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Special
issue of the electronic news bulletin board of UNESCO's Education
Sector
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No.
10
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Contents
(22 November 2000)
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UNESCO's Director-General stresses 'leadership through
partnership' in EFA
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Regions and countries take up the challenge of Education
for All
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Flagship programmes unite efforts in EFA
Attachments
in this issue:
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Welcome address
by UNESCO's Director-General
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UNESCO's
Director-General stresses 'leadership through partnership'
in EFA
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In his inaugural speech, Mr Matsuura stressed that the leadership
role given to UNESCO at the World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal,
April 2000) is "a vote of confidence as well as an immense challenge.
"We interpret the mandate as 'leadership through partnership',"
he said, adding that the role of UNESCO is to create synergy
within the array of different opinions and perspectives among
all partners involved in the follow-up process while respecting
that countries through their governments, national NGOs and
civil society are the principal authority of the movement. |
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The objectives of the meeting are to report on the progress
made at national, regional and international levels, following
the Dakar Forum, and to discuss selected topics of particular
interest for follow-up, in particular the development of national
plans of action, mobilization of resources and monitoring of
the EFA progress at all levels. |
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Some forty individuals representing countries, regional bodies,
national and international non-governmental organizations, as
well as donor agencies are taking part in the three-day meeting
that ends on Friday. |
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The Assistant Director-General for Education a.i., Mr Jacques
Hallak, who is chairing the meeting, underlined the importance
of bringing together technical experts to think and consult
together and to share experiences, while underlining that the
Working Group is not a decision-making body. "We are here to
work, not to talk about principles. The information sharing
that will take place during the next three days is decisive
for the future of the EFA movement," he said. |
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The outcomes and recommendations from the meeting will further
the Education for All process in the organizations represented
and help shape the agenda of the informal High-Level Group to
be convened by UNESCO's Director General in April 2001. |
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Please find the welcome address by UNESCO's Director-General
attached to this Bulletin Board. |
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Regions
and countries take up the challenge of Education for All
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Regional and national presentations demonstrated the rich variety
of activities being undertaken in the wake of the World Education
Forum. |
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In India, for instance, an ambitious new action plan aims to
provide relevant basic education for all 6- to 14-year-olds
by 2010, generalize five years primary schooling by 2007, eight
years schooling by 2010 and address the gender gap and retention.
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Senegal’s ten-year plan for Education for All involves wide
decentralization, accountability, partnership and regular monitoring.
UNESCO and UNICEF are joining forces for West and Central Africa
and have drawn up a Memorandum of Understanding in this sense.
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Kenya is reviewing its education system, focussing on such vital
aspects as globalization, information technologies and what
might constitute the most appropriate partnerships. An EFA Task
Force, headed by the Education Minister comprises all levels
of society including parents and teacher organizations. |
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The Arab region, which has made significant advances in primary
school enrolment, has already elaborated a fully-fledged EFA
regional action plan under the umbrella mechanism, ARABEFA.
Apart from providing direct support to countries to develop
their national plans, three region-wide thematic groupings will
address early childhood education, girls' education and literacy.
Dr Ali Fakhro of Bahrain called for agencies and bilateral donors
to show greater commitment to EFA. |
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Presentations from Latin America and the Caribbean also showed
the commitment to the goals of EFA: parliaments in the Caribbean
will endorse the regional EFA plan of action. The Organization
of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture
(OEI) is focussing on universalizing basic education and eliminating
the gender gap in line with the Dakar Framework for Action.
Brazil conducted a vast educational reform defining the responsibilities
of federal, state and municipal governments. |
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Although less than 1 per cent of Georgia’s population is illiterate,
problems of quality persist at all levels. Georgia’s Deputy
Minister of Education, Mr Tamaz Tatishvili, explained that "the
drastic transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy
has brought about poverty and social inequality." The large
number of displaced persons (some 300,000) is also a great concern
and the country is tackling the most urgent problems first,
providing pupils with psychological rehabilitation, with the
help of UNICEF. Capacity for early childhood education will
be increased by 20 per cent. |
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The remarkable work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
in the EFA drive was evident from the various presentations.
These NGOs expressed their desire to be associated with the
preparation of national action plans from the beginning. |
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The Bangladesh-based NGO, the Dhaka Ahsania Mission, that has
a long experience of non-formal education, is today part of
the national EFA follow-up committee. The NGO, ROSHNI, which
will operate shortly in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and
Pakistan, will address out-of-school youth and those whose education
is insufficient. |
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The Brazilian Association of NGOs reported on its initiative
that resulted in "The Latin American Statement on Education
for All". It has now received 2000 signatures from educators
and researchers. |
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For Jennnifer Chiwela of the People’s Action Forum in Zambia,
the promises and commitment made at Dakar have not yet been
translated into action. "We are advancing at snail’s pace,"
she said. She also cautioned against the practice of funding
only school-based education, thus neglecting youth and adults.
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Flagship
programmes unite efforts in EFA
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A series of presentations of flagship programmes during the
first day of the Working Group meeting demonstrated a unique
collaboration between partners in achieving Education for All.
Most presenters highlighted the fact that they were speaking
on behalf of a large group of stakeholders working together
on EFA issues. |
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The following
flagship programmes were presented:
The
United Nations Girls' Education Initiative
Early
Childhood Care and Education
HIV/AIDS
and Education
Focusing
Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH)
Education
in Situations of Emergency and Crisis
Teachers
and Quality Education
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| Ten
years to end the gender gap in education |
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The goal of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative is
to mount a ten-year sustained campaign to improve the quality
and availability of girls' education according to the goals
set out in the Dakar Framework for Action and through existing
mechanisms. "We are not asking for new plans. Our aim is to
have existing EFA plans address gender issues thoroughly," according
to Mary Joy Pigozzi of UNICEF |
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The initiative was announced by the United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan at the World Education Forum in Dakar. |
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The five strategic objectives of the UNGEI are to build political
and resource commitment, to end the gender gap and discrimination
within education systems, to help girls' education in crisis,
and to eliminate ingrained gender bias that limits the demand
for girls' education. |
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Last month Egypt was the first country to officially launch
a national UNGEI initiative. In the next twelve months, the
Egyptian Minister of Education will put in place a strategy
to achieve gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 2015,
in close co-operation with local representatives of the UNGEI
Task Force comprising UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNFPA, WFP,
ILO and the World Bank. |
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According to Ms Pigozzi, the process being undertaken in Egypt
can serve as guidance to other countries wishing to participate
in the UNGEI. |
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| Need
for development of new indicators on early childhood care and
development |
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One of the main challenges of the flagship programme on Early
Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) is to establish better
systems to monitor and evaluate programmes across different
settings. Kathy Bartlett, who presented the flagship programme
on behalf of Consultative Group on ECCD, a consortium that has
existed for more than fifteen year, underlined the need for
reviewing, developing and field-testing appropriate indicators
for ECCD. |
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"It is essential to collect experiences to understand what is
happening on the ground," Ms Bartlett said, adding that more
information and documentation are needed on the impact of early
literacy programmes and the workings and quality of partnerships
in ECCD. |
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| Minimizing
the impact of HIV/AIDS on education |
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UNICEF, UNESCO and USAID presented this inter-agency initiative
which aims to mitigate the impact of AIDS on education and to
enhance prevention programmes. |
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Françoise Caillods of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational
Planning spoke of the impact of HIV/AIDS on education in Southern
Africa and warned that if this issue was not tackled immediately,
these education systems would collapse. Emilie Vargas-Baron
of USAID evoked the link between AIDS and crisis and the necessity
in particular to address vulnerable groups, people in war-torn
countries, refugees or internally displaced persons and child-soldiers.
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This inter-agency initiative focuses on promoting child-friendly
and health promoting schools, life skills-based education, training
and supporting teachers and expanding the links between schools
and community-based programmes. Other activities include studies
to measure the impact of AIDS on education systems, encourage
countries to prepare their own strategies, define measures focused
on teachers, and information-sharing to disseminate findings
and best practices. There was general agreement that, if efforts
were to have some success, action should cut across all sectors:
education, health and social services. |
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| Focusing
Resources on Effective school Health (FRESH) |
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How can children learn when they are hungry and in poor health?
The FRESH flagship programme that was launched at the Dakar
Forum by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO)
and the World Bank is an attempt to focus resources on the school-age
child through an effective school health, hygiene and nutrition
programme. |
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The FRESH framework proposes four basic core components of a
school health programme: health-related school policies, provision
of safe water and sanitation, skills-based health education
and school-based health and nutrition services. |
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"The framework is intended as a basis from which individual
countries can develop their own strategy to match local needs,"
said Anna-Maria Hoffmann-Barthès of UNESCO, who presented the
programme |
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Several new joint and collaborative efforts are underway to
promote the FRESH framework. At the international level, links
between health and education will be reinforced through information
sharing of best practices and concerted action. At regional
level, several collaborative mechanisms that will allow countries
to prepare and implement their national plans of action have
been established and technical meetings are being organized.
At the national level, concrete support is being proposed to
countries, such as guidelines on how to create health promoting
schools and technical assistance. |
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| New
inter-agency effort to promote education in conflicts and wars
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The prevalence of conflicts in more than fifty countries has
prompted UN agencies to address the right to education in time
of war, in the knowledge that any interruption in educational
delivery is a direct threat to this right. This initiative endeavours
to restore access to learning as rapidly as possible and insists
that education must be funded with the same urgency as life-saving
emergency assistance. A recent inter-agency consultation launched
a flagship programme on this topic (Geneva, 8-10 November 2000)
and defined some practical strategies and mechanisms. One of
them is the "Network on Education in Emergencies", (to include
UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF, a donor agency and an NGO), designed
to reinforce co-operation between all actors in humanitarian
assistance. Task teams will address information-sharing and
networking, learning materials, and how to tackle formal and
non-formal post-primary education in emergency situations |
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| Improving
the quality of education through teachers |
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The increased focus on educational quality has the potential
to bring teachers back into the heart of the education debate.
Monique Fouilhoux of Education International stressed,in her
presentation on Teachers and Quality of Education, that every
discussion on quality has to relate to teachers. "If governments
like to have quality they must also be prepared to regard the
amount of resources invested in education as part of the measures
needed," Ms Fouilhoux said. |
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Sheldon Shaeffer of UNICEF highlighted the need for a broader
view of quality, focusing on the learning processes, the school
environment and the role and responsibilities of teachers in,
for example, eliminating gender bias in education. |
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| Information
Contact: Anne Muller (a.muller@unesco.org) |
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