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| Governments
in Asia and the Pacific urged to act on promises
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 Bangkok,
20 January 2000 (EFA Forum) - Greater political priority
and funding for basic education in the Asia-Pacific should be
the bedrock for a regional basic education strategy for the
21st century, said an education review conference of these countries
that ended here today. |
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| The
17-20 January Asia-Pacific Conference on EFA (Education for
All) 2000 Assessment wound up with 41 nations from Iran to the
Pacific adopting a draft framework for regional action to ensure
quality learning to every child, youth and adult without discriminating
between boys and girls, men and women, rich and poor, towns
and villages. |
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| The
draft action plan adopted today will be debated at the national
level before being finalized as a regional EFA strategy, which
will feed into global framework for action expected to be adopted
at the World Education Forum due to take place in Dakar, Senegal,
26 to 28 April. |
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| While
calling on national governments and international donors to
demonstrate greater political support for basic education by
increased funding, the conference emphasized the need to create
a "new space" for civil society. Communities, non-governmental
organizations, media, business too must play a key role. |
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| "The
lack of resources is often a matter of political will, both
within national governments and among international funding
agencies,'' said the draft document that advised "both partners"
to step up national budgets, development assistance and expedite
debt relief for poor nations. |
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| The
Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Mr Koichiro Matsuura, who
closed the conference, urged Asia-Pacific nations to learn from
the review of regional educational progress that preceded the
Bangkok conference and show the "political commitment to follow
up." |
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| "I
am convinced that with this sound policy basis and with renewed
vision and commitment, the way is now open for us to shape an
educational landscape that meets the needs of the twenty-first
century,'' he told the nearly 500 participants. Mr Matsuura
was in Bangkok on his first visit to Asia since taking over
as the head of UNESCO in November last year. |
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| Non-governmental
organizations, which held a parallel forum at the conference
too urged governments to hike education spending to at least
seven percent of their Gross National Product (GNP). They also
urged international donors to "write off debts" of Asia-Pacific
nations if regional governments "are willing" to spend a quarter
of the debt relief for improving the reach and quality of basic
education. |
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| The
conference noted the gains and obstacles to the goals set by
the landmark World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien,
Thailand in 1990. Mr Matsuura noted that these goals remained
valid for the new millennium and asserted that he was "determined
to make basic education an absolute priority during my term
as the head of UNESCO." |
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| The
national progress report cards tabled at the Bangkok conference
show that while most children are now in school, a high proportion
of them drop out without completing a basic schooling. Girls,
especially in rural areas tend to be denied access to schools.
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| The
UNESCO chief, however, added that EFA goals could not be achieved
by relying on the traditional school system alone as this leaves
out a large chunk of people. "An education system that caters
to the most marginalized, that is pro-active on gender issue,
that successfully balances the demand for both quantity and
quality of provision, is the most reliable signal of a flourishing
society," he said. |
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| Echoing
a proposal in the draft regional framework action plan, Mr Matsuura
said that information technology held the key to taking education
farther and wider in the new century. "We can use these technologies
to ensure that education does not remain a once-only opportunity.
We can use them to forge multiple links needed between formal
and non-formal education structures," he said. |
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| The
Bangkok conference was jointly organised by UNESCO, the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),
the World Bank, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
It was one of six regional conferences taking place around the
world in the run up to the World Education Forum next April.
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