UNESCO IN THE WORLD — UNESCO IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

1964 Regional Conference of African Ministers Responsible for the Application of Science and Technology to Development, CASTAFRICA I, Lagos 1965 Creation of the Regional Office for Science and Technology for Africa (ROSTA), Nairobi Creation of regional literacy centres: - Ibadan (Nigeria), African Institute of Adult Education - Nairobi, East African Literacy Centre 1967 Biology teaching pilot project, Cape Coast, Ghana 1968-1981 Programme for Educational Television (PETV), Côte d’Ivoire 1970 Creation of the Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA), Dakar 1978 Network of Educational Innovation for Development in Africa (NEIDA)

CONSOLIDATION AND INTENSIFICATION OF REGIONAL CO-OPERATION: BREDA The conferences of ministers of education, especially beginning with the 1968 Nairobi Conference on Education and Scientific and Technical Training in Relation to Development in Africa, (10) all stressed that the quantitative expansion of education must go hand in hand with qualitative renewal and that the content of education must be geared to the needs and capabilities of African societies. This was the starting-point for such innovations or experiments as the ruralization of primary education (11) and non-formal training activities in rural areas, (12) education and productive work, the renovation of science and technology teaching, population education, etc. In 1970, in order to enhance the effectiveness of its own programmes and of projects funded from various sources, (13) UNESCO brought all its field structures for education together under its new Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) at Dakar. Under the auspices of BREDA, a number of co-operation programmes among developing countries began to take shape. The Network of Educational Innovation for Development in Africa (NEIDA), encompassing thirty-three countries and eleven regional institutions, is aimed at developing co-operation and exchanges among national, subregional and regional institutions ‘for the strengthening and use of innovations in education to meet development needs through self-reliance’. (14) The COFORPA project is aimed at helping thirty-two countries of the region to establish and develop their own research and training services for educational planning and administration. The regional programme for the eradication of illiteracy received fresh impetus following the World Conference on Education for All. BREDA was also host to the Advisory Committee on the Renewal of Science and Technology Teaching in Africa and the Advisory Committee on Regional Co-operation in Education in Africa.

FROM APARTHEID TO DEMOCRACY In 1970, UNESCO was the first United Nations agency to enter into contact with the liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which afforded a haven for refugees from South Africa, Rhodesia and the Portuguese African colonies in Tanzania and Zambia, in order to provide them with educational assistance, such as teacher train-ing, the supply of equipment to schools in refugee camps, etc. Since the return of democracy to South Africa in 1992, the Organization has launched a major educational programme aimed at training school and university admin-istrators and managers, and has established a UNESCO Chair in Human Rights at the University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa.

Julius K. Nyerere President of the United Republic of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985 We have to integrate formal education with the society. And we have to use education as a catalyst for change in that society. Speech during a seminar organized by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Dar es Salaam, 1974 Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow (Senegal) Director-General of UNESCO from 1974 to 1987 Twenty years ago, the states of Africa had just regained their independence.[...] It was in this context that UNESCO convened that first Conference of Ministers of Education of African Member States at Addis Ababa in 1961. The ‘Addis Ababa Plan’ adopted by that conference had taken the view that in order to achieve progress in Africa educational development was a prerequisite.[...] Statistics established for 1980 lead to the conclusion that the targets of that Plan have been achieved only in part. As regards primary education [...] the explanation is simple: firstly the demographic figures on which the 1961 projections were based were too low; secondly, population expansion was more rapid than expected during the 1960-1980 period. It is nevertheless true that enrolments in primary education have expanded considerably, since they rose from some 16,800,000 pupils in 1960 to 56,000,000 in 1980. Opening speech to the Conference of Ministers of Education and those Responsible for Economic Planning in African Member States, Harare, 1982

                               

FOOTNOTES:

(10) Following CASTAFRICA I.

(11) Creation of rural teacher- training colleges at Zinder (Niger), Atakpamé (Togo), Bunumbu (Sierra Leone), etc.

(12) Cf. New Paths to Learning for Rural Children and Youth, P. H. Coombs, International Council for Educational Development, UNICEF, 1973.

(13) UNDP, UNICEF, the World Bank, ADB, UNFPA, WFP and, in particular, bilateral aid.

(14) Interlearning on Educational Innovation, NEIDA, BREDA, 1989. The priority areas of intervention were productive work, rural development, teaching materials, teacher training, the use of national languages, administration and management.