ED/BIE/CONFINTED 46/6
Geneva, 8 September 2001
Original: French
UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL , SCIENTIFIC
AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION
Forty-sixth session
“EDUCATION FOR ALL FOR LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER :
contents and learning strategies - problems and solutions”
International Conference Centre,
Geneva 5-8 September 2001
CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS FOR ACTION ARISING FROM THE FORTY-SIXTH SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION (ICE)
PREAMBLE
1. The International Bureau of Education, in its capacity as a UNESCO specialized centre for the contents and methods of education, organized the forty-sixth session of the International Conference on Education in Geneva from 5 to 8 September 2001.
2. More than 600 participants took part in the discussions, of whom eighty were ministers and ten vice-ministers of education, coming from 127 Member States of UNESCO, together with nine representatives of intergovernmental organizations, thirteen non- governmental organizations and three foundations.
3. The objective of intensifying and strengthening dialogue at the level of educational policies on the problems and prospects of solutions with a view to improving the quality of education for learning to live together has been largely achieved. These conclusions and the resulting proposals for action present the key features of the debates and preparatory work (Netforum, ministerial messages, national reports, good practices, etc.). The entire collection will be made known through the Final Report, the reports of the workshops, and the other documents to be published after the Conference.
4. These conclusions, adopted on 8 September 2001, have been drawn from the Major Debates, the Plenary sessions and the six workshops that took place during the Conference. They are intended for governments, international intergovernmental and non- governmental organizations, teachers and organizations of the teaching profession, the media and all partners in civil society whose efforts improve the quality of education, encourage dialogue and develop the capacity to live together.
A. THE CHALLENGES
5. Given the enormous complexity of the problems all societies have to face, particularly globalization, and unbearable inequalities between and within countries, learning to live together, a concept created by the International Commission on Education for the Twenty- first Century, has become a necessity in all regions of the world.
6. One of the major challenges confronting education systems remains that of guaranteeing and respecting the right of education for all. However, the right of children to have free access to schools is far from being respected everywhere in the world and particularly in those countries experiencing situations of war, occupation, violence and intolerance.
7. The plea for education to overcome these challenges facing societies is not a new phenomenon. Yet, today, the expectations have become far more urgent, giving the impression that education can by itself overcome the problems that exist in countries and at the international level.
8. Both formal and non-formal education are essential tools for launching and promoting sustainable processes of constructing peace, democracy and human rights, but they cannot alone provide solutions to the complexity, the tensions and even the contradictions of the present world.
9. It is essential, however, as was stressed in the Jomtien Declaration and the Dakar Framework of Action, that efforts at the national and international levels to develop education be complemented by global strategies to eliminate poverty and to promote participation in political, social and cultural life.
10. Achieving the objective of education for all goes beyond the effort of universal schooling. Within each country, the search for social cohesion, the struggle against inequality, the respect for cultural diversity and access to the knowledge society, which may be facilitated by information and communication technologies, will be achieved through policies that focus on improving the quality of education.
11. These policies must overcome the obstacles posed by inequalities of access and risks of exclusion in the fields of languages, science and technology.
- As far as languages are concerned, it is possible to note that numerous countries are multilingual even though a single language appears as the official language of communication.
- Concerning science and technology, particularly those of information and communication, the gulf is growing wider due to inequality in access to the most recent advances.
B. EDUCATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES
12. Throughout the world there is a strong political will on the part of numerous governments and teachers to adapt educational contents, structures and methods in order to respond to the above-mentioned challenges.
13. The experiences of educational policies and practices indicate that it is necessary to consider reforms more as processes than as products. These may arise as much from governmental decisions as from the initiatives of other stakeholders. The way in which they are implemented, involving the mobilization of all actors, is as important as the content.
14. Basic agreements within the international community already exist concerning lines of action for promoting the ability and willingness to live together. Those responsible for education policies at the national level have clearly expressed their will to pursue the implementation of these agreements.
15. The evaluation of the outcomes of the reform processes, and particularly “good practices”, enables us to highlight both some conditions unique to each cultural context as well as to pinpoint some common characteristics.
C. PROPOSALS FOR ACTION
16. The entire range of teaching and educational practices for living together should be better known, disseminated and exploited with a view to strengthening the endogenous capacities of each country.
17. Training for policy dialogue is essential in order to achieve the major objective of improving the quality of education for all.
18. Reform processes should be continued or undertaken in the following domains:
- Contents:
- Adapting curricula and updating contents in order to reflect:
- economic and social changes set in motion, in particular, by globalization, migration and cultural diversity;
- the ethical dimension of scientific and technological progress;
- the growing importance of communication, expression and the capacity to listen and dialogue, first of all in the mother-tongue, then in the official language in the country as well as in one or more foreign languages;
- the positive contribution that may result from integrating technologies into the learning process.
- Developing not only disciplinary but also interdisciplinary approaches and competencies.
- Supporting and nurturing innovations.
- Seeking, in the development of curricula, to ensure relevance at the local, national and international levels at the same time.
- Adapting curricula and updating contents in order to reflect:
- Methods:
- Promoting active learning methods and teamwork. ?
- Encouraging all-round and balanced development and preparing the individual for active citizenship open to the world.
- Teachers:
- Facilitating genuine involvement on the part of teachers in decision-making within the school, through training and other means.
- Improving the education of teachers so that they can better develop among pupils behaviour and values of solidarity and tolerance, so as to prepare them to prevent and resolve conflicts peacefully and to respect cultural diversity.
- Changing the relationship between teacher and pupil to respond to the evolution of society.
- Improving the use of information and communication technologies in teacher training and in classroom practices.
- Daily life in educational institutions:
- Creating within the school a climate of tolerance and respect encouraging the development of a democratic culture.
- Providing a way for the school to function that encourages participation of the pupils in decision-making.
- Proposing a shared definition of projects and learning activities.
- Educational research:
- Stimulating research that clarifies the concept of learning to live together and the implications for policy and practices.
- Promoting research on the development of contents and teaching methods relating to learning to live together.
- Stimulating comparative studies in the sub-regional, regional and trans- regional contexts.
19. Partnerships:
- Since education is not the sole answer to learning to live together, its improvement requires the contribution not only of the school but also of all concerned actors. It therefore implies the introduction and the strengthening of genuine partnerships with the entire society: teachers, communities, families, the economic sector, the media, NGOs, and the intellectual and spiritual authorities.
- Partnerships are also required to expand access to and effective use of new information and communication technologies.
20. Learning to live together requires policies for the development of lifelong learning beginning with early childhood education.
D. INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
21. The development of international co-operative activities to improve the quality of education for learning to live together for all should be based on six main principles:
- Strengthening the function of the IBE as an observatory of trends, as well as its role in the development of easily accessible databanks and information systems.
- Collecting the results of educational research on the development of contents, undertaking comparative studies at the sub-regional and regional levels, and their worldwide dissemination.
- Setting up co-operative networks at the international, regional and sub-regional levels facilitating the exchange of experience and promoting joint projects in order to strengthen endogenous capacities.
- Training educational decision-makers in policy dialogue so as to encourage the definition of common objectives, the search for consensus and the mobilization of partnerships.
- Experimenting with new modalities of technical assistance provided by bi- or multilateral co-operation agencies, in order to emphasize not only North-South but also South-South collaboration.
- Strengthening of partnerships between UNESCO and other relevant intergovernmental organizations.
E. THE ROLE OF UNESCO AND ITS SPECIALIZED INSTITUTES
22. The conclusions of the forty-sixth session of the International Conference on Education are communicated to the General Conference of the Organization in order to be taken into account in the process of reflection and to reinforce, in the short, medium and long terms, the programme of action of UNESCO, the International Bureau of Education and the other specialized institutes with a view to improving the quality of education.
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Last update: 20-09-2001