The theme of the forty-sixth session of the International Conference on Education (ICE) was decided at the thirtieth session of UNESCO's General Conference and was expressed as follows: “Within the context of the four pillars of education as defined in the Delors Report—particularly “Learning to live together”- the Conference will examine, more precisely, how to enable each learner to master the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the intellectual and moral development of individuals and society ”. This theme is an integral part of the research and promotion of better alternatives for a quality education for all throughout life and across all the activities in which humans are involved
Its background is the overview document of the forty-sixth ICE (ED/BIE/CONFINTED 46/5), drafted with the help of a working group of the IBE Council and approved at the forty-seventh Council Session. This draws on a wide range of documentation, reports of meetings, programmes, projects and educational practices brought together by UNESCO, and more precisely by the IBE's INNODATA and BRIDGE Projects. It has also benefited from the messages of ministers and the contributions of many researchers, decision-makers at various levels and educators, who have participated in the Netforum, between March and June 2001. It has also been enriched - in a still preliminary way - by the first National Reports received during the preparatory phase of the ICE (1).
Moreover, this document is indissociable from the proposed workshop documents (ED/BIE/CONFINTED 46/4) for the six workshops organized during the ICE. The ICE itself will be an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of how to analyze problems, ideas and practices so that all may find the best solutions to make progress in local, national and international educational dialogue and action for learning more successfully to live together.
In dealing with the theme: “EDUCATION FOR ALL FOR LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER: contents and learning strategies - problems and solutions ”, the forty-sixth session of the ICE wishes, through wide-ranging and open political dialogue, to make a contribution to thinking in this field so as to advance the development of more relevant learning, whose aim is the achievement of all human rights as well as human development (2).
Throughout the world, the themes dealt with during this session are very topical. Education leaders are aware of the existence of the complex and varied problems of living together and of the limits of education in this respect.
What emerges from the majority of National Reports drawn up for the forty-sixth session of the ICE, with different emphases according to each situation, is that living together raises many questions. On the one hand, education leaders tell of new trends and their influence, such as: globalization, democratic progress, the existence of economies operating at different speeds and social disruption, marginalization and violence, the desire to belong to the world and at the same time to strengthen each distinct identity. They also mention the challenges of participating in the knowledge society and the opportunities offered by new information and communication technologies. On the other hand, they propose major innovations in syllabuses, methodologies and learning situations, as well as more open and wide-ranging policies for teaching languages, scientific literacy and the use of new technologies, citizenship training and education in a larger context, both from the viewpoint of content as well as that of practices in school life.
These perspectives reveal that learning remains a source of hope as a human right, whose achievement will make a contribution to other rights and human development, for which the ability to live together is an unavoidable condition.
Meeting this challenge is the major issue for the planet as a whole at the start of the twenty-first century. To do so, we need to make progress in our understanding of the challenge itself, its significance and its specificities in the context of current trends of development, of solutions in the making, and perspectives for promoting and improving them.
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Last update:2-08-2001
1. Bibliographical references, the list of conferences, meetings and seminars, as well as of those particpating in the Netforum, will be jointly published in a document which will be distributed during the ICE. Messages of ministers, programmes, projects and “ good practices ” may be consulted at the Conference website: (www.ibe.unesco.org). (Back)
2. UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, Paris, Brussels, De Boeck & Larcier, Département de De Boeck Université, 2000. (Back)