Worldwide Action in Education LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

---

Enhancing professionalism in ministries of education, identification and provision of new technical and human resources needed for the decentralization of education systems;

Introducing professionalism in schools, thereby promoting a new role for teachers which will give them time to attend to pupils with learning difficulties and operate with greater technical and administrative autonomy;

Upgrading the professionalism of teachers in modern teaching methods.

Basic Education

Co-operation in Higher Education

Innovation: CARNEID

An Innovative Project for Rural Women in Ecuador

UNAMAZ

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

Basic Education

The Major Project in the Field of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean provides a framework for the professionalization of education in each country. The project is implemented by the specialized regional networks PICPEMCE, REDALF and REPLAD, and through the SIRI regional information system:

PICPEMCE, the programme for innovation and reform in training of educational personnel, seeks to promote curricular reform, particularly for basic learning, reading and writing, bilingual teaching, natural sciences, and environmental and population education, and for transverse themes relating to human values or human rights. It also tries out new teaching methods based on greater self-reliance on the part of learners.

REDALF, the Regional Network for Training Personnel and Providing Support for Literacy and Adult Education Programmes, runs activities in a number of fields - literacy and post-literacy education, including the use of audio-visual media, functional illiteracy, basic education for children and adults, civic education for women, inter-cultural bilingual education and the training of trainers.

REPLAD, the regional network concerned with the planning and administration of basic education, focuses mainly on decentralization, the mobilization of partners in education, the development of information systems, and the administrative and educational management of schools.

Co-operation in Higher Education

Established in 1978 in Caracas, Venezuela, CRESALC promotes regional co-operation in higher education and assists Member States of the region in their efforts to develop and improve national systems of higher education. It also promotes the mobility of academic personnel, serving as the Secretariat for the application of the Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education. CRESALC is closely involved in the implementation of UNITWIN. A UNESCO-Chair in Human Rights has been established in co-operation with the National Council of Universities in Venezuela.

Innovation: CARNEID

Established in 1981, the Caribbean Network of Educational Innovation for Development (CARNEID) helps English- Spanish- French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries to introduce educational innovations, undertake co-operative research and projects and share information and experiences with countries in the sub-region which have common problems and aspirations. CARNEID played a role in laying down strategies for educational reform in the Eastern Caribbean countries.

An Innovative Project for Rural Women in Ecuador UNESCO, WFP and UNICEF, in co-ordination with Ecuador's Ministries of Education, Agriculture and Social Welfare, have agreed to set up a pilot project on "Literacy and Continuing Education for Ecuadorian Women in Rural Areas". The project's objectives are to contribute to improving the quality of life of rural women, their families and the community by means of an all-round education strategy that will make it possible to raise their educational, health and nutritional standards and enhance their ability to play their full part in production and society generally. The basic strategy sets out by making use of the existing structure of a number of rural community projects to bring together over 400 women, who will be given food support and will also be provided with educational opportunities that are expected to foster their integration into society and the production process. Several local development organizations and NGOs in the country's provinces have joined in the project, in a bid to ensure that the project's educational, production, nutritional and preventive health components will give rise to a flexible form of education centred on the basic needs identified by the beneficiaries themselves.

UNAMAZ The Association of Amazonian Universities, created in 1987, is currently composed of over 30 universities from eight countries. Its programme of activities has been constantly expanding, especially in the follow-up to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro). These activities include the setting-up of a South-South Co-operation Programme, following a meeting of experts on "Environmentally Sound Socio-Economic Development in the Humid Tropics", which was organized in Manaus, Brazil, in 1992 by UNAMAZ, the United Nations University, the Third World Academy of Sciences and UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB). The UNESCO-Chair established at the Federal University of Para acts as the focal point for the network in the field of the environment, and co-operates with another UNESCO-Chair in Montreal. The Central Commission of UNAMAZ has promoted the organization of a rotational specialized course on science policy and technology transfer in connection with the safeguarding and enhanced use of Amazonia's bio-diversity among the countries of the sub-region.