 1988
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Workshop
1992
The Secretariat of DAE, which became ADEA in 1996, moves to IIEP Headquarters
1993
Network of IIEP depository libraries and documentation centres established
1994
First time distance
education techniques used for a seminar
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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE OVERALL ISSUE OF EDUCATION
The preparation of the International Conference on the World Crisis in Education (Williamsburg,
United States, 1967), and above all the publication of its report, triggered off an expansion
of the Institute’s work, with particular emphasis on the analysis of education systems. (8)
Faced with the shortcomings of linear
development strategies, quality (9) became a subject of concern for both educators and economists.
This was to be the era of innovation and reform. Whilst delving deeper into the methodologies
of planning, elaborating and disseminating new instruments, such as cost analysis or school
mapping, the Institute became involved in problems of a more specific nature: the use of new
technologies by developing countries, reforms likely to reduce regional or social inequalities,
planning school curricula, etc. Much of the Institute’s time was taken up in providing direct
assistance to programmes implemented by UNESCO, especially in the fields of literacy,
education and work, non-formal education, education in rural zones, higher education, or the
overall process of innovation in general.
During the 1980s, the Institute’s reputation as an international research and training centre
was well established. At the same time, planning became the mainstay of the conception and
management of educational policies. The IIEP Newsletter for former trainees of the Institute
was first published in 1981. (10) The Institute began to organize forums where researchers
were able to brush shoulders with political decision-makers. In 1982, IIEP was requested to
head the International Working Group on Education, a rather informal, but nonetheless
influential club where senior members of the top international and bilateral agencies and
foundations interested in the development of education could meet (see box).
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CREATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL
WORKING GROUP ON EDUCATION (IWGE)
IWGE is an offshoot of the Bellagio Group, the latter named after a town in Italy
where, in the 1960s, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation convened a
meeting of educators, economists and managers to examine the economic aspects of
education in Europe. The Bellagio group quickly became a club where the main
multilateral, bilateral and private development agencies met every year. In 1982
it established itself as an international working group on education and
entrusted its Secretariat to IIEP. [The Bellagio group, with the support of the
Rockefeller Foundation, continues some of its activities, especially publishing].
Ever since, IWGE holds regular meetings during which senior officials from
development agencies can take an informal look at the problems of educational
development. It was IWGE that instigated the idea of holding a world conference
on education for all which resulted in the organization of the Jomtien Conference.
The latest meeting of IWGE was held in Nice in 1994 on educational aid policies
and practice, and a report was published by IIEP.* The November 1996 meeting
looked at the Education for All programme launched in Jomtien, which is now at
the halfway mark.
*Education Aid Policies and Practices. A Report from IWGE, 1995.
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DOES EDUCATION
NEED STRATEGIC PILOTING? (11)
Towards the middle of the 1980s, the world economic crisis overrode the certainties of
rational planning. In difficult situations, the role of the planner is to find solutions
and propose alternatives. IIEP identified capacity (12) as the key
(and bottleneck) of educational development. The World Conference on Education for All,
which advocated a shift in priority in favour of the most disadvantaged groups
(out-of-school youth, women, illiterates) also emphasized the importance of each stakeholder
in the planning process and the need for each nation to embark upon political dialogue
regarding the development of education.
The Institute adapted to the rapidly changing political environment at international level:
new initiatives were launched for Southern Africa and for countries in a state
of economic transition in Eastern Europe; research and training programmes placed more
emphasis on management capacities, whether at the level of universities or school textbooks,
or in respect of
partnership arrangements.
The Interregional Project on the Improvement of Basic Education Services, which comprises
several in-depth national case studies, confirms the central role of the national capacities
of these countries in planning and the importance of monitoring and data man-agement
mechanisms. (13) IIEP harnessed itself to the task of drawing up indicators for monitoring
and managing basic education. (14) It also became involved, with UNESCO, in the implementation
of operational projects, financed by agencies, (15) aimed at strengthening educational
planning and management systems at different levels.
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THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
OF AFRICAN EDUCATION (ADEA)
Established in 1988 under the auspices of the World Bank as a mechanism to foster
collaboration and exchange of information among development agencies ADEA* is
today an association which groups together African ministers of education and the
main development agencies. In order to strengthen ADEA’s autonomy, an independent
Secretariat was established in Paris in 1992, hosted by the International
Institute for Educational Planning. Since then, ADEA has continued to place the
highest emphasis on becoming a joint partnership between African ministers of
education and funding agencies.
The main components of ADEA are the Caucus, composed of all African ministers of
education who elect a Bureau composed of seven of their peers to serve, with
representatives of the funding agencies, on ADEA’s Steering Committee. The
Secretariat of ADEA co-ordinates activities of nine working groups, each devoted
to a specific theme, such as female participation in education, educational
statistics, books and learning, or higher education, each one led by a development
agency or a different NGO, and fusing African partners and agencies.
ADEA publishes baseline information documents on the status of education in Africa
as well as a quarterly ADEA newsletter. It organizes biennial plenary meetings
which bring together ministers of education and senior officers from the
development community in a relaxed and informal manner. The 1995 meeting, held in
Tours, France, on the theme of ’the processes of educational policy formulation’
brought together 233 participants, including 36 African ministers of education,
56 senior officers from the African education com-munity and 103 representatives
from development agencies.
* at that time called Donors to African Education (DAE).
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| IIEP: THE MAYOR THEMES OF RESEARCH AND STUDIES |
M. Aref Ghaussi
IIEP second graduating class, former Minister of Education, then of Trade,
of Afghanistan
The process of educational planning is not immune to the influence of different
sorts of pressures and changes. During the course of a plan period, a plan may
be revised for sound planning reasons.
Criteria for Appraising Educational Planning in Underdeveloped Countries,
Occasional papers, IIEP, 1967
Clarence E. Beeby
(New Zealand)
Assistant Director-General of UNESCO’s Department of Education
from 1948 to 1949,
Editor of the ‘Fundamentals of Educational Planning’ series published by IIEP between
1967 and 1972
An educational system, even more than other institutions, develops a life and set
of principles of its own, and can, over the years, cease to be responsive to the
needs of a society in a state of rapid change. What was once a conscious effort to
reach a social goal becomes a mere institutional habit.
Qualitative Aspects of Educational Planning, UNESCO-IIEP, 1970
Joseph Fontanet
Minister of Education of France in 1973
It is essential that in the same way, even more than other men, those in charge of
training and those responsible for education throughout the world should have the
advantage of this life-long training of which they are to be the initiators and
the planners.
Ceremony for the formal handing over of
the new IIEP Headquarters
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FOOTNOTES:
(8) Systems analysis studies education considering teaching as a series of elements whose interaction can be assessed and deemed effective or
otherwise using indicators which are characteristic of each of them.
(9) Qualitative Aspects of Educational Planning, C. E. Beeby, UNESCO-IIEP, 1969.
(10) Published in four languages and today printed in 11,000 copies.
(11) Title of S. Lourié’s article in Prospects for Educational Planning edited by F. Caillods, UNESCO-IIEP, 1989.
(12) Institutional capacity
designates a series of internal and external factors which govern the expansion of education, such as
regulations and legislation, the role of the state and its financial capacities, the administrative system and the way it works, the level of training, the status or the salaries of teachers, etc.
(13) See for example, From Data to Action: Information Systems in Educational Planning, D. W. Chapman and L. O. Mähick, UNESCO-IIEP, 1993.
(14) Des indicateurs pour la planification de l’éducation: un guide pratique, C. Sauvageot, UNESCO-IIEP, 1996 (French only).
(15) Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Brunei, Chad, Dominican Republic, India, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, the Palestinian Authority and South Africa.