of illiteracy, whose vital importance and priority are universally recognized, was alone allocated U S $14,610,600.

The Organization's second major programme dealing with education is entitled The formulation and application of education policies. The purpose of the activities envisaged under this programme for 1984-1985 is to provide encouragement and support for what M e m b e r States are doing to draw up and implement education policies and to plan for the facilities and resources needed in order to have the education systems run smoothly.

They thus seek to help create the conditions needed in order to attain the objectives of the two other major programmes which come before and after it Education for all and Education, training and society —which were planned with that aim in view.

This major programme includes activities that have been carried out by Unesco for m a n y years and that deal with certain fundamental aspects

28


of education systems, e.g. the policies, planning and administration of education, content and methods, research and educational innovations; initial and further training of educational personnel; and school buildings and educational facilities, material and equipment. This major prog r a m m e includes trends and reflects concerns of considerable current interest such as the linking of school and out-of-school education; the mobilization and optimal use of resources; the promotion and application of educational sciences and associated sciences in renewing the educational process and increasing its effectiveness; better use of educational technology; improvement of the organization and management of facilities, buildings and furniture; and the setting up of infrastructures for the production and distribution of educational material adapted to the needs of M e m b e r States.

The activities envisaged in this major programme could be extended between 1986 and 1989 in such a way as to allow for more systematic treatment of questions such as the contribution of education to the solving of important world problems; joint consultation and mutual support among those responsible for education policies, educational planners, research workers in the educational sciences and educational practitioners; improved linkages between education and training policies and science and scientific research policies; joint consultation in the elaboration and implementation of educational, cultural and communication policies; discussion about the purposes of education and their effects on educational planning and definition of the roles of the various people involved in education; and the use of computers as part of the subject-matter of education, and their use in teaching and in the management of education systems. The activities planned also include research into the effect of the socio-cultural evolution, the shifting of values and the increased role of media in the educational process and the development of the child.

The complexity, ramifications and potential of this major programme are such that the other two, if not all the programmes of the Organization, hinge upon it. The resources allocated to it amounted to U S $35,546,300, or 41 per cent of the budget for the education programme. S o m e U S $16,801,800 were set aside for the programme on the 'Contribution to the formulation and application of education policies and strengthening of national capacities with regard to educational planning, management, administration and economies'.

The third and last major programme is entitled Education, training and society. A c o m m o n feature of the activities proposed is that they deal

29


with major issues involving the interaction between education and society, i.e. education and culture; education and communication; education, science and technology; education and the world of work; and education and sport. In the last chapter, w e shall return to some of these subjects which are new areas of study and action for Unesco.

Activities concerning higher education and its role in society and the extension of its functions, particularly as regards training and research, are to be found in this major programme. Resources allocated to this major programme for 1984-1985 amount to U S $16,472,400, of which over U S $ 6 million are assigned to science and technology education and nearly U S $ 5 million to higher education, training and research.

It will no doubt be noticed in this brief —and incomplete— description that the programme attemps continually to find an appropriate balance among reflection, research, practical activities and actions concerned with activities within the M e m b e r States themselves. In this respect, three facts have particular significance: in terms of the regular prog r a m m e , 37 per cent of the funds attached to the education programme are decentralized for 1984-1985, going to field units, particularly regional offices and centres. O f the staff concerned with education, 46.8 per cent work in the field and not in Paris. A considerable proportion of the resources available to the Organization under its regular budget are used to support the implementation at national level of M e m b e r States' activities which are in line with programme objectives. This assistance m a y take various forms such as the granting of fellowships, missions, advisory services, the organization of operational seminars for the preparation of teaching materials, etc.

Operational action

W h a t is known as the "operational' programme is financed by sources other than the regular programme budget which is m a d e up of the contributions of M e m b e r States, and is an essential part of Unesco's action relating to education. There is in fact continuous interaction between these two programmes and a close link between them from which they both benefit.

From 1 January 1981 to 31 December 1983 —over a period of three years— Unesco spent $126.6 million on its operational action for national educational activities at the national level in 120 countries. The budget for the 1984-1985 biennium amounts to U S $88.5 million.

30


Sources of financing

Funds are made available by the U N D P , the United Nations Fund for Population Activities ( U N F P A ) and other financing bodies such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ( I B R D —the World Bank) , the regional development banks and various funds. The tables below show the origin and distribution by region of the resources available.

Source of financing and

distribution by region of the resources used

(in millions of dollars)

January 1981-December 1983

REGIONS

Africa Asia and the Pacific Europe Arab States Latin America

and the Caribbean Interregional

$ TOTAT

%

Sources of financing

U N D P U N F P A Others

36.9 1.9 15.1 22.5 3.8 7.9

0.7 - 0.4 9.1 1.6 10.1

7.7 2.1 3.6 0.5 0.7 2.0

77.4 10.1 39.1

61.1 8.0 30.9

TOTAL

$US

53.9 34.2 1.1

20.8

13.4 3.2

126.6

%

42.6 27.0 0.9

16.4

10.6 2.5

100.0

31


UNDP

US$77.4 million

235 projects

(61.1%)

UNFPA US$10.1 million

48 projects (8.0%)

Other extrabudgetary

sources US$39.1 million

151 projects (30.9%)

EUROPE US$1.1 million

13 projects (0 9%)

INTERREGIONAL US$3.2 million

23 projects (2.5%)

LATIN AMERICA A N D CARIBBEAN

US$13.4 million 57 projects (10.6%)

ASIA A N D PACIFIC

US$34.2 million 105 projects

(27%)

ARAB STATES

US$20.8 million 54 projects

(16.4%)

Total: 434 projects completed or under way (1981-1983)

N. B. : The terms project is used to describe all field activities financed by extrabudgetary sources, whatever the stage of preparation or implementation

32

Extra-budgetary financing should not be considered as regular financing. It has to be obtained by prospection and negotiation, on a case by case basis; such a mustering of resources is one of the Unesco Secretariat's tasks. A s m a y be readily imagined, it has become m u c h more difficult and awkward since the economic recession has begun to m a k e itself felt. The expansion of the operational programme has thus been slowed d o w n by a very marked reduction in U N D P ' s funds. U N D P , one of the principal sources of finance for this technical co-operation, has had its programme cut back by nearly 45 per cent for the period 1982-1986.

Areas of co-operation

The limited resources available m a k e selection essential. Unesco is encouraging M e m b e r States to direct their efforts towards innovative approaches and projects with an impelling or multiplier effect, but it is, of course, for the governments themselves to decide on the type of project to which resources will be allocated.

In what areas are M e m b e r State's requests and hence Unesco's action concentrated?

M o r e than half the technical co-operation activities in education are devoted to three main areas, which are, in descending order: educational policy, planning and administration (27.9 per cent of projects.); training of educational personnel (14.1 per cent); scientific, technical and vocational education (13.5 per cent). Educational policy, planning and administration cover research and training in those fields, as well as all aspects of educational infrastructure and the vast field of educational reform.

The other areas in which Unesco acts, at the request of M e m b e r States, include the preparation of curricula, educational research, literacy training, higher education, early childhood education, adult education and education for disabled persons.

These world trends in evidence at the regional level in Africa and Asia. The Arab States and the Latin American and Caribbean countries still give priority to educational policy, the former laying special emphasis on higher education, and the latter showing greater interest in population matters. Only Europe gives top priority to technical and vocational education, followed by educational research and the preparation of curricula, and then by higher education.

This brief overview reveals yet again h o w far the resources at the Organization's disposal are disproportionate to the extent and diversity of needs.

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Staff 62.1%

Miscellaneous 7.3%

Breakdown of expenditure by type of co-operation for the period 1981-1983

Services rendered to M e m b e r States

In extending its services to M e m b e r States which so request, Unesco makes operational use of a wide variety of types of co-operation. W e shall mention a few here which are directly linked with activities in the field. They are: sectoral studies, the provision of specialists and training. W e shall n o w consider each of these in turn.

Sectoral studies

O n e of Unesco's main functions relating to education is to assist M e m b e r States in choosing and preparing priority educational projects which could

34


be financed externally and which correspond to the Organization's objectives. T o do this, Unesco organizes multidisciplinary missions to m a k e an in-depth study and full evaluation of the education system. Such missions culminate in a report known as a "sectoral study', which m a y , in certain cases, constitute the only existing comprehensive study of a country's education system. Other missions m a y have to do with the identification, preparation, execution and evaluation of projects. In the choice and preparation of projects, it is the M e m b e r States that have the chief role, that of Unesco consisting in technical co-operation.

Provision of specialists

This is probably the best known type of co-operation provided by Unesco. The Organization can offer its M e m b e r States the variety and abundance of the world's skills and experience by submitting to them for selection experts from all parts of the globe. Thus between 1981 and 1983, Unesco submitted to M e m b e r States, with a view to selection for expert and consultant missions, over two thousand names from more than a hundred countries.

This geographical diversification is not an end in itself. Its purpose is to provide M e m b e r States with the widest possible range of experience so as to promote the discovery of genuinely national solutions.

In what w e have described above as projects, the experts and consultants engaged generally constitute the largest item of budgetary expenditure, but it should not be forgotten that each expert is an instructor, responsible for training the national staff w h o are going to take over from him. H e also applies his knowledge and skills to various types of training activities at national, subregional, regional and sometimes even international levels (seminars, workshops, training courses, etc.).

Training

In point of fact all educational field projects, whatever their level, can be regarded as training activities. It has been estimated that during the period under consideration, more than 3,300 training activities' were organized by means of extra-budgetary financing for 30,700 national staff throughout the world. If w e add to that the activities financed under the Regular Pro-

I Fellowships and study grants, study travel, seminars, workshops, training courses.

35


g ramme and the Participation Programme1 , the total comes to 3,952 activities for 47,460 national staff.

The Regular Programme and the Participation Programme have covered the financing of 16.3 per cent of the activities and training of 35.1 per cent of national staff. For extra-budgetary financing the figures are, respectively, 83.7 per cent and 64.9 per cent ( U N D P having financed alone two-thirds of the fellowships and study grants awarded between 1981 and 1983).

Individual fellowships and grants awarded between 1981

and 1983*

Distribution by region of the staff involved

in training activities between 1981 and 1983*

REGION

Africa ' Asia and

the Pacific Europe Arab States Latin America

and the Caribbean

TOTAL

Number

697

1,793 149 191

84

2,914

%

23.9

61.5 5.1 6.6

2.9

100

REGION

Africa Asia and

the Pacific Europe Arab States Latin America

and the Caribbean

TOTAL

Number

6,964

9,726 470

2,551

11,081

30,792

%

22.6

31.6 1.5 8.3

36.0

100

Extra-budgetary financing only.

1. This programme enables Unesco to take part in the activities of Member States and Associate Members, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations that may be willing to contribute, at the national, subregional, regional or interregional levels, to the attainment oí the targets set by the General Conference.

36


Unesco provides m a n y other services to M e m b e r States where education is concerned. The identification, preparation, implementation and evaluation of projects, and technical and intellectual support for activities in the field have been the object of various missions (1,372 during the period under consideration, of which over half were financed from the regular budget of Unesco). The Organization also finds, selects, purchases and dispatches equipment and materials and provides technical advice and training concerning them. All these forms of co-operation are, of course, often combined in the launching and implementation of a single project or activity.

It is the privilege of the United Nations Specialized Agencies in general, and of Unesco in particular, to be able to provide all these high quality services within one and the same organization.

The real originality of international technical co-operation is that its aim is to m a k e itself dispensable. In the field of education, Unesco's action is based on the assumption that since the projects in which the Organization participates are national projects, the country concerned should ultimately take over, at all levels and in all fields, complete responsibility, for the whole of its education system and for its development and constant improvement.

37

REFLECTION AND ACTION: A FEW EXAMPLES

The underlying concepts and the aims of Unesco's education programme are set forth in detail in the second M e d i u m - T e r m Plan (1984-1989) approved by the General Conference of the Organization at an extraordinary session in 1982. The biennial programmes which derive directly from the Plan and adhere faithfully to it represent the continuation of recent developments while endeavouring to direct reflection and action gradually towards implementing the programme planned for each new period.

It would take too long to review all the major priorities of Unesco's integrated education programme, a brief outline of which was given at the beginning of the previous chapter. Only a few examples will be given here, and in order to simplify their presentation, this will be arranged under three headings universally recognized as being fundamental.

Universalization, equal opportunity and democratization

A s Unesco sees it, lifelong education —a concept, be it said in passing, that Unesco helped substantially to develop and launch— is possible only if universal education for children and adult education are faced and dealt with together. This conception of education and its translation into practice are both essential if democratization and equal opportunity are to become a reality.

Education as an integral process: from literacy training to adult education

A s a result of substantial population growth in the developing countries, it is estimated that, in absolute terms, the number of illiterate adults aged 15 years and over will have risen from 767 million in 1970 to 857 million by 1985. It is likely to be over 900 million at the turn of the millenium, if the present trend is maintained.

39


The industrialized countries are very probably far more seriously affected by adult illiteracy than was thought until very recently. In those countries, it is not so m u c h a matter of absolute illiteracy, but rather what has been termed 'functional illiteracy', a situation in which even those young people w h o have completed elementary schooling do not exercise the reading and writing skills that they have acquired and lose them therefore for want of practice.

Illiteracy affects w o m e n most of all. The number of illiterate girls and w o m e n , in absolute terms, is appreciably higher than that of m e n , and they account for 60 per cent of the illiterate adult population throughout the world; it is estimated that by 1985, there were 172 million more illiterate w o m e n than m e n , and it is probable that this figure will have risen to 190 million by the year 2000, if present trends continue. This disparity between the sexes is even more marked in the developing countries, where some 45 per cent of the w o m e n are illiterate, as against 29 per cent of the m e n . The situation is most serious in rural areas, amongst the most isolated communities and fringe groups in peripheral urban areas.

However , despite the increase in the absolute number of illiterates in all parts of the world over the past decade, there has been a marked drop in the illiteracy rate, which decreased from 39.3 per cent in 1960 to 28.6 per cent in 1980. The number of people w h o learned to read and write between 1970 and 1980 can be estimated at some 500 million.

It would be an exaggeration to say that this achievement —relative, to be sure— is due solely to Unesco; as the Director-General has often pointed out, nothing could have been done and nothing can be done without a clearly asserted political will on the part of the states concerned, w h o bear the main responsibility for this effort. But what is Unesco doing and what can it do to deal with the scourge of illiteracy?

In accordance with the task entrusted to it by the international c o m munity, the Organization is endeavouring to promote and encourage all initiatives aimed at eradicating illiteracy. It helps to provide a better understanding of the problem and arouse a greater awareness among the public through surveys, studies, films and periodicals. For instance, four international literacy prizes have been instituted and are awarded by the Organization every year. These are the Nadezhda K . Krupskaya Prize, the International Reading Association Literacy A w a r d , the N o m a Prize and the Iraq Literacy Prize, awarded for outstanding services by institutions, organizations and individuals in the struggle against illiteracy. Unesco supports the efforts m a d e by M e m b e r States to work out national strategies, to mobilize the resources needed for their implementation, as well as to

40


develop methods and materials and train literacy workers. A t the same time, it is active in developing co-operation among countries which share the same problems and interests, mainly at the regional level.

A great deal is done by Unesco to work together with the respective governments to devise ever more effective literacy policies and strategies that will speed up the action taken for —and with— the populations concerned, in the light not only of their needs but also of their wishes.

Another result of the conceptual studies carried out or backed by Unesco has been the development of a strategy, which has aroused considerable interest among m a n y governments. It is based on the idea that the struggle against illiteracy is more likely to succeed if there is a twofold basis for the action taken: on the one hand, expanding and improving primary schooling and, on the other, stepping up out-of-school literacy programmes and campaigns for both adults and young people..

During the 1981-1983 triennium, Unesco, under its regular prog r a m m e , gave technical and financial assistance for literacy training to seventy-eight M e m b e r States, including thirty-one in Africa, eighteen in Latin America, eighteen in Asia and eleven in the Arab States. In addition, literacy activities were organized in forty-six M e m b e r States under the Participation Programme.

The following are some concrete examples of Unesco's co-operation with M e m b e r States and non-governmental organizations: technical and financial support for the organization of seminars and training courses for teachers and literacy instructors and specialists in programme planning and administration, the preparation of teaching materials, the rural press and evaluation (Burkina Faso (formerly the Upper Volta), Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Jordan); contribution to the production of teaching materials either through technical and financial assistance for the publishing of readers and post-literacy textbooks (Cameroon, Morocco, the Philippines and Sudan), or by providing small-scale printing presses for the rural press (Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines), or again in some cases by furnishing paper for the printing of books and newspapers (Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Turkey); consultative missions to assist states in working out strategies and carrying out literacy and post-literacy programmes, evaluating them and drawing up plans for the training of personnel to train literacy instructors, planners or evaluation specialists in the field of literacy; and the acquisition of equipment and facilities for literacy projects, such as vehicles for the staff or for transporting teaching materials (Sao T o m e and Principe, and Thailand), for example, or kerosene lamps for evening classes (Grenada).

41


Example of a project: the Malawi National Literacy Campaign

Country: Malawi Nature of the project: National literacy programme: training of personnel, development of strategies, design of materials Starting date: 1980 Completion date: 1985 Achievements: Establishment of a National Literacy Centre and 300 functional literacy centres; training of 90 trainers and 325

instructors; development of a primer, teaching aids and post-literacy materials Funding: UNDP: US$880,000 Unesco's contribution: Acting as UNDP executing agency (recruitment of experts and consultants, training grants); financing of study missions for national professional personnel under the regular programme; fund-raising from bilateral sources (SIDA) and from multilateral and international sources (UNICEF).

The Organization has also helped some countries to find extra-budgetary resources for certain predetermined projects, with the result that some of the projects have been carried out with U N D P funding or out of funds-intrust, for example in Democratic Y e m e n , Malawi, Mauritania, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo and Y e m e n .

Furthermore, among the many activities undertaken to inform and enlist the support of the international community, mention should be made of the Director-General's appeals for the national literacy campaigns of Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Y e m e n , and those that he launched in September 1984 for Suriname and Honduras.

42


Thus, without taking over the prime and direct responsibility which rests with M e m b e r States in this area, Unesco has in these various ways contributed to the promotion and implementation of a great m a n y national and regional programmes which have enabled large numbers of illiterate people to take advantage of the activities undertaken. For instance, out of the 466,000 enrolled in the Tanzanian literacy project carried out between 1967 and 1973 under the Experimental World Literacy Programme, some 293,600 took and 96,900 passed the final examination, at an average cost of U S $32 for each new literate, some U S $10 of which were borne by the United Nations ( U N D P / U n e s c o ) . The positive results achieved by this programme have enabled it to develop under its o w n impetus and to be transformed into a nation-wide campaign, as a result of which the illiteracy rate in recent years has dropped from 70 to 21 per cent.

In addition to dozens of projects similar to those just mentioned, Unesco tías recently helped to develop and launch two projects that provide ample evidence of its faith and perseverance in literacy work: the Major Project on Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the regional programme for the eradication of illiteracy in Africa.

W e come n o w to the second aspect of lifelong education —adult education— which partly overlaps the first one.

Provision and justification for Unesco's action in this field is to be found in Article I of the Constitution, which states that the Organization will 'Give fresh impulse to popular education and to the spread of culture;

By instituting collaboration among the nations to advance the ideal of equality of educational opportunity without regard to race, sex or any distinctions, economic or social;'.

It was in 1949 at Elsinore in Denmark that Unesco convened the first International Conference on Adult Education. That was in the early postwar years, and the Organization was barely three years old. The purpose of that first Conference was none less than to see in what ways adult education might help to repair the damage done to education systems by the Second World W a r , and to promote the ideas of democracy and international co-operation.

Eleven years later, the second world conference was held in Montreal with the participation of the founding countries and a large number of newly-independent countries. It was only natural that from then on attention should be focused on problems such as literacy and rural development.

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A project for adult education in India

Country: India

Nature of the project: Use of satellite technology for the expansion of out-of-school education with special emphasis on adult education.

Starting date: 1984 Completion date: 1987 Anticipated results: Production of radio and television programmes; production of audio-visual materials for training on the spot; training of staff, in particular for the management and evaluation of satellite programmes; preparation of guides and manuals; openHlg of a central information and documentation service. Funding:

UNDP: US $2,267,000 Unesco's contribution: Acting as ÛNDP executing agency

The third international conference, convened in Tokyo in 1972, centred on the theme of adult education, see as both the condition for and the consequence of a continuing, lifelong educational process.

This total conception is faithfully reflected in Unesco's programme of action, in which adult education is seen as having three major lines of emphasis: work, citizens' rights and responsibilities, and leisure and culture. There is, in addition, a new component which takes account of the educational needs and potentialities of a social group whose importance in the world has grown considerably as a result of demographic trends: the elderly .

In carrying out this programme, Unesco has endeavoured to promote the establishment or development in M e m b e r States of the institutions, services and mechanisms necessary for the expansion of educational activities designed for adults. A certain degree of priority is also given to the

44


collection and worldwide dissemination of information about adult education. Finally, the Organization has constantly provided support for the training of adult education personnel by governmental and non-governmental authorities.

Excerpts from the preamble to the Recommendation on the development of adult education (Nairobi, 1976)

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, meeting in Nairobi from 26 October to 30 November 1976, at its nineteenth session,

Recalling the principles set forth in Articles 26 and 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guaranteeing and specifying the right of everyone to education and to participate freely in cultural, artistic and scientific life and the principles set forth in Articles 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

Considering that the development of adult education, in the context of life-long education, is necessary as a means of achieving a more rational and more equitable distribution of educational resources between young people and adults, and between different social groups, and of ensuring better understanding and more effective collaboration between the generations and greater political, social and economic equality between social groups and between the sexes,

Reaffirming that the attainment of this objective entails creating situations in which the adults are able to choose, from among a variety of forms of educational activity the objectives and content of which have been defined with their collaboration, those forms which meet

45


their needs most closely and are most directly related to

their interests,

Noting further that the International Labour Conference has adopted a number of instruments concerned with various aspects of adult education, and in particular the recommendation on vocational guidance (1949), the recommendation on vocational training in agriculture (1956), as well as the convention and recommendation concerning paid educational leave (1974), and of human resources development (1975),

Adopts this twenty-sixth day of November 1976, the present Recommendation.

The General Conference recommends that Member States apply the following provisions by taking whatever

. legislative or other steps may be required, and in conformity with the constitutional practice of each State, to give effect to the principles set forth in this Recommendation.

Nineteen forty-nine, then, was the date of the first International Conference on Adult Education; the fourth was held in Paris in 1985. In the intervening period, a standard-setting instrument drawn up at the request of M e m b e r States and dealing with the principles and problems of adult education was unanimously adopted by the General Conference in 1976.

Adult education has become a priority issue the world over, one that for 35 years now Unesco has ceaselessly been coping with, through reflection and through action.

Providing disabled young people with every opportunity for social integration

Literacy and adult education are all very well, but what about equal

46


opportunity? O n this point, there is no group in Unesco's programme which is of greater significance and more vulnerable than disabled children and young people, whose right to education and to a place in society has yet to be w o n and for w h o m Unesco, within the limites of its resources, has spared no effort.

In 1968, Unesco prepared a special education programme the aims of which have remained unchanged to this day. They are to improve understanding of the problems facing the disabled on account of their socio-cultural environment and to help to develop and consolidate special m e a sures for the disabled so that they can enjoy to the full their fundamental right to education; to provide more information on the potential and needs of disabled persons regarding education and entry into ordinary education systems and institutions, and regarding integration into society so that they can play a full part in the active life of the national c o m m u nity; to support the efforts of M e m b e r States in the detection and prevention of handicaps; to foster the use of an appropriate educational approach adapted to the peculiarities and needs of each subgroup; and to develop international co-operation in the field of special education.

Between 1973 and 1983, Unesco provided technical support for thirteen operational projects financed from extra-budgetary sources, and in particular by U N D P .

During the preceding budgetary period (1981-1983), more than seventy M e m b e r States received technical support from Unesco's special education programme.

A subregional special education project involving thirteen countries has been implemented in eastern and southern Africa, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Arab Gulf Prog ramme for United Nations Development Organizations ( A G F U N D ) , with Unesco acting as the technical executing agency responsible for seminars, training and/or advanced training fellowships, an information network among the countries concerned and the establishment of a sub-regional special education documentation centre.

The year 1981 was the United Nations International Year for Disabled Persons. O n that occasion, Unesco co-operated with the Government of Spain in planning, preparing and holding the World Conference on Actions and Strategies for Education, Prevention and Integration (Torremolinos, Spain). The Conference's Final Declaration is called the Sundberg Declaration after a m e m b e r of the staff of the Organization w h o had prepared it in meticulous detail and whose working life had been wholly devoted to the disabled.

47


Subregional special education project in eastern and southern Africa

Country: Thirteen countries in eastern and southern Africa (Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, Swaziland, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Nature of the project: Launching the development of special education in these two subregions. Starting date: 1980 Completion date: 1984 Achievements: .Training of some 160 national specialists. Training of administrators and trainers. Establishment of an information network and of a subregional documentation centre. Launching of a quarterly special education bulletin., Funding: 1st phase SIDA: US $767,000 2nd phase A G F U N D : US $200,000 Contribution of Unesco: Four experts, thirteen study grants. Organization of six training seminars. Consultant services, information and documentation. Search for sources of finance in order to continue the project beyond 1984.

Identity, modernity and development

Education in one's mother tongue; language learning

The mother tongue is the most natural and effective key to education and determines its success. It enables each individual to become rooted in his

48


own culture and, by shaping his identity in it, to go forth later to meet other cultures. These universally held ideas have emerged forcefully from the many symposia and meetings on language teaching, particularly in the developing countries, organized by Unesco. The introduction of national and mother tongues as languages of instruction in education systems has thus become a major thrust of the programme, which seeks to examine further the very special relationships that exist between education and culture.

A special education project in Brazil

Country: Brazil Nature of project: Introduction of appropriate technology for the education of disabled children and adults. Starting date: 1982 Completion date: 1984 Achievements: Establishment of services for the early detection and treatment of deafness. Training of the requisite staff. Setting up of a Braille printing press. Funding: UNDP: US $161,000 Contribution of Unesco: Five consultants on education for the deaf, two for the blind. The granting of three fellowships. Supply of equipment (audiometer, Braille printing press).

The development of effective teaching methods and the production of teaching materials which meet national needs, and are suitable for bi or multi-lingual education, are some of the aspects of this venture which Unesco is endeavouring to study in detail. A series of recommendations

49


and suggestions for M e m b e r States and the relevant non-governmental organizations is emerging from this work. A study has begun of the advisability of setting up an international programme to promote the use of mother tongues as languages of education.

Unesco continues to encourage, in parallel, the teaching of foreign languages, an indispensable means of learning about, understanding and appreciating other peoples and their cultures. It does this particularly by supporting experiments along lines such as the early teaching of or crash courses in these languages.

Introduction of Creole into curricula in Seychelles

Creole, English and French have been officially declared national State languages in the Republic of Seychelles. At the request of the government, Unesco in close conjunction with the Creole Section of the National Education Institute, made a study in 1981 to see what steps needed to be taken to make Creole the first language of schooling throughout the country. A plan of action and a list of urgent tasks were drawn up with a view to providing pre-service and in-service training for teachers and producing guides and textbooks for this trilingual education. The authorities of Seychelles took the recommendations of Unesco's consultant into account when Creole was introduced into the curriculum.

A m o n g the operational projects aimed at improving national capabilities for foreign language teaching, mention may be made of the project carried out by Unesco in China, at the Foreign Language Institute in Beijing. Under this teacher-training scheme, eleven Unesco consultants have already visited the Institute to conduct courses on English, French, Spanish, G e r m a n , Arab and Japanese languages, literature and civilization. Scores of students have followed training courses abroad in order to fami-

50


liarize themselves with new language teaching methods and to improve their knowledge of a foreign language.

The A L S E D (Anthropology and Language Science in Educational Development) programme is devoted to the interdisciplinary aspects of language research and to the contribution that teaching them can make to international understanding and peace. FIPLV World News, an information bulletin dealing with this programme (published in English) forms a link between the national and international institutions taking an interest in the development of this programme.

Teaching science and technology to prepare for today's world and to stimulate progress

The opportunity to receive mother tongue education m a y be a key requirement today, but access to science and technology is also an imperative need, to some extent a complementary one, the satisfaction of which conditions our understanding of the modern world and the acquisition of knowledge, so vital for progress and the well-being of individuals and societies. O n e of the essential tasks of education therefore is the provision of the basic scientific and technological knowledge needed to prepare the young generation for modern forms of employment, especially in the production sector, foster scientific vocations and arouse among young people and adults an awareness of the relations between science, technology and society.

A s a mastery of science and technology is indispensable for national progress, Unesco is striving to promote endogenous development of science and technology teaching and is therefore helping to expand the national structures needed for the development of curricula, materials and facilities, as well as for teacher-training. Although responsibility for such development lies in the hands of M e m b e r States, regional and inter-national co-operation provides them with valuable support. It permits the exchange of ideas and the comparison of experience, which encourages innovation and underpins what countries are doing to improve the quality and relevance of science and technology teaching and to extend it both in the formal education system and in extra-curricular form.

Over the past few years, Unesco has concentrated on updating the scientific content of curricula, on establishing closer links between science and technology education, practical life and the world of work, and on developing extra-curricular programmes to give the general public a better

51


understanding of science and technology. Á major international congress on the relationships between science and technology teaching and national development was held in 1981.

The programme for 1984-1985 also provides for activities seeking to adapt the subject-matter, methods and materials of education more closely to development needs, by way of pilot projects, for example. Three new pilot projects, modelled on a pilot project that was successfully carried out in 1981 (see box below), are currently being implemented in different regions of the world. They concern the teaching of science and technology in rural areas (Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Mali, Senegal and the United Republic of Tanzania), links with productive work (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and technology in general education (Australia, China, India and the Philippines).

N e w training methods for science teachers

A pilot project involving institutions from five countries (Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Spain) was launched in 1981 to design and test new training methods for science teachers and to develop appropriate teaching materials. In particular, teachers were to be trained to conduct laboratory work in physics, chemistry, biology and integrated science and to give the teaching of mathematics a more practical slant by taking situations related to daily life as a starting point for their lessons. Participants from the different countries met in Colombia in 1984 to evaluate work done and prepare a teachers' handbook.

Similarly, Unesco is encouraging the production of science teaching materials using local resources. N o w that science education is moving more and more towards the performance, by pupils themselves, of practical work in the classroom or laboratory, the shortage of teaching materials is often a severe problem, especially in the developing countries. A project, in which the main participants are Brazil, Colombia, India, Kenya, Nigeria,

52


Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, will m a k e it possible to prepare a series of technical drawings for the construction of simple science teaching equipment which can be produced locally at the lowest possible cost.

O f the other activities planned, mention can also be m a d e of a prog ramme under consideration for the renewal of science and technology teaching in Africa, advisory services to improve facilities for science and technology teaching, an adult education component, curricula for interdisciplinary science teaching (including hygiene and nutrition) in school and out of school, and the establishment of an international information network.

S o m e examples of Unesco publications on science and technology teaching

— N e w trends in primary school science education (English, French, Spanish and Arabic)

— N e w trends in school science equipment (English, French, Spanish and Arabic)

— N e w trends in physics teaching, Vol. French and Spanish)

— N e w trends in chemistry teaching, Vol French)

— Studies in mathematics education, Vol. French and Spanish); Vol. 3 (English, nish and Arabic); Vol. 4 (English and

IV (English,

. V (English,

1, 2 (English, French, Spa-Spanish)

— Teaching school chemistry (English, French, Spanish and Arabic)

— Unesco handbook for biology teachers in Africa (English, French) in Asia (English) in Latin America (English, Spanish) in the Arab States (Arabic)

53


Special attention has been given to the teaching of mathematics. Its aims and purposes have been investigated by means of an international questionnaire, as have aspects such as the preparation of teaching m a terials linking the teaching of mathematics with that of physics, chemistry and biology and the preparation of regional study and training programmes at the regional level. Furthermore, advisory services have been provided to countries requesting them. Unesco has also co-operated with the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) in the organization of international congresses on mathematical education ( I C M E ) , the most recent one of which was held in Australia in August 1984.

Unesco publishes a large number of books on the different components of this programme.

Technical and vocational education: an ideal instrument for development

Just as science and technology education is a necessary component of modern education for both the individual and society, so too is technical and vocational education an important factor in the acquisition of knowledge geared to economic and social development.

This is evidenced by a certain growth of enrolments in this type of education throughout the world. The acceleration of technological progress has resulted in changes in employment structures which must be taken into account by technical and vocational education if it is to train manpower capable of adapting itself to change and ensuring a more flexible transition between school and the world of work. It is accordingly the area par excellence where theory can be joined with practical activities whether in the framework of formal or non-formal education.

Unesco activities develop along three major lines. The first is its standard-setting action spearheaded by the implementation of the Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education, by the carrying out of studies on national policies and by the development of closer co-ordination between education, training and employment.

The second major line is the strengthening of national infrastructures through the training of teachers for technical education, the elaboration of curricula in the national languages and the utilization of local resources for improving school buildings, services and equipment.

The exchange of information constitutes the third axis of this

54


programme. It entails the dissemination of specialized manuals and directories, a bulletin and a series of studies providing information on the most recent trends in technical and vocational education.

A few examples will serve to illustrate the variety of approaches and activities: • A n international consultation. In 1982, Unesco organized an international meeting of experts from twenty-one countries; they exchanged views on questions relating to technical and vocational education policies, planning and administration.

• A course in graphic communication. Unesco organized an initial course in industrial design for pupils between the ages of 13 and 15. It consisted of

A national project in technical and vocational education in Ecuador

Country: Ecuador Nature of the project: Development of technical and vocational education to meet manpower needs. Elaboration of curricula;

upgrading of teachers. Starting date: 1982 Completion date: 1984 Achievements: Three advanced seminars for technical teachers (around eighty persons). Study of technical occupations for the purpose of drawing up training profiles (in agriculture,

electricity, electronics, mechanics and automotive mechanics). Participation in the total reform of technical education. Machine design. Funding: Inter-American Development Bank: US $790,000 Unesco's contribution: Four experts, five consultants.

55


a general text, a teacher's book and eighteen training modules covering various aspects of the subject matter. Twenty countries have already used this course in their schools and the results are most encouraging. • A n innovative project. At the request of the Indian Government, Unesco executed a UNDP-financed project aimed at intensifying research on technical and vocational education and developing relevant curricula. This activity, carried out with the assistance of international consultants working within the framework of four Indian institutions, led to a systematic remodelling of the standard curricula and their adjustment to the country's socio-economic development needs. • Consultation on the education and training of maintenance technicians. A n international meeting of experts, held in Singapore in November 1982,

A subregional project in technical and vocational education in eight Caribbean countries

Country: Eight English-speaking countries of the Caribbean Nature of the project: Improvement of technical and vocational education. Training of young workers. Starting date: 1983 Completion date: 1986

Achievements expected: Opening of fourteen pilot schools to provide training in electricity, woodworking, metalworking and automotive mechanics. Development of methods for the training of specialized manpower for the region as a whole. Funding: UNDP, AGFUND and the International Labour Orga-. nisation (ILO). Total budget: US $1,455,000 Unesco's contribution: Acting as executing agency.. One Unesco expert. Audiovisual equipment and printing equipment for eight centres (one for each country).

56


studied the results of a survey conducted among twenty-four institutions in eleven countries on the training of maintenance technicians, w h o have an essential contribution to m a k e to a developing country's technological independence. The participants paid particular attention to the question of contacts being established between educational institutions and future employers.

Training educational personnel

The field of educational personnel training provides an interesting example of the interaction between Unesco's Regular Programme activities —including studies, surveys, meetings of various types, consultative services and follow-up activities— and those of its extra-budgetary programme (operational projects carried out in M e m b e r States).

The guidelines of work and proposals for action which the Secretariat submits to M e m b e r States usually stem from observations of what has been done in various countries, trends that they have followed and the priorities expressed. For this purpose, the Organization relies on several sources: reports which states submit periodically to international conferences on education, analyses and recommendations of regional conferences of ministers of education, large-scale surveys, case-studies and national reports describing concrete situations in detail, meetings (symposia, consultations and seminars) which, as the case m a y be, bring out the point of view of research workers, decision-makers, practitioners or users of education, and, finally, evaluations of activities of various sorts carried out in the field, such as experiments, pilot projects and operational activities.

Unesco thus serves as an observatory open on the world, attentive to needs and trends, ready to pick up and interpret the messages reaching it from the different regions of the world, different sectors of society or different sorts of agents in education systems. All these inputs are merged and, after going through an inductive process, reappear in synoptic documents which are less studies in the classic meaning of the term than conceptual bases and practical guidelines for action, or practical guides.

H o w e v e r , experience has shown that documents of this type, even if intended to become working instruments, sometimes remain too abstract or general to be of any real use to those actively engaged in down-to-earth situations. Unesco therefore also takes reverse action, going from theory

57


A project to train teachers for the elementary and secondary school levels in Thailand

Country: Thailand Nature of the project: Innovatory method of training teachers for elementary and secondary school levels. Starting date: 1978 Completion date: 1983 Achievements: Nationals have designed training programmes of a new type which correspond more closely to the specific needs of the country. Funding: UNDP: US $365,000 Unesco's contribution: Crash course for the national staff of the project (educational administration, design of teaching materials, home economics, educational technology, health, agriculture, trade, etc.). Fellowships.

to practice, by drawing up, on the basis of these guidelines, plans, programmes or training strategies likely to lead to operational projects, particularly in the developing countries, or to serve as frames of reference. For like reasons, some of these documents are prepared in the form of methodological tools, the most promising of which are the guides for teaching workshops. These tools offer eduators of various types and levels methods which are sufficiently flexible to be adapted to different groups and contexts but at the same time sufficiently precise to ensure that training seminars go beyond the mere expression of intentions and lead to the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are clearly defined in advance. These tools are tried out in workshops organized by the Regional Offices or during consultative missions in M e m b e r States. They are subsequently approved and then proposed to educators in different countries w h o can

58


adapt them to their specific needs, flesh them out or design other similar tools.

Thus by a process leading from observation through conceptualization to training, reflection and experimental activities are m a d e to reinforce one another.

Unesco is involved in the training of all types of specialists in sectors corresponding to its fields of competence, but it pays particular attention to the training of such educational personnel as teachers, supervisors, educators, planners, administrators, programme and teaching material specialists, and organizers of out-of-school activities.

Today an attempt is being m a d e to correlate different types of educational training which used to be quite compartmentalized. While respecting specific characteristics, efforts are n o w m a d e to provide every specia-

A project for training teachers for technical education in Indonesia

Country: Indonesia Nature of the project: Training of teachers for technical secondary level Starting date: 1981 Completion date: 1984 Achievements:

education at the

Strengthening of technical éducation institutions. Training of 435 teachers. Opening colleges for technical school teachers Padang). Training. Funding: UNDP: US$1,970,000 Unesco's contribution:

of two training (Yogyakarta and

Supply of equipment (television for microteaching,

microprocessor, etc.); organization of teaching courses. Eleven experts and consultants; forty-seven fellowships.

59


list with an overall view of the educational process and a keener awareness of the interrelations and convergences of the different functions of the education system.

A number of objectives have thus been devised with a view to bringing about the integration of different types of training. These include linking research and training; ensuring the complementary nature of training offered by institutions at different levels, including university; harmonizing the training provided for teachers in general education and teachers in technical and vocational education as well as the training of in-school and out-of-school education personnel; linking initial training and lifelong training; alternating training periods and periods of work; and determining training areas c o m m o n to several categories of staff involved in development projects of an interdisciplinary nature.

N e w strategies, which call for more than a mere mechanical extension of the formulae applied up to n o w , are being devised in response to n e w needs. If education is to be truly efficacious, it is essential to find economical solutions which will yield results rapidly, such as, for example, training and advanced training which have what are k n o w n as 'multiplier effects'. This is w h y regional or subregional training seminars are organized for instructors, inspectors, and—a recent innovation—school principals, all of w h o m hand d o w n the training they have thus received to the staff under them.

Bearing in mind the need for universality, but also with due respect for specific national conditions, Unesco is preparing a programme of action for the training of educational personnel whose originality lies in the fact that it is international while at the same time it reinforces endoge-nicity. The operational activities that it suggests in the framework of technical co-operation, which have been prepared in the light of the views of the international community and the lessons of national experience, thus help to identify the specific needs of different countries and to find solutions using local expertise and honouring the national culture.

A few figures will give an idea of the scope of this operational programme. Since 1978, 123 projects that include a component for the training of educational personnel have been carried out in Africa, 17 in the Arab States, 71 in Asia and 29 in Latin America. Although the methodology used is practically the same, these projects apply different formulae adapted to the specific problems of the country and region. In Sierra Leone, for example, the B u n u m b u College project is designed to train primary-school teachers w h o have to be able to adapt to rural and community life. In Z imbabwe , the national project for the training and

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A project to set up a university in Bahrain

Country: Bahrain Nature of the project: Creation of a university having three sections, science, teacher training and liberal arts Starting date: 1977 Completion date: 1985 Achievement: The University of Bahrain is functioning today. Funding: UNDP: US$3,400,000 Unesco's contribution: ten experts, twenty-one fellowships.

namely

independently

advanced training of teachers introduced in-service training methods offering a series of crash courses, supervision of studies, correspondence and holiday courses, all of which enable teachers to go on working during nearly the whole period of training. In Afghanistan, the training of instructors for national institutions is the main objective of the project. In the Maldives, the training of primary-school teachers is rounded off by the promotion of community education and the expansion of educational radio broadcasting.

In the field of training for educational personnel, as in m a n y others, Unesco also carries out standard-setting action. In elaborating conventions and recommendations — for example, the 1966 Recommendation on the Status of Teachers — it suggested c o m m o n objectives for all its M e m b e r States. It also prepares texts for general guidance, such as the recommendations adopted periodically by the international conferences on education organized in Geneva by the I B E or the declarations of regional conferences of ministers of education.

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UNESCO A N D EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE W O R L D

Logistics

Educational buildings and furnishings adapted to the surroundings

W h a t is the physical environment most favourable to learning? For two decades, Unesco has been helping its M e m b e r States to reply to this question through research and a series of practical experiments. The solutions envisaged are naturally as varied as the education systems, the climate, the culture or the economy of the countries concerned. In the case of both buildings and furnishings, many criteria are involved, including functional utility and comfort for pupils and students, appearance and whether production on a large scale is possible.

In 1962, Unesco established three regional school building centres in Africa, in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean, specializing in basic research involving space standards, school mapping, material design, etc. Their programme was integrated in 1973 with that of the Regional Offices for Education.

Educational buildings planning process

1. ANALYSIS A N D DIAGNOSIS

• Inventory of buildings • School m a p 1 • Resources • Needs • Problem identification • Alternative education policies

a... b . . . c...

0

2. R E S E A R C H A N D D E V E L O P M E N T

• Educational specifications • Anthropometric survey • Functional, economic and

technical standards • Planning concepts • Design criteria • School furniture • Construction and evaluation

of prototypes

4. IMPLEMENTATION • Preparation of architect's brief • Selection of site • Architectural design • Cost estimates • Calls for tenders and

award of contracts • Construction timetable • Construction and supervision

3. PLANNING • Drawing up a medium-

term plan • Priorities • School m a p II • Regional physical planning • Financing • Annual school building

programmes

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UNESCO ANO EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

O n e of the main problems studied by Unesco and its M e m b e r States is that of devising and implementing policies for the planning of school buildings that enable several objectives to be achieved, namely the construction and judicious location of suitable buildings in accordance with a precise timetable and within the budgetary limits set.

Unesco works in several fields: analysis and diagnosis; research and development; and planning and implementation. These activities form part of a planning process that provides a flexible framework for international co-operation aimed at promoting education for all. It is first and foremost through research activities and the carrying out of studies that Unesco assists its M e m b e r States in developing planning methods that will enable them to site the n e w institutions judiciously (school mapping), to improve their architectural design through appropriate programmes, to establish criteria for the functional analysis and design of buildings, and to define standards of space and comfort more in accord with the physical and cultural environment.

Space planning concepts

MAJOR ROUTE

63


N o r m s and standards

M 3.5 m appj-ox. J (by angle of vision)

O A Teacher

I - J I •— J angle of vision

- o - - o - - -i

2.00 m (min)

difficult access

O O 4

W easy access

o o I easy access

N \ 7.00 m (max)

Puoil farthest away

t 8.00

r

i n 1 1 _

48 P U P I L S

ÔO OO OO OO

8.00

6 rows OO OO O O OO

PUPILS

DOUBLE DESKS + CHAIRS

School furniture: functional specifications

SINGLE D E S K 56 (Age 11-14) 61 (Age 13-16) 66 (Age 16-Adult)

PENCILS PENS

BOOKS

DOUBLE DESK 56 (Age 11-14) 61 (Age 13-16)

66 (Age 16-Adult)

36 (Age 11-14) 37 (Age 13-16)

42 (Age 16-Adulte)

Area: table

gangway (115 x 92) c m

Area: desk + chair:

gangway (185 x 92) c

64


A n assessment of the material damage to schools and other buildings caused by an earthquake in Italy

Country: Italy Nature of the project: Assessment of the material damage to school buildings in Friuli caused by the earthquake of 6 May 1976. Activities: A three-member Unesco mission visited the site to examine the effects of the earthquake and, in consultation with the local authorities, to draw up plans for the protection and restoration of historical monuments, housing and educational buildings and equipment. A technical report was prepared for the government, including a description and assessment of the damage together with conclusions and recommendations. Unesco's contribution: One architect from the Education Sector (in connection with school buildings), and two consultants.

Unesco is particulary concerned with innovatory activities that can be expected to produce a multiplier effect; it encourages, for example, the use and improvement of local building techniques and materials, the training of national specialists and participation by communities at the planning and construction stages. Special consideration is given to the problems of educational buildings in areas subject to earthquakes and natural disasters.

School furniture is of fundamental importance. Unesco endeavours to encourage the design and production of furniture meeting the requisite standards of functionality and comfort. It must be of low cost and m a d e by hand if possible.

Unesco also helps M e m b e r States to implement large-scale educational building plans; these m a y be financed from national, bilateral or international sources. This activity goes hand in hand with programmes for the training of key personnel, at the local level or in more centralized fashion. Training is one of the main thrusts of Unesco's action; it is provi-

65


ded to specialists through seminars, workshops and regional, subregional and national courses. A network for the exchange of information and experience has been set up and the Organization disseminates technical publications to encourage communication between architects, experts and communities, particularly in the developing countries.

Self-sufficiency in equipment: education industries

O n e of the major concerns of most countries is to increase their self-sufficiency with regard to teaching equipment and materials by designing such goods more in accordance with local needs and producing them locally, or at least at the regional level, instead of importing them at great expense.

A project for the local production of teaching materials on a large scale in the Philippines

Country: The Philippines Nature of the project: Researching and designing prototypes of science teaching equipment far large-scale production Starting date: 1975 Completion date: 1982

Achievements: 278 prototypes of standard laboratory items designed, together with 5 different models of complete sets of scientific equipment. These articles are now produced on an inductrial scale and distributed through a well-established network. Training of over thirty specialists. Funding:

UNDP-UNICEF, Japan. Total budget: US$1,200,000 Unesco's contribution: One expert, fifteen fellowships, equipment.

66


Unesco intends to evaluate the needs that will arise over a five-year period as a result of the development of education systems (production, human and technical resources required). Studies carried out on a region-wide basis in Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the Arab States, with the co-operation of regional organizations, will supply the background data for two pilot projects designed to produce, on an industrial scale, supplies, textbooks and laboratory materials and equipment for science and technology teaching, as well as equipment for physical education and sport. The needs of sparsely populated countries or countries with poor communications will be considered with particular care.

Under the terms of an agreement recently concluded with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development ( A F E S D ) in Kuwait, the Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization ( A L E C S O ) and Unesco, a feasibility study will be carried out over the next two years to determine h o w regional co-operation in the Arab States can contribute to the development of educational industries.

This study, in conjunction with other regional studies financed from extra:budgetary funds, will provide valuable information on the current situation and future needs and make it possible to specify selection criteria, costs, production capacity, needs and priority areas of investment.

* Other, less traditional areas The specific examples given above are illustrative of education in the traditional sense, so to speak, and as determined by its internal requirements. But there are other, less traditional requirements that Unesco has recognized and has incorporated into its education programme. Below w e give two examples, as far apart as possible, to highlight the diversity of the problems involved: environmental education and the Unesco Associated Schools project for international education.

Environmental education

Why this form of education?

Echoing the concern aroused by the deterioration of the environment, the international community, meeting at the United Nations Conference on the H u m a n Environment (Stockholm, 1972), recommended, among other

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priority measures, that 'the organizations of the United Nations system, especially the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ... should ... take the necessary steps to establish an international programme in environmental education, interdisciplinary in approach, in school and out of school, encompassing all levels of education and directed towards the general public ... with a view to educating [the ordinary citizen] as to the simple steps he might take, within his means, to manage and control his environment'.

Introduction of environmental education at the elementary level in Burkina Faso

Country: Burkina Faso Nature of project: Pilot project introducing environmental education into rural primary schools. Starting date: 1981 Completion date: 1982 Achievements: 1. Finalization of an experimental teacher retraining pro

gramme devoted to the problems of desertification in the Sudano-Sahelian zone.

2. Preparation of educational guides and materials on the problem of desertification in order to include an environmental component in rural primary education.

Funding: UNEP: US$10,000 Vnesco's contribution: Technical support in the design, planning and implementation of the project.

With the co-operation and financial upport of the United Nations Environment Programme ( U N E P ) , Unesco has been engaged since 1975 in

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educational action at the international, regional and national levels aimed at developing an awareness and understanding of the problems of the present-day environment, as well as an ethical outlook and behaviour conducive to the solution of such problems.

From an overall standpoint, the degree of deterioration of the contemporary environment may be said to depend essentially on the nature and scope of the impact of certain human attitude patterns and man's action on the natural and social environment. It is thus clear that education can and should make a significant contribution to the formulation and implementation of solutions in this area.

Knowledge and know-how

Viewed in this way, an essential goal of general environmental education is to ensure the transmission and acquisition of knowledge and know-how that will enable everyone to understand the complex nature of the human environment, which is the outcome of the interaction of its biological, physical, socio-economic and cultural dimensions. This presupposes looking upon education as a process that should foster, in various ways, the acquisition of suitable scientific and technological knowledge by all sections of the community with a view to using it to interpret the environment and solve its problems.

Awareness and social mobilization

Another aim of education is to promote a type of ethics and generalized awareness that will foster more harmonious relationships between m a n and his environment. This means individual and group development of attitudes and values which, by constituting the basis of a sense of shared responsibility, help to shape behaviour patterns conducive to the preservation and improvement of the human environment.

Yet another goal of education in this regard is to prompt active social mobilization among the various sectors of the population in an effort to preserve and improve the h u m a n environment. This presupposes the development of a form of education intended for young people and adults, producers and consumers, one that consequently leads to organized social practice.

F rom the pedagogical point of view, general education with an environment component is designed not as a separate discipline or a special subject of study but as the outcome of the re-orientation and

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linking of various disciplines and different educational experiences (in the natural sciences, the social sciences and the arts), conducive to integrated perception of the environment and to more systematized action.

Environmental education and mitigation of the effects of earthquakes in Peru

Country: Peru Nature of project: Pilot project on the role of environmental education in mitigating the effects of earthquakes. Starting date: 1979 Completion date: 1981 Achievements: 1. Design of a course on the prevention of post-earth

quake environmental, social and economic hazards for inclusion in primary and secondary school curricula.

2. Preparation of audio-visual educational materials dealing with earthquakes and intended for the general public.

3. Sensitization and organization of national community association with a view to preventing post-earthquake hazards.

Funding: UNEP: US $6,000 Unesco's contribution: Technical support in the design, educational orientation, planning and implementation of the project; two technical support missions.

Unesco's action

From this standpoint, Unesco's action, guided by the recommendations of the IntergovernmentalConference on Environmental Education which it

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organized in 1977 at Tbilisi (USSR) , has had a three-fold aims. Firstly, to contribute to the development of an awareness of contemporary environmental problems, Unesco has, through appropriate activities —such as the holding of international, regional and national meetings and seminars, the publication of books and information bulletins, etc.— encouraged a wide-ranging exchange of views and experiences on the issue and thereby promoted the expanding awareness of a new perception of the environment.

International course on environmental education in Czechoslovakia

Country: Czechoslovakia Nature of project: International course on environmental education.

Starting date: 1982 Completion date: 1982 Achievements: 1. Preparation, in conjunction with the Institute of

Applied Ecology of the Prague Agricultural University, of an environmental education training programme consisting of lectures, discussions, explanatory and interpretative tours on the environment, films, etc.

2. Implementation of the programme by a group of environmental and educational experts from fourteen countries of different regions of the world.

Funding: UNEP: US $100,000 Unesco's contribution: Technical support in the design, planning and holding of courses; two technical support missions.

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Awareness of the worldwide scope of environmental problems has increased, not only because certain problems cross national borders, but also because the imbalances characteristic of international economic development are reflected in the irrational use of natural resources and the productive potential of the environment.

Unesco has also contributed to the conceptual and pedagogical definition of environmental education. For this purpose, a series of experimental guides and modules has been prepared on both the content and methodology of environmental education. M o r e than fifteen titles are currently available.

Unesco has further been associated with efforts to include an environmental dimension in the educational practices of various countries in different regions. The strategy adopted has fundamentally been geared to the strengthening of national capacities for teacher training and for the preparation of educational materials in the field of the environment. More than forty national retraining seminars have been organized so far for teachers and administrators in the countries of the various regions and twenty-seven pilot and experimental projects have been implemented.

Growing interest is being given world-wide to environmental education which, before 1975, was a matter of interest to only a small number of countries. S o m e 133 countries in every region of the world have participated in environment educational activities undertaken by Unesco. This is only the very beginning of a long-term action.

T h e Unesco Associated Schools Project

Peace can also be learnt

A nursery school in the Parisian suburbs organized an exhibition on the theme 'Let us build peace together' which allowed parents and members of the community to become aware of the work and thoughts of children on such subjects as the 'disarmament' in terms of war-like toys, the need to safeguard the environment, the plight of minority groups, etc. In Costa Rica, pupils in some primary schools took part in an essay competition on h u m a n rights. Following an extensive study on Senegal, pupils at a school in Lausanne travelled to Senegal, and in turn played host to a group of Senegalese pupils in Switzerland. In Indonesia, a teacher-training college launched, a series of activities on the occasion of the celebration of United Nations Day (24 October), including debates, round-tables, poster competitions, songs and dances from different countries. In Poland, the

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Liceum imienia Adama Mickiewicza regularly conducts activities to familiarize pupils with the history, culture and customs of different countries in the world. People w h o have visited these countries are invited to speak and exhibitions, discussions, film shows, etc., are organized.

Although such activities vary greatly from one country and from one region in the world to another, they all have a c o m m o n denominator in that they are conducted as part of the Unesco Associated Schools Project which aims primarily at promoting education for international co-operation and peace.

The Constitution of Unesco declares that 'Since wars begin in the minds of m e n , it is in the minds of m e n that the defences of peace must be constructed'. Education obviously has a vital role to play in bringing about, from childhood, a spirit of peace, justice and mutual respect among m e n and peoples. The desirable attitudes, behaviour patterns and aptitudes in this regard, or on the contrary, habits of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination, are formed very early. Here again, education has a vital role to play.

This is w h y , since its inception, Unesco has been constantly clarifying what the content of education for international understanding should be, and devising and developing a content-adapted methodology. T o this end it has conducted activities related to the role of certain academic subjects with an international outlook. Numerous publications and practical methodological guides for teachers and learners have been issued and a series of bilateral and multilateral activities for the revision and amendment of history and geography textbooks and syllabuses has been under production for m a n y years. All these activities seek to dispel prejudices and correct the erroneous or tendentious presentation of other peoples and of other cultures.

Two major stages

The implementation in 1953 of the Associated Schools Project marked a major stage in activities carried on by Unesco in this field. The project intended to be an effective instrument at the service of M e m b e r States, offering innovative ideas about the content, methods and techniques of education conducive to international understanding, peace and the observance of h u m a n rights.

The adoption by the General Conference in 1974 of the R e c o m m e n dation on Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to H u m a n Rights and Fundamental Free-

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doms marked another major stage in the activities of Unesco and the Associated Schools Project in that they both then turned to the study of major contemporary international problems facing mankind and examined the role of the United Nations system in solving them. These problems include development, environment, the use of natural resources, the arms race, population, human rights and the rights of the child. Special attention is given to knowledge and appreciation of foreign countries and cultures as well as to national ethnic groups or minorities. Through the network, the Associated Schools are able to m a k e all kinds of exchanges among themselves, not only in the form of correspondence and the exchange of educational material but also in the form of visits by teachers and students.

A worldwide network

The system is designed to have a multiplier effect: once activities are completed, they are assessed by the national project co-ordinator and the results are circulated so that all the other schools in the country can learn about them and undertake similar activities. Internationally, Unesco facilitates the exchange of information about experience acquired. It does this mainly through circular letters and a bulletin, International Understanding at School.

In order to develop the project, Unesco gives technical and financial assistance for the organization of seminars and workshops for teachers and for the preparation of teaching materials. It provides fellowships as well as other services. It also organizes regional and international meetings so that those w h o work within the project can pool experiences and plan new activities.

B y mid-1985, the Associated Schools Proj ect comprised 1990 institutions in 91 countries.

A new departure

O n the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Associated Schools Project, a World Congress of Associated Schools was convened by Unesco in Sofia (Bulgaria) to take stock of the past three decades, review the role of the Associated Schools in the implementation of the 1974 Re c o mme n d a tion concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to H u m a n Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and to m a p out the course of the future development of the

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Associated Schools Project over the period 1984-1989 so that it would be better adapted to the needs and aspirations of the different regions of the world. The programme of the Associated Schools Project will be marked by two highlights, namely the celebration of the International Youth Year in 1985 and the International Year of Peace in 1986.

A n appeal was launched at the end of the Congress in Sofia stating: We, the participants from 69 Member States of Unesco, believe that over a period of 30 years, the Associated Schools Project, while contributing to the realization of the high ideals of the Organization, has successfully achieved the objectives ... for which it was created. The seeds sown in the hearts and minds of children and young people have already yielded fruit in the deeds of adults. We call upon all Member States:

— to assist the development of the Associated Schools Project so that it encompasses all Member States and all types and levels of education, and to co-operate in making known, within their own education systems, the constructive experience amassed by the Associated Schools in the field of international education;

— to promote and intensify contacts between the Associated Schools and Unesco Clubs in all countries and regions so that they can attain their noble objectives, which are the objectives of Unesco for a better world, a world of peace and prosperity for all peoples.

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NEW VISTAS

W e have dealt above with some of the permanent features of Unesco's education programme, which correspond to evident needs and have undergone expansion to a greater or lesser extent by virtue of their intrinsic growth, on the one hand, and by virtue of the relative importance and priority attributed to them by M e m b e r States, on the other.

However , as w e k n o w , education is not an isolated subsystem concerned solely with its o w n internal components. The development of education is influenced, often decisively, by processes of all kinds responsible for the evolution of society and knowledge. Throughout its history, Unesco has endeavoured to identify such trends, which are often submerged in the teeming flux of information and everyday events, and to define their relevance and importance for the development of education, on which they place new responsibilities. It is only by systematically anticipating in this way problems not yet fully systematized, by grasping their long-term implications and by incorporating them in its education programme that Unesco can foster closer links between society as it is and present-day knowledge —both newly acquired and long-standing— and thereby help to reduce the gap between educational content and the growth of learning referred to in the first chapter of this booklet. A m o n g the emerging trends that have been recognized as relevant by M e m b e r States in recent years and which have already given rise to action, several themes m a y be discerned. Examples of these are: the relationship between education and the world of work; the linkages between education and culture; the need for education to adopt a different attitude towards and have due regard for the mass media, in particular by taking more account in its content of the ever-growing volume of messages transmitted by the media and by learning to use media techniques and technologies for its o w n purposes; and, finally, by assigning a diversified role to information technology in education systems.

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Education and the world of work

Socio-economic change and the rapid pace of technological advances call for increased professional and social mobility. This need is making itself apparent not only in the developed countries but also in the developing ones. It will undoubtedly have an influence on education policies and on the determination of the initial level of educational attainment before entry into working life. At the same time, it will also influence the very nature of education . Education must become polyvalent, and this will often require a radical redefinition of its content. Here the connection between education and the world of labour, and particularly the introduction of productive work into the educational process as part of the general culture of our time and as a factor in the preparation for working life and mobility, takes on its full significance.

Indeed, one of the reasons for the malaise in education, at present and in m a n y regions, seems to lie in the dichotomy already mentioned between school and life. This manifests itself in a number of ways: first, in the widespread and very sharp gap in education between theory and practice and the virtually universal failure to prepare young people for working life throughout the various phases of their schooling; more concretely still in the notably low percentage of enrolments in technical and vocational education in relation to overall enrolments in m a n y countries; in the lack or inadequacy of structures or facilities for improving qualifications or for the retraining of those already in the active workforce; and in the u n e m ployment among young graduates in some fields and, conversely, the shortage of trained manpower and specialists in others. This set of facts and tendencies institutionalizes, so to speak, the breach between the value system of young people at school and that of adults at work and runs implicitly counter to the fulfilment through education of all the aptitudes and potentialities of individuals and groups alike.

If, then, there is a key problem at the point where m a n y other problems tend to intersect, it is certainly that of the linkage that needs to be established and maintained in educational practice betwen the general teaching process and the world of work.

F r o m this standpoint, the emphasis on work in the educational process is regarded as bound up with and dependent upon the transformation of the methods and structures of education systems. Such a venture — reflected in the radical splitting up of educational time and space, and recognition of the n e w problems posed by work in modern societies—

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naturally calls for the implementation on an increasingly extensive scale of a new form of education that sets out to train m e n and w o m e n at a very early stage for their future responsibilities through a continuing process of interchange, from the very beginning of schooling, between the world of school and the world of work. This would, moreover, be an important step towards the application of the concept of lifelong education.

T o this end, under the programme entitled 'Education and the world of work' , Unesco, throughout the period 1984-1989,:

• will provide its assistance to M e m b e r States that desire it in order to develop or introduce, experimentally or generally, creative, productive or socially useful activities as part of school syllabuses and to facilitate participation by students and pupils in activities in real work situations in or outside educational establishments;

• will co-operate with M e m b e r States in their efforts to harmonize and reconcile educational and employment policies, taking into account the potential role of education in economic development strategies and in the search for solutions to the problems presented by the initial employment of young people, unemployment and underemployment, particularly in rural areas and in the urban informal sector.

Taking into account the variety of national and local situations, activities under the programme will encourage concertation between the various partners interested in bringing education and the world of work closer together. Experiments and pilot projects will be encouraged, together with the evaluation of activities in progress. The regional networks of educational innovation for development and the I B E will be called upon to intensify exchanges of information in this field.

Education and culture

The propensity to give culture a more important place in development policies than it was given in m a n y countries' educational policies in past decades is likely to increase considerably. A t the same time, the strengthening and diversification of cultural action and the development of out-of-school forms of education for both children and adults indicate that educational and cultural action are being drawn closer together. A s this trend increases, it will require closer co-ordination between educational and cultural policies and, consequently, the planning and organization of education systems in which both in-school and out-of-school education are seen as integral parts of education as à whole.

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In carrying out its dual function of transmitting the heritage of the past (cultural heritage, value systems, life-styles, etc.) to the new generations and of preparing them to adapt to situations of general and constantly accelerating change, education must, of course, interrelate with culture.

Accordingly, the first task is to determine the role that education can play as a vehicle and stimulus of culture in the broad meaning of the term. B y paying attention to the elements that form the basis of cultural identity, education can help to meet the universally felt need to embed the school deeper in local and national life and structures. In m a n y countries, particularly those that became independent in the post-war years, asserting cultural identity is regarded as an essential instrument of civic education and a powerful factor for national cohesion. Education can and must help to restore to a place of honour the artistic heritage of a country in all its forms of expression, highlight the very individual wealth of each culture, provide guidelines for culture development and put values back into their historical, social and h u m a n context.

Education, however, must do more than than. Besides ensuring historical continuity and extolling all forward-looking traditions, it must bring out all those things that enrich culture. Asserting one's cultural identity does not m e a n turning in on oneself or being indifferent to other cultures. O n the contrary, by fostering greater awareness of the uniqueness of a nation, it can help to promote respect and appreciation for the cultures of other peoples and thus encourage cultural exchange and a more rewarding participation in the life of the international community. Accordingly, it can only be concluded that education is a major factor for the promotion of a modern humanism that combines selected ethical values handed d o w n by tradition with values suited to development and to the needs of modern society.

This is a very broad field for reflection and action and, despite appearances, has been but little explored in a truly international perspective. In the past few years Unesco has paved the way by organizing a number of seminars in Africa, Asia and Latin America on the educational applications of the aesthetic and cultural heritage. T w o other seminars, regional in scope, were devoted to the inclusion of ethical and humanistic values in school syllabuses. A direct result was the preparation and production of educational materials on these subjects. Obviously, however, these were but exploratory steps in a long-term undertaking.

In the context of the present Medium-term Plan (1984-1989), the Organization intends to pursue strategies of action that will encourage

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cultural permeation of the educational process as a whole. M o r e specifically, it will provide for the following: • the elaboration of methods for determining educational content that will promote knowledge about and appreciation of the different manifestations of the national cultural heritage as well as the heritage of other societies and that will develop an aesthetic sense and spur artistic creativity; • the promotion and strengthening of art education at all levels and in all types of education; • the promotion of use of mother tongues or national languages, or both, as languages for teaching and literacy training; • the promotion and reinforcement of a type of ethical education that will stimulate the flowering of a modern humanism; and • the joint identification by educators and cultural workers of areas of possible convergence between educational and cultural action and the consequences of such convergence, particularly for educational policies, planning and methods.

Education and communication

Another phenomenon that must be taken into consideration in any education system is the media. The rapidly accelerating influence of c o m m u n i cation and information and the omnipresence of the mass media in everyday life have called attention to both the beneficial and the pernicious aspects of this development for the individual and for society. People today are enmeshed in a network crowded with all sorts of messages and facts that emanate from a variety of sources over which they do not always have control. It is becoming increasingly clear that education systems must pay greater heed to this phenomenon and adopt a definite position with respect to a development that is evidently here to stay and will become more deeply entrenched. H o w can education upgrade, put to use and mas ter the plethora of messages and facts that are disseminated by the media and give them a genuine educational value while helping to correct, where necessary, the undesirable influences that they m a y exert on the attitudes and behaviour of children and adolescents? This is certainly a complex question; but it merits our attention since since w e have already entered fully into the communication society in which children are living and will

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continue to live without receiving any training for it as yet.

Educational institutions, to be sure, are making increased use of radio, television and multi-media systems; but this is not where the real problem and the real challenge lie.

The problem is that all over the world two sources of information and knowledge for children and adolescents exist side by side: the traditional school with its separate subjects structured into a succession of classes and levels, and all around it the 'parallel school', more specifically, the cinema, television, radio, the press, strip cartoon, posters, etc., which exercise considerable influence on people's minds, emotions and characters but where messages are not always consistent with educational objectives. The proliferation of computers, the growing use of cable television, telematics and communication satellites will only exacerbate the already existing problems of determining the value of the contribution made by these technological innovations to the educational process, the way to harness them for educational ends and the role of educators with respect to these tools which science has placed at their disposal. Educators must n o w learn to use these tools, which will thrust them into a whole new world. They must incorporate them into their teaching and even develop new teaching methods that take account of their effects on the educational process. The preparation of teachers for these n e w responsibilities is one of the purposes of lifelong training and will henceforth constitute a necessary adjunct to any initial training, thereby enabling teachers to carry out increasingly complex and numerous tasks.

The International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems has pointed out the importance of the contribution that communication can m a k e to education, emphasizing the growing number of two-way contacts existing between the two which must n o w be rendered constructive and fruitful. In their capacity as dispensers of otherwise inaccessible facts, which they transmit instantaneously to the most distant audiences, acting as powerful factors for enlarging horizons and creating a thirst for knowledge, the mass media can contribute valuable resources to the education process. Their contributions, however, have not always been truly educational, for they do not necessarily transmit genuine knowledge and m a y have harmful cognitive and moral effects on children and even on adults. In order to be able to m a k e good use of their contribution, educators must be taught h o w to use communication technology and the media and h o w to interpret the messages they transmit. Here again, a better definition of information and knowledge and of the relations between educators and communication officials and

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workers is necessary if more active co-operation is to take place between them. The basic role of education will be to help instil into communication workers and users an active and critical attitude towards the communication tool involved and the information it transmits.

The process of reflection on these problems and challenges is already well under at Unesco, and the relations between 'education and communication' is the subject of an entire subprogramme, under which the Organization will endeavour: • to assess the effects which the mass of information disseminated by the communication media produces on the process of training the inidvidual and on education systems, and in particular on the definition of the content of education;

• to define the new tasks to be carried out by education in order that it m a y provide the necessary means for the analysis, screening and judicious use of that information;

• to consider h o w the methods and techniques in use in the field of communication m a y be employed to improve teaching methods;

• to foster a better knowledge of the role of communication in society; • to ascertain the prospects for using communication technologies both for individualized education and to serve educationally under-equipped regions; • to make the public aware of the cultural value of communication and, at the same time, of the need for critical analysis of the information transmitted by the communication media.

B y carrying out comparative analyses of national experiences and organizing symposia, Unesco has already begun execution of a project whose aim is to draw closer together two worlds that have thus far lived and worked 'back-to-back', namely the worlds of education and of communication.

In the longer term and in the framework of an action subprogramme, Unesco aims at promoting:

• the identification and collection of relevant data on the research and experiments carried out in various socio-cultural and socio-educational environments, in order to analyse, in particular, h o w far traditional modes of communication can be transposed into the field of education; • the use of the resources provided by the mass communication media to develop education, particularly certain forms of educational action such as literacy campaigns, sanitary education and agricultural extension courses;

• research into the content and methods of education in a society where information and communication occupy an increasingly large place, and

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reflection on the new tasks of education and the roles of communication; • awareness of the relationship between education and communication at the national and international levels, through contact between educators and the agents and users of communication;

• international exchanges of available knowledge concerning the possibilities and limits of the application of new communication technologies to the various forms of education, particularly in the developing countries.

Informatics as a new field in education

It is generally acknowledged today that, with the spread of the use of computers and the fact that sooner or later everyone will be required to use them or will be affected by their applications, a general culture in informatics should be given to all.

The question of introducing students to informatics in general education courses has been a concern of Unesco's since 1970. That year, it collaborated with the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP —itself founded under the auspices of Unesco) in organizing one of the first major conferences on the use of computers in teaching (Amsterd a m , Netherlands), followed by another on the same theme in Marseilles (France) in 1975. Three years later, in co-operation with the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics (IBI —which it also helped to set up), Unesco organized the Intergovernmental Conference on Strategies and Policies for Informatics (Torremolinos, Spain) whose recommendations were taken into consideration by the Organization in drawing up its programme for computer education and training. In 1979, a consultative group of experts, meeting in Budapest (Hungary) on the initiative of Unesco, reviewed the main experimental uses of informatics for learning and teaching. A s a follow-up to its recommendations, Unesco requested IFIP to carry out a study on the feasibility of establishing a worldwide system for the collection and processing of data concerning the applications of informatics to teaching.

Unesco holds with the principle that informatics for educational purposes should be considered from the point of view of the democratization of education and equality of opportunity for all. A n unequal development of informatics would widen the gap between developed and developing countries. The risk of disparity exists not only as between countries, however, but also within each country if the development of informatics means advantaging a minority of the population at the expense of its majority.

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From this point of view, it will no doubt be necessary to look at the ways in which a widespread use of computers in education might bring about changes in teaching methods and in the actual organization of the educational process, and to determine the conditions in which informatics could provide greater opportunities for education and self-education outside school systems.

Although ever since the first trials conducted over twenty years ago, informatics as a teaching and learning tool —in particular in the form of computer-assisted teaching— has remained confined to a certain extent to experimental applications, certain new factors suggest that there m a y be significant developments in such teaching in the near future. These factors include convergence of the audio-visual, informatics and communication fields, the possibility of developing computers through their peripherals, and the development of microcomputers which free the user from the need to be linked up to a network or a large computer. However , some basic problems that have to do with the practical conditions for the use of informatics as a teaching med ium remain to be resolved, particularly the determination of priority areas of application, the development of teaching software, training of teachers and the choice of equipment. All these problems are being examined under Unesco's current programme.

There is a second aspect of informatics that is of particular interest to the Organization, namely the resources it can m a k e available for the management of national educational services.

The growth in the number of people involved in education systems (pupils, teachers, administrative personnel) gives rise to increasingly c o m plex problems of planning, organization, administration, supervision, statistical analysis and documentation which are becoming extremely difficult to deal with by conventional methods. Recourse to informatics can m a k e the management of education systems a good deal more effective. Unesco is carrying out a great variety of activities in this new area of co-operation.

In the first place, there are specialized training activities. A m o n g these, mention m a y be m a d e of the course organized in China in 1981, which was attended by university teachers, participants from national industrial and commercial institutions and post-graduate students; another regional course on the applications of informatics, organized in 1981 at the Indian Technology Institute at Kanpur (India), which was attended by participants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; three training sessions in informatics technology which were organized in 1981, 1982 and 1983 in Tokyo (Japan) in co-operation with the Asian Electronics Union ( A E U ) and with the support of the Japanese

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Government, and which brought together participants from twenty-six developing countries; and an international seminar on the applications of informatics in industry and management, organized in 1981 in co-operation with the University of Patras (Greece), the purpose of which was to train young graduates and attended by 135 participants from thirty-two countries in addition to Greece. Another similar course was organized in 1983.

Computerized management system for education in Malaysia

Country: Malaysia Nature of project: Establishment of a computerized educational planning and management system Starting date: 1979 Completion date: 1983 Achievements: Two phases: 1. The Ministry of Education of Malaysia carried out a

general review of its management and procedures; 2. Computerization of the management system and es

tablishment of a relational data base. Diversified training programme for 150 national officials.

Funding: UNDP: US $322,000 Unesco's contribution: Technical support in computerized management; strengthening of national training capacities (one consultant: three months; one expert in computerized management: three years); two technical support missions.

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O n e of the most significant achievements in the field of training was the contribution to the development of the African Data Processing Institute (IAI) in Libreville (Gabon), which was set up with the participation of ten African countries to train computer specialists. With Unesco's support, IAI is becoming an important regional data processing centre.

Another activity is the assistance provided by Unesco to many African, Latin American and Asian countries and Arab states wishing to enlist modern technology for the improved management of their education services. Nearly fifty operational projects have been completed or are under way or at an advanced preparatory stage; fifteen of them make or will make extensive use of informatics, as is the case in Cameroon, Colombia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Furthermore, eighteen seminars, sixteen training courses and two audio-visual displays have been organized and arranged by Unesco in order to keep the personnel and key officials of national education systems abreast of developments.

A third activity is the support given by Unesco to the non-governmental organizations with which it works in close association in order to promote worldwide intellectual and scientific co-operation in informatics. The Organization also supports the development of joint international research projects so as to further the exchange of personnel concerned with research and experiment development in informatics. T o help identify such projects and also to establish a forum for the exchange of experiences in the various fields where data processing is applied, informatics seminars and workshops have been or are being organized in various regions of the world. The bodies with which Unesco collaborates for this purpose include IFIP, the International Federation of Automatic Control ( IFAC), A E U , the Five International Associations Co-ordinating Committee ( F I A C C ) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (II A S A ) .

Unesco is also concerned with activities that focus on gathering, processing and circulating of information, two examples of which follow.

• The I B E has developed a computerized data base storing information both from other computerized systems and from national and regional sources not as yet using computers. It offers instruments facilitating the exchange of information, such as the Education Thesaurus (published in several languages), its directories of information and documentation institutions, and directories and glossaries in specialized fields of education.

• The second example is the International Environmental Education Network ( IEEN), which was established under the U n e s c o U N E P programme and whose input data are processed by Unesco's computer.

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The network is intended to promote the exchange of information and experience between institutions and specialists working in this field.

Mention has naturally been m a d e here of only those theoretical or practical activities that have a close bearing on the field of education, leaving out of consideration the Organization's other fields of competence where, however, informatics is also very m u c h to the force.

In the years ahead, and so far as education is concerned, this type of planning and action will be gaining in scope and depth.

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UNESCO and education throughout the world;...

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