Worldwide Action in Education ARAB STATES

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ARABUPEAL

Educational Innovation for Development (EIPDAS)

Population Education

UNRWA/UNESCO Co-operation programme

Community-oriented Development Activities in Jordan's Schools

Table: 1990-1993, Co-operation for Development in Education

ARABUPEAL

Launched in 1989, the Regional Programme for the Universalization and Renewal of Primary Education and the Eradication of Illiteracy in the Arab States by the Year 2000, is designed to contribute to the development of education systems, at the level of primary education and literacy, in order to ensure the right to education for all, enhance socio-economic development and contribute to the release of creative energies in society. The role of all the regional and sub-regional organizations, and especially ALECSO, ISESCO and the Arab Bureau for Education in the Gulf States - ABEGS, is emphazised within ARABUPEAL. The programme activities consist of the following four sub-programmes:

Development of administration and planning;

Curriculum development, teaching methods and materials;

Teacher education and training;

Educational and social research.

Educational Innovation for Development (EIPDAS)

Co-operation and the exchange of information, experience and expertise among Member States is the keynote of EIPDAS, the Educational Innovation Programme for Development in the Arab States. The main areas of action of the Programme are the following:

Basic education;

Renewal and development of science and technology education;

Pre-service and in-service training of educational personnel;

Educational evaluation;

Modernization of educational administration, planning and research;

Diversification of secondary education and its linkage with productive work;

Educational Information.

Population Education

Population education is currently being provided in seven countries. In addition to advisory missions, the Regional Programme includes the preparation and dissemination of curricular materials serving as basic references for country projects, and training activities for national specialists involved in on-going national population education projects and/or officials working in the Ministries of Education of countries not yet having adopted population education projects.

UNRWA/UNESCO Co-operation Programme

This programme provides elementary and preparatory education to 393,000 Palestine refugee children attending over 600 schools in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, Gaza and the West Bank. The programme also trains 5,000 young Palestinian men and women in over 40 vocational and post-preparatory technical subjects as well as in teacher education. In fact, most of UNRWA's 11,400 teachers - all of whom are Palestinian - received their pre-service or in-service training through the co-operation programme.

UNESCO co-operation with UNRWA began in August 1950 through an agreement under which UNESCO assumes technical responsibility for UNRWA's education programme; assigns a team of its high-level staff, including a Director of Education, to UNRWA; and provides the agency with such resources as educational materials, instructional equipment, consultants and fellowships.

Community-oriented Development Activities in Jordan's Schools Twenty schools in Jordan are currently carrying out community-oriented development activities from which some 3,200 participants have so far benefited. The project objectives include: (a) providing courses aimed at enhancing a variety of skills and at eliminating functional illiteracy among women in such subjects as home economics, sewing, knitting and dress-making, home installation, maintenance of household appliances, and typing; (b) organizing panels and workshops on education, hygiene, family life, mother and child care, and environmental pollution; (c) setting up small-scale agricultural projects run by adults and young children (food processing and rabbit and poultry-raising), in order to improve family incomes and living conditions; and (d) improving community amenities and the environment, including schools and public utilities.