Worldwide Action in Education ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

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Mobilizing the Community to Improve Learning Outcome

Educating Women - New Messages

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

Educational Development in a Changing Context

The educational activities of the Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific cover the entire spectrum, from the elimination of illiteracy to higher education, through its two flagship programmes: APPEAL (Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All) and APEID (Asia and the Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development).

APPEAL aims to facilitate the achievement of Education for All through universalizing primary education, eradicating illiteracy, and providing continuing education. Its primary constituency is the vast number of adult illiterates and out-of-school children and young people. National Co-ordination Committees have already been set up by 23 Member States.

APEID continues to encourage the development and use of educational innovations geared to achieving national development goals. Based on the principle of reciprocity for mutual learning and self-reliance, the programme is jointly designed, implemented, and evaluated by the participating Member States. Over the years, APEID has developed a network of 199 associated centres in 29 Member States. It is currently concentrating on the areas of Universal Primary Education; Science, Mathematics and Technology Education; and the Re-orientation and Qualitative Improvement of Secondary Education.

Some 16 countries of the region are participating in the Regional Co-operative Programme in Higher Education through a network of 110 universities and other institutions of higher learning. It focuses on distance education, academic staff development, management of resources, and participation of women in higher education.

The Educational Policy-making, Planning, Management and Statistics network includes 46 national training institutions in 22 Member States. EPMS is engaged in developing indicators and tools for the assessment of EFA achievements.

Services in the Educational Facilities Unit address problems connected with appropriate learning environments, such as the provision of low-cost educational buildings and furniture, the design of disaster-proof schools that can also be used as refugee and relief centres, and the maintenance of facilities.

The Technical and Vocational Education Unit supports efforts to link education systems with the world of work and provide better articulation with changing employment needs and patterns. This Unit has been responsible for producing a compendium of ten national case studies on policy planning and administration of Technical and Vocational Education, and four monographs including one on New Directions in Technical and Vocational Education.

A Regional Mobile Team on Population Education, funded by UNFPA, was set up in 1972. Until its merger in the new Inter-Agency set-up of Country Support Services Teams, the Team undertook 568 advisory missions to 20 countries, training some 3,000 key-level personnel through regional and national activities.

A network of 423 Associated Schools in 14 countries of the region promotes international education through teaching on peace, human rights and democracy.

Mobilizing the Community to Improve Learning Outcome In a Joint Innovative Project (JIP), a group of countries engage in a joint review of a common problem and analyse the situation to define broader contours of a strategy for resolving it. The strategy is then adapted to specific country contexts. One such JIP supported by APEID relates to the Raising of Achievement Levels in Primary Education in which nine countries - China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand are participating. China was the first country to start work on this JIP in 1986, in 100 rural schools in Gansu province, where the completion rate stood at 28.8%. Now, after six years, there has been a dramatic improvement in the rates recorded in these schools, with a 99% initial retention rate and 97.6% of all children completing primary schooling. The Gansu JIP has been instrumental in generally enhancing the quality of primary education, by improving both the internal and external environment governing learning outcomes and creating conditions conducive to raising their level. The project has also fostered people's awareness of the fact that education is a responsibility shared by the whole community. It has been a driving force behind the mobilization of parents and the community to support and co-operate with the schools and raise additional funds. Parents' schools, which have been set up as part of the JIP, provide them with instruction on subjects connected with their chldren's education. In 1990, the project had proved such a success that it prompted five other provinces in the country to start up a JIP on the Gansu model, covering more than 1,000 primary schools. UNICEF has also adopted the same model in its project for strengthening primary education in ten other disadvantaged provinces.

Educating Women - New Messages The Asia-Pacific region is characterized by very high rates of illiteracy among women. PROAP has developed a skilled-based Literacy Programme for Women, funded by UNDP. It was first implemented in Bhutan, China and Papua New Guinea and was later joined by a number of other countries. The Programme concentrated on challenging age-old superstitions and stressed the importance of women's work in the home and in fields and factories. The booklets produced under the Programme were used to teach Chinese women how to install home-heating systems; brief women in Papua New Guinea on how to protest against wife-beating; and encourage women in Bhutan to question the traditional division of labour. A training Manual, Educate to Empower, 39 illustrated booklets and 50 curricular units, developed under the Project, emphasize the importance of the role of women as economic producers and equal partners in development. The training manual has now been adopted by ESCAP for its work in the area of women's education.