Geneva, September 8 (No. 2001-96) - 80 education ministers and some 600 delegates from 127 nations today called for education reform, notably a better policy dialogue with civil society, a greater involvement of teachers in education policy-making, and a bolder set of actions to close the gap between quantitative advances in school enrollment and qualitative improvements in teaching.

The 46th International Conference on Education (ICE) -- the first to be convened in five years -- closed today with the adoption of a four-page document that illustrates the need to boost the quality of teaching in the face of scientific and technological advances, multiculturalism and globalization.

The ICE “conclusions and proposals for action” notably calls for the training of education decision-makers to discuss and harmonize policy formulation with other actors -- notably civil society organizations (CSOs) - in order to best identify common goals, to broaden consensus and to mobilize productive partnerships.

UNESCO Director-General Koďchiro Matsuura today advocated an expanded role for CSOs in a speech at the opening of a “Special Session on the Involvement of Civil Society in Education for All”.

In his address to the education ministers and delegates, Mr Matsuura decried the “ideas gap” between states and civil society and illustrated the role that CSOs play as innovators, informed critics, advocates, and alternative service providers in education. He outlined UNESCO’s actions over the past year to try to build “a new culture of policy dialogue” involving CSOs and NGOs as full “policy partners” alongside UNESCO’s 188 Member States.

In addition to pledging a broader cooperation in education policy-making, the ministers and delegates stressed the need to reshape and update their school curricula to reflect:

the economic and social changes set in motion by globalization, migration and cultural diversity;

the ethical dimensions of scientific and technological progress;

the contributions that can result from integrating technologies into the learning process;

the need to prepare societies for a global era of communication, not just in official national languages but in indigenous and foreign languages;

the need to develop school curricula that best ensure relevance at the local, national and international level.

The final conference document urges policy-shapers to facilitate a genuine involvement by teachers and students in decision-making through training and other means, and advocates practical research, curriculum development and teaching methodologies related to the conference’s unifying theme: “Learning to Live Together”.

UNESCO’s Geneva-based International Bureau of Education organized the ICE meeting from 5-8 September. The conference’s conclusions and proposals will next be presented at the 31st session of UNESCO’s General Conference (15 October to 3 November 2001).

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