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EUROPEANS
AND AMERICANS : THE DAY OF RECKONING |
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 An
exceptional report will be presented at the Education for All
Conference to be held in Warsaw, Poland from 6 to 8 February
next. Exceptional, because never before have education specialists
and representatives of the international community tackled such
an ambitious project from the point of view of its objectives,
duration and scope. The stock taking in Warsaw concerns Europe
and North America. Its results are likely to be a mixed bag.
Even disturbing. Since, surprisingly or not, when it comes to
young people left by the educational roadside, the Third World
has no monopoly, far from it. |
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Teachers
who haven't been paid for three years in a country at war. Refugee
children attending school under the most precarious conditions.
Schools lacking even the most rudimentary equipment in some
rural areas. New teachers barely trained. Immigrant families
completely out-of-step economically and culturally in their
new country. Illiterate Europeans, left far behind even before
the arrival of the Euro or other regulations handed down by
the European Union. The obstacles facing Education for All seem
to be constantly multiplying. And the promises made, ten years
ago, at the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien,
Thailand, are far from being kept. In Jomtien, representatives
of 155 countries and some 150 organizations solemnly committed
themselves to the goal of univeral primary education and the
massive reduction of illiteracy by the end of the decade. This
was in 1990 and here we are at the day of reckoning. For over
a year, all of these countries have been absorbed in the stock-taking
enterprise. Their findings will be presented by region at six
conferences, including the Warsaw meeting. A global report will
then be presented at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal,
from 26 to 28 April 2000. |
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In
2015 |
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Responsible
for the ambitious evaluation, the International Consultative
Forum on Education for All has been monitoring progress over
the last ten years. This global control mechanism also works
to stimulate dialogue and partnerships to promote effective
co-operation among governments and their partners to provide
education for all. Created in the wake of Jomtien, it is co-sponsored
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Bank along with a number
of bilateral agencies. It is based at UNESCO Headquarters in
Paris. For Svein Osttveit, Executive Secretary of the Forum,
the balance sheet will be "qualitative as well as quantitative"
and for Denise Lievesley, Director of the UNESCO Institute for
Statistics, "it will serve both as a vital benchmark to assess
future progress and to ensure that any targets we set are realistic
and accompanied by adequate resources". It will be presented
at the opening of the Warsaw Conference and will be followed
by the elaboration of a Regional Action Plan. The objective
from now on is to define strategies and appropriate means to
achieve by the year 2015 what the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights has laid down since 1948: "Everyone has the right to
education."... |
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EDUCATION
FOR ALL IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA UNDER REVIEW AT WARSAW
CONFERENCE (FEB. 6 - 8)
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Paris,
January 17 - Whether education for all is a reality in Europe
and North America will be examined at a regional meeting organised
in Warsaw (Poland) by the International Consultative Forum on
Education for All, February 6 to 8, with a view to assessing
progress achieved since the World Conference on Education for
All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990). |
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Some
300 participants including ministers - respectively in charge
of education, foreign and social affairs - and representatives
of non-governmental organisations are expected to attend the
meeting. Six roundtable debates are scheduled: Planning and
Management of Basic Education; Laying the Foundations of Lifelong
Learning; Early Childhood Education and Development; Education
and Work; Education, Poverty and Exclusion; Democratic Citizenship
in the Context of Multiculturalism. A Regional Framework for
Action will be discussed and adopted during the meeting. |
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Ten
years ago at the World Conference on Education for All, 155
countries and some 150 organisations committed themselves to
provide basic education for all and to reduce illiteracy massively.
The time has come to take stock of what has been achieved. Six
regional conferences will make it possible to group national
data for inclusion in a global report which will be presented
at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal (April 26 to
28). By then, regional meetings will have been held not only
in Warsaw but also in Johannesburg (South Africa) in December
1999; Bangkok (Thailand), January 17 - 20; Cairo (Egypt), January
24 - 27; Recife (Brazil) February 2 - 4; and San Domingo (Dominican
Republic), February 10 - 12. |
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Although
the public might assume that education for all is a well-established
reality in Europe and North America, this is not the case. Developing
countries do not have a monopoly on exclusion from education.
Europe and North America also have teachers who have not been
paid for three years, refugee children attending school under
the most precarious conditions, rural schools lacking even the
most rudimentary equipment, inadequately trained teachers, immigrant
children badly integrated into the school system. The failings
of basic education are legion even in rich countries. We know,
for instance, that some 20 per cent of the adult population
in this part of the world have difficulties with reading and
writing. This makes the Warsaw assessment all the more vital. |
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The
International Consultative Forum on Education for All is in
charge of this ambitious evaluation and of those carried out
simultaneously in the other regions of the world. The Forum
is based at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and is co-sponsored
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO,
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations
Population Fund (UNDP) and the World Bank along with a number
of bilateral agencies. |
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