Education for all has moved up on the priorities of governments and its importance for sustainable development is recognized throughout the world. The World Declaration on Education for All, adopted by World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990), has influenced education profoundly during the past decade and provided the framework for UNESCO’s programme in basic education.

The EFA Assessment 2000 was launched in July 1998 with an aim to help countries to identify both problems and prospects for further progress of EFA, and to strengthen their capacity to improve and monitor the provision and outcomes of basic education. Some 179 countries set up National Assessment Groups which collected quantitative data focusing on eighteen core indicators and carried out case-studies to collect qualitative information. Ten regional advisory groups were set up and training workshops were organized in all regions. In the same vein, much progress has been made in implementing a series of thirty surveys, including capacity-building at regional and national levels on monitoring learning achievement and conditions for teaching and learning, as well as fourteen global thematic studies on key education issues. The overall synthesis was considered by the World Education Forum in Dakar (26-28 April, 2000).

The Dakar Forum adopted a new Framework for Action for the development of basic education in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Framework outlines a forceful strategy for education for all, based on the results of the EFA 2000 Assessment and the Regional EFA Meetings, as well as deliberations at the Forum. The Framework for Action will be widely disseminated in different languages to all governments and communicated to the several United Nations development conferences and special sessions of the General Assembly scheduled later in 2000 and 2001, notably on population, women, social development and children, as well as to the Millennium Assembly and the Millennium Summit.

The Europe Region preparatory conference for the Forum was organized in Warsaw, 6 to 8 February 2000, by the International Consultative Forum on Education for All, comprising UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank.

The Warsaw Conference, attended by forty-three countries, adopted a Framework for Action reflecting the will of the Europe Region. The regional Framework recommended three levels of action: in each country, in the region and globally.

For each country, the regional Framework recommends that basic education provide ‘key skills, used as personal development tools including a first vocational initiation, the culture, values and abilities that are needed for social cohesion, sustainable development, … and for the exercise of participatory and responsible citizenship in a democracy.’ To achieve this, it also emphasizes the need to fight against functional illiteracy, a considerable and persistent problem in all countries, including the most developed.

On the regional level, information sharing is encouraged and given the "needs for further improvements in education systems, particularly in hard hit economies of Central and Eastern Europe, enhanced flows of financial assistance are merited and should be provided". The Framework recommends ‘significant increases of assistance to education’ and urges regionwide efforts to combat the exclusion of many adults from learning opportunities.

At the global level, the Framework states: ‘Education must be allowed to play its key role for lasting development in the context of globalization and by respecting the responsibilities for each country’.

Unequal access to existing education provision was a major source of concern in the assessment reports on twenty-nine countries in western Europe and the report on central and eastern Europe covering twenty countries, confirming that basic education is a matter of priority for the whole of Europe. In the west, there was particular worry about the influence of social exclusion on the educational and subsequent professional success of learners while in the east issues of family background, ethnic origin and geographic location were brought to the fore.

A fresh impetus was given by UNESCO to the further development of early childhood and family education, in order to cater for the developmental needs of young children and to prepare them for further learning. Special attention was given to the promotion of interregional and national networks of institutions, organizations and centres involved in early childhood and family education. In addition to the Averroës European Training Centre launched in 1997, six institutions in other parts of the world, including the National Institute of Family and Children (Budapest), became UNESCO Early Childhood Cooperating Centres. Regional and national capacities for information gathering and analysis were reinforced. The clearing house services were expanded by strengthening UNESCO’s early childhood databases, publication activities and presence on the Internet. Inter-agency discussions have been initiated to mobilize support and forge partnerships for joint actions within the framework of the ‘Strategic Plan’ drawn up by UNESCO for the Early Childhood and Family Education Programmes (2000-13).

UNESCO played a co-ordinating role in organizing in April 2000 in Washington D.C. an inter-agency meeting on early childhood indicators, with the participation of OECD, UNICEF and the World Bank.

The Directory of Early Childhood Care and Education Organizations in Europe and North America was prepared in 1998; support was provided for the publication of the UNESCO/Bernard van Leer Foundation Early Childhood Training Pack in French and of information sheets on early childhood issues in Russian and Turkish.

• Literacy, post-literacy and basic adult education

The literacy, post-literacy and basic adult education component of the EFA programme, implemented mainly through the regional programmes, focuses on the acquisition of the knowledge and of the life skills required to alleviate poverty and empower marginalized groups. UNESCO steered a major policy dialogue process through website discussion, expert meetings, national round tables and grass-roots workshops on a new understanding of literacy. Towards a Literate Millennium was the motto of the 1999 International Literacy Day (8 September). International Literacy Day 2000 will be the launching day of the International Adult Learners’ Week at Expo 2000 in Hanover. Innovative approaches to literacy as an integrated element of sustainable livelihood, and a foundation of learning throughout life have been developed. REFLECT, a pilot methodological approach to literacy developed by Action Aid, a United Kingdom based non-governmental organization actively participating in the UNESCO/NGO Collective Consultation, has been adapted and replicated in some forty developing countries. UNESCO continues to provide technical assistance to community schools and other non-formal and semi-formal programmes which build on local knowledge, cultures, languages and learning styles and traditions.

Following the World Conference on Special Needs Education, Salamanca, Spain 1994, the concept of inclusive education has become a key feature of the EFA agenda. Thematic studies on inclusive education and case-studies on practices in addressing the needs of marginalized/excluded groups were carried out in several countries. A document and a video on ‘Welcoming Schools’ have been produced to promote inclusive practices across cultures. Small-scale projects have been launched to support widening of access to education of children and youth with special education needs.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a plan of action for support of teachers was developed and various activities were undertaken. In 1998 and 1999, a series of workshops was organized to improve teachers’ skills to better respond to needs in the classrooms. Since January 1999, UNESCO has been supporting a project for teachers concentrated in two kindergartens in Sarajevo.

The International Special Education Congress 2000, ISEC, will be held at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, July 2000. The congress will review the progress that was made during the 1990s with regard to the rights of all children and young people to have equal access to education. UNESCO will organize a session at the conference to highlight and discuss developments after the Salamanca conference.

The material ‘Open File on Inclusive Education’ is in preparation. It comprises a series of themes related to the organization and management of inclusive systems of education. A field-testing workshop organized in May 2000 in Portugal involved educational managers and planners evaluating and improving the materials. A training workshop for teacher educators from ten Eastern and Central European countries will be organized in Bucharest in October 2000 to support human resource development for inclusion.

The main thrust of the programme as regards the education of children in difficult circumstances aimed at promoting basic educational services in areas affected by war and refugee movements. Examples of recent accomplishments include projects addressing recent immigrants in Israel; vocational training of youth victims of landmines in Sarajevo, psychological and educational needs of working street children in large cities (Bucharest, and Moscow) and support to the Children’s House (Orhei) in Moldova. With UNESCO’s technical support, a European Network on Street Children Worldwide (ENSCW) has been established.

In July 1999, the Hungarian Ministry of Education started, in co-operation with UNESCO, a Programme for educational and social promotion of Roma children. Within the framework of this project, UNESCO supported three pilot projects developed by Hungarian Educational Institutions. Based on the experience of this Programme, UNESCO is supporting a new regional project for the year 2000, in close co-operation with the Hungarian Ministry of Education. The project will involve the participation of Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and aims at developing/strengthening active co-operation between these countries in order to promote social integration of Roma children and youth. One of the main activities of this project will be the establishment in Hungary of a Central European Roma Continuous Training and Pedagogical Information Centre. UNESCO is organizing a Regional Workshop to be held in October 2000, where participants from these five countries will exchange their experiences in the field of the education of Roma children.

Within the framework of the six-year special project ‘Enhancement of Learning and Training Opportunities for Marginalized Youth’, projects have been implemented in Georgia and Ukraine, focusing on the development of both empowerment (self-confidence, participation and solidarity) and self-employment. Non-formal distance education policies in the field of basic vocational training have been promoted to reach marginalized and geographically isolated groups. Experience gained from operational projects reveals that basic skills training is a powerful tool to alleviate poverty if linked to potential income-generating activities.

Another priority area of UNESCO in the field of education is to support the renewal, diversification and expansion of education systems, programmes and processes in the perspective of education throughout life and to render them more responsive to social transformations and to the challenges of the twenty-first century. The International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, under the chairmanship of Jacques Delors, produced its report Learning: The Treasure Within (1996), arguing that if education is to succeed in its tasks it must be conceived and organized as a lifelong process around four types of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together.

Since the publication of the Report, UNESCO and its Member States have engaged in a multitude of activities to follow up on this new vision of education. The key themes of the Report have shaped UNESCO’s contributions to the debate on education reform in many countries and its regional and global action. Education policy discussions in countries such as the Netherlands, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom have been inspired by the report. Thanks to the support of Member States and National Commissions, the report is today available in twenty-five languages.

In a world in which knowledge and skills become obsolete faster than curricula and textbooks can change, it has become imperative to rethink learning as well as the social institutions that serve to facilitate it. The ‘Learning Without Frontiers (LWF) initiative’ has made a contribution to generate activities that help give new meaning to learning, redefine roles of actors in the learning environment and promote innovative practice. It has done so by working with governmental and non-governmental organizations in Member States, putting emphasis on partnership building and networking. Effective use of the internet as a dynamic interface with a world in change has significantly contributed to the success of the work undertaken.

On the occasion of Expo 2000 in Hanover (Germany), UNESCO will also participate in a ‘Global Dialogue’ by organizing jointly with the World Bank the dialogue on the theme ‘Building Learning Societies: Knowledge, Information and Human Development’.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, many Member States face an urgent demand for access to secondary as well as technical and vocational education. UNESCO took the initiative to organize an inter-agency meeting in Paris (June 1999) on priorities and possible co-operation in secondary education reform. Twenty-six agencies attended this meeting. A number of future tasks were agreed, including the following: (i) that a major review of secondary education be conducted to analyse current strengths and problems and to consider longer-term options for policy and programmes; (ii) that a Youth Advisory Council on Secondary Education be established to provide a voice for young people; (iii) that a website for information exchange be established. In this area UNESCO co-operates closely with the Council of Europe.

UNESCO supported the Belarus Ministry of Education in organizing in Minsk (September 1999) the International Conference of the Ministers of Education of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central and Eastern European countries on the theme ‘Reforming Secondary School: Analysis of Educational Policies in the Countries in Transition’. 

In seeking to develop and upgrade science and technology education, UNESCO developed a variety of activities with an emphasis on integrated/interdisciplinary approach. In the follow-up to the World Conference on Science (Budapest, 1999), an intersectoral programme for science education is being developed. Actions have been taken within the framework of the Project 2000+ with the help of its six non-governmental organization partners. International co-operation took the form of seminars and workshops at the regional and subregional levels. National capacities were strengthened by means of training workshops (Ukraine). Monographs on formal and non-formal science and technology education were published. Exchange of information was facilitated through the establishment of a science and technology education website on the Internet and the dissemination of Connect in seven languages.

Within the framework of Project 2000+, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Association of Science Education (ASE) in the United Kingdom, produced the Resource Kit on Science and Technology Education for Secondary Education comprising teaching/learning modules, a guide and a video, based upon the needs expressed by the Member States.

UNESCO participated in the Event on Water Education organized by nine southern French municipalities in Cogolin (June 1998). In collaboration with the World Council of Associations for Technology Education (WOCATE), Germany, UNESCO organized the European Conference on Sustainability for Small and Medium-size Enterprises in Erfurt, Germany (November 1999). In collaboration with ASE, UNESCO organized the Project 2000+ Steering Committee meeting for the planification of its biennial strategy in Leeds, United Kingdom, (January 2000) and in collaboration with the Palais de la Découverte, Paris, UNESCO organized the International Conference on Science and Society, Paris, March 2000.

Within the framework of the South East Mediterranean Sea Project (SEMEP), UNESCO convened a National Co-ordinators Meeting in Athens (December 1999) in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Education in order to re-examine the aims, objectives and orientation of the project. National co-ordinators from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Jordan, Israel, Italy, Malta, Palestine Authority, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey attended this meeting. The next meeting in Italy in 2000 will re-launch a renovated SEMEP.

Within the framework of actions to promote gender-sensitive science education, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Leeds University, United Kingdom, produced Volume VII of Innovations in Science and Technology Education, including a regional overview of the situation in Europe.

In the field of TVE, the principal activity was the Second International Congress on TVE held in co-operation with the Government of the Republic of Korea, Seoul, April 1999. More than 700 representatives from 130 countries participated. As part of the preparations for this Congress, one subregional (Moscow) and five regional (Adelaide, Beirut, Crete, Nairobi and Santiago) preparatory conferences were held. A regional seminar on ‘Open Professional Space – The Road to the Future’ was held in Minsk, Belarus, in November 1999 as a follow-up to the Congress.

Based on the recommendations of the Seoul Congress, the 30th Session of the General Conference adopted a new long-term UNESCO International Programme in TVE. A central feature of this programme will be the establishment, with the generous support of the German Government, of an International Training Centre in TVE in Bonn. Other features of the programme will include the creation of an interactive website dedicated to assisting Member States in the development and implementation of national policies and programmes, as well as the institution of a UNESCO International Prize for Innovation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training.

UNEVOC (UNESCO International project on TVE) (www.unevoc.de): This worldwide network of leading institutions in TVE (currently 204 focal points, ‘UNEVOC Centres’, in Member States of UNESCO) includes partners from 39 European Member States. In Central and Eastern Europe, the UNEVOC Network is closely linked to the network of ‘National Observatories’ of the European Training Foundation (ETF), with which UNESCO co-operates on an ongoing basis.

At the initiative of the Nordic UNEVOC Centres, a meeting was held in Helsinki in March 2000 to strengthen the participation of the Nordic countries in the UNEVOC Network.

An international meeting of young people for a drug-free twenty-first century took place at UNESCO on 9 February 1998. The meeting brought together young people from 25 countries. ‘Youth Charter for a Twenty-first Century Free of Drugs’ drafted and presented in June 1998 by young people to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the Question of Narcotic Drugs. The Charter has been distributed internationally, in particular through UNESCO and UNIDCP networks, as an educational and awareness-raising tool for young people. Several European countries participated actively in this campaign, in particular, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Germany. More than 150,000 young people in Europe signed the Charter.

High-level education decision-makers from Armenia and Georgia participated in the UNESCO/WHO/UNAIDS Regional Seminar for Central Asia and the Transcaucasus on ‘Force for Change: Improving Preventive Education and Health Services within the School System’ (Almaty, Kazakhstan, July 1998).

UNESCO co-operates closely with the European Commission within the framework of the joint EC/UNESCO PEDDRO project (networking of information in the field of drug abuse prevention through education).

The most significant event in the field of higher education was the World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) held in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters (October 1998) with over 4,000 participants from 182 countries. It represented a unique forum for a global exchange of experience and policy dialogue, and has set the direction needed to prepare higher education systems and institutions for the challenges of the twenty-first century. The World Declaration and the Framework for priority action adopted by the Conference states, inter alia, that higher education should be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit, and takes up the major themes of the Conference: relevance, quality, management and finances, and inter-university co-operation. The main function of higher education is to educate responsible citizens by providing opportunities for higher learning and learning throughout life. Efforts have been devoted to encourage and support follow-up activities in Member States. In order to give the required impetus to the follow-up action, the constitution of a global network of some 300 focal points and an International Follow-up Committee are envisaged. The 600 WCHE documents can be consulted via the WCHE website (www.unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/index.html).

• UNESCO-CEPES

The recommendations made at the Palermo European Regional Forum (Palermo, September 1997), and the Framework for Action adopted by the World Conference on Higher Education together with the decisions of the 30th Session of the General Conference of UNESCO, represent UNESCO’s overall policy framework in higher education in the Europe Region. UNESCO-CEPES (European Centre for Higher Education) in Bucharest continues to play a central role in the Region providing advisory services, and serving as a focal point for international co-operation and as a centre for collecting and dissemination of information.

An important part of UNESCO’s activities has involved fostering reflection, facilitating the exchange of information, and promoting reform and innovations in higher education in the countries in transition, particularly those in Central and Eastern Europe and South-East European countries. In this regard, the two actions should be pointed out: The first is a project entitled ‘Ten Years After and Looking Ahead: A Review of the Transformations of Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe’. The findings of this project will be presented at the 54th Bi-annual CRE Conference on ‘The New Ventures in European Inter-University Co-operation’, 26-27 October 2000, Crakow, Poland. Prior to this, UNESCO-CEPES and the Salzburg Seminar convened an expert meeting (April, 2000, Salzburg, Austria) in order to discuss the main directions and mechanisms of those transformations. The second is a project which looks at the origins, mission, and functioning of the bilingual university. Undertaking this project seems to be of particular importance in the present-day Europe. UNESCO-CEPES organized the Seminar on the ‘Bilingual University – Its Origins, Mission, and Functioning’ (March 2000, Bucharest).

UNESCO-CEPES represents UNESCO in the Enhanced Graz Process Task Force which grew out of two meetings of the Austrian EU Presidency Conference on European Education Co-operation for Peace, Stability and Democracy in South-East Europe, (Graz, November 1998) and of the Sofia Conference on the same subject (November 1999). The outline of UNESCO’s approach with regard the role and situation of higher education in Southeast Europe has been laid out in Position Paper on the Further Development of Higher Education in Southeast Europe. Most activities are planned and carried out in co-operation with various intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, in particular the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Training Foundation, the World Bank, the Organization on Economic Co-operation and Development, the Association of European Universities/CRE, and the Salzburg Seminar.

UNESCO’s action towards promoting academic mobility, through creating mechanisms for the recognition of studies, academic qualifications and degrees, has gained a new thrust and dimension in the context of the Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education in the European Region, adopted at the Diplomatic Conference, jointly organized by the two organizations, in April 1997 in Lisbon. Together with the Council of Europe, UNESCO-CEPES assures the secretariat of specialized network – Joint Council of Europe/UNESCO European Network of National Information Centres on Academic Mobility and Recognition (ENIC). It should be pointed out that most of the activities of this network are carried jointly with that of the European Union network – NARIC, e.g. the 6th Joint Meeting of the ENIC and NARIC Networks (Vilnius, Lithuania, June 1999); the 7th Joint Meeting of the ENIC and NARIC Networks, Brussels, May 2000.

UNESCO-CEPES publishes a quarterly review, Higher Education in Europe in three language versions – English, French and Russian. As of 2000, the French and Russian versions are accessible, free of charge, online through Internet-Homepage - http://www.cepes.ro. In addition to the review, UNESCO-CEPES contributes to the transfer of knowledge and information exchange relevant for higher education through: the ‘Monographs on Higher Education’ series, which presents studies on national systems of higher education, the two most recent titles being Higher Education in Hungary (1998) and Higher Education in Germany (1999); a volume on Higher Education in Bulgaria will be published in 2000; and the ‘UNESCO-CEPES Papers on Higher Education’, presenting studies. Two Titles are under preparation: The Internationalization of Higher Education: An Institutional Perspective 2000, and Ten Years After and Looking Ahead: A Review of the Transformations of Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe 2000.

• UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme

The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme continues to expand. It includes today over 360 UNESCO Chairs and 62 UNITWIN networks. Some 109 new Chairs have been established since January 1998 and the number of project proposals under consideration is steadily growing. In collaboration with the International Council on Distance Education, and within the framework of the 19th World Conference on Higher Education and Distance Education (Vienna, June 1999), UNESCO organized a meeting of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN networks working in the field of new information technologies and distance education. Within UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs programme, The World Technological University (WTU) will organize a European meeting of Engineering Universities in Paris, October 2000. A new website devoted to UNITWIN was created in June 1999 containing the basic documents concerning the programme and an updated list of UNESCO Chairs and Networks. A new Directory of the Chairs and Networks (1999 edition) was printed. A web page is devoted to UNITWIN (www.unesco.org/education/educprog/unitwin/index.html).

UNESCO-CEPES co-ordinates relations with a designated number of UNESCO Chairs and provides support for the events organized by the UNITWIN Networks and UNESCO Chairs. Recent examples of such support include the 2nd Symposium on the ‘Mediterranean Network on Water’ organized by the Réseau Mediterranéen UNITWIN et Chaires UNESCO-UNU-Ville de Cannes sur les Ressources en Eau, le Développement Durable et la Paix (May 2000, Cannes, France); the International Conference on ‘University of the 21st Century: Challenges for the Humanities’ organized by the UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy at the Russian State University for Humanities (February 2000, Golitzyno, Russian Federation); The World Conference of Rectors of Higher Education Theatre Institutions was organized by UNESCO/ITI Chair in Theatre and Culture of Civilization, (July 2000, Sinaia, Romania).

Emphasizing the central role of teachers, UNESCO has forged a strong partnership with teacher organizations and ILO to promote the 1966 Recommendation on the Status of Teachers and to raise political and community awareness of the part played by teachers in educating for a culture of peace in difficult circumstances through extensive coverage in the media of World Teachers’ Day and wide distribution of materials (for example Education International The Quiet Peacemakers). The network of UNESCO Chairs in Teacher Education has been expanded and support given to distance teacher education and open university projects in all regions.

Within the new Caucasus project, UNESCO in supporting the organization at Tbilisi State Pedagogical University, Georgia of a meeting in June 2000 launched the creation of the Network of Pedagogical Institutes of the Caucasus sub-region.

Consultations were undertaken with ILO on the proposed extension of the mandate of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts in charge of application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966) " CEART" to also cover the Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel (1997). The 30th session of the General Conference decided to launch the new UNESCO project ‘The Status of Teachers and Teacher Education in the Information Society’.