Ali Saad Minister of Education The Honorable Ali Daher Saad, Minister of Education of Syria, has devoted his career to the field of education. A published author, Minister Saad was the founder and first head of the Syrian Assembly of Psychological and Educational Sciences, and has been head editor of a University Magazine. He is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Damascus University, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in humanities and higher education diploma in sociology. He earned his doctorate degree at Bucharest University. Between 1996 and 2003, Dr. Saad held various positions as Education Faculty Dean at Damascus University and at two universities in Oman, and as Secretary General of the Assembly of Educational Colleges and Institutes at the Arab Universities.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On the occasion of the forty-seventh session of The International Conference on Education I have the pleasure to extend to you my best greetings and wishes from The President, government and people of the Syrian Arab Republic.

I also would like to thank UNESCO and Director General and all its staff for the efforts exerted in the service of education, culture and science worldwide; we highly appreciate all the efforts made to convene this conference .

In Syria, and under the leadership of President Bashar al- Assad, we are trying to realize a quality development in the areas of educational, social and economic development, in fruitful cooperation amongst all the different social sectors, and in full coordination with the international organizations, in general , and UNESCO and UNICEF, in particular.

From this perspective we are respectful and appreciative off the regional and international conferences sponsored by the UNESCO, which are concerned with the issues of education and culture, and draw visions and strategies that serve the member states.

We also underline the importance of deliberations in the conferences and stress the national peculiarities of the different states with their different circumstances and development approaches which stem from their national interests .

Syria has always endeavoured to secure the most optimal circumstances that nourish the,. educational process, especially after the Law of Basic Education No 32 was issued in 2002, which stipulates free and compulsory education to students, male and female in the age bracket 6-18 years. In this regard, the Ministry of Education in Syria cooperates with UNICEF in the girls' education project that aims to restore the dropouts between 10-17 back to school, and to provide the prerequisites for the success of this project on the way towards positive steps that secure education for all .

 Syria has also been keen to provide secondary school education with its different branches in both private and free state schools. Development of curricula and pedagogical approaches are well under way to provide the students with the best practical and life skills.

In addition, the Law of private School Education, has almost been completed, and will present diverse educational opportunities for the Syrian youths, and will ensure high quality education and open wide and diversify the channels of investment in the educational sector.

 Remarkable development has also encompassed vocational education in cooperation with several international agencies and in line with specific educational projects. In this regard, mention could be made of the project of industrial apprenticeship being implemented in conjunction with the European Training Foundation (ETF) and with active participation of the chambers of industry. This project aims to link vocational and technical education with the needs of labour market .

 There are also other projects like the Syrian French project to develop vocational and technical education, the vocational education upgrading with the EU, and the technical cooperation project with the German Cooperation Institute (GTZ), in addition to the to the establishment of a national observation unit for vocational and industrial education and labour market with the ETF .

All of this runs parallel to new programmes aiming at requalifying the academic cadres, and equipping them with the best and most up-to-date skills that are bound to empower them to perform their tasks as perfectly as possible. Our efforts have been welcomed by the academic conferences wherein they were presented.

We are now in constant contact with the international establishments and foundations seeking chances of cooperation in a flexible and open - minded approach.

Admittedly, we still have a lot to do in our attempts to reach higher quality educational outputs, and to sort out the problems of illiteracy and dropout once and forever, and here in this area, we would like to stress the fact that you assistance is most welcome .

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our conference convenes under highly and critical international circumstances that will surely have an impact on the educational process, and could possibly foil all the efforts that aim at realizing ambitious educational plans.

In the Middle East, we witness continuous tension that has resulted from the policy of aggression and occupation pursued by Israel. The Israeli occupation atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Syrian Golan heights, and South Lebanon are blatant violations of international legitimacy and accords, and the approaches of UNESCO and the international educational conferences. Such serious practices require international condemnation and immediate deterrence because otherwise they will paralyse all sorts of educational action in those mentioned territories. At the same time this entails that all sorts of assistance must be offered to enable the cultural and educational establishments in the occupied Arab territories to function properly .

In this regard, we would like to stress our condemnation of all kinds of racial terrorism and aggression, and emphasise the peoples' right to resist occupation in the light of international laws and conventions. We also stress our full adherence to just and comprehensive peace on the land - for- peace basis, and restoration of all Arab rights to their rightful owners .

I would also like to stress that it is not accepted either morally or objectively to talk of modern freedom- infused education without explicitly talking about the ruinous impact of all forms of occupation, hegemony, threat or the so - called state accountability acts .

In fact the..so- called Syrian Accountability Act is a flagrant manifestation of violation of law and the international norms at the juristic and moral levels; such behaviour in fact perpetuates the wrongful practices of an iniquitous authority, and naturally calls for condemnation and denunciation on the part of all people, and educationalists, in the first place .

Now, it is well known to everyone working in the educational domain, and everyone committed to educational ethics that such practices have detrimental impact on the youths' knowledge systems, and everyone is well aware of the forms of negative behaviour left, when the youths of today have got to coexist with the behaviour of the hegemonous states towards the less powerful, and less influential countries.

Doubtlessly these types of super power hegemony will be vested in individuals and social groups, and will naturally gain grounds in the behaviour of the ordinary people all over the world.

Such a phenomenon will in the course of time herald the rise of the law of the jungle in the fiercest and most violent forms given the possibility of the individuals' access to deadly instruments that are proliferating on a fearful scale .

We here recommend that the values of current international hegemony be examined closely vis- a vis individual hegemony values anticipated in the near future to play freely amongst people as a direct reflex of the super powers' practices .

Being a psychologist, I understand that exercising international hegemony will stimulate in man the instinct and mo?????ptives for destruction rather than enhance the instinct for life, that's why it must be checked before it is too late .

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our conference has been successful in choosing the main topic on its agenda : Good Education for All Youths- Challenges Dispositions, and Priorities. Such a topic is highly important for all the states of the world, and it also constitutes the most significant challenge in the developing countries, which are making desperate attempts to provide the best channels of education for their youths .

It goes without saying that securing the means of intact adaptability with all its cognitive, social, affective, moral, human and political dimensions with the young generation of our world is a universal task propounded nowadays for the educational systems worldwide to tackle and consider. Hence, we are required to set these means in their proper framework and address them to the educational systems, with no exception, to be included in their curricula. Once again, any claim to superiority, haughtiness, pompous feeling of purity and alleged tolerance emanating from any educational system here or there at the expense of other educational systems which are wrongly charged with intolerance, inhumanity or nurturing violence will never contribute to forging close educational common denominators amongst these systems.
On the contrary, it will lead to exchange of accusations and tension between the systems, and thus a phenomena of educational introversion will emerge little by little and chances for positive cooperation will diminish.

If the educational policy-makers are really desirous to reach praiseworthy results, then they are expected to give up affective generalization and evaluation and pre - concepts, and instead, they are supposed to combine efforts through a world forum, objective and transparent in its goals, and entrusted with analyzing the content of all educational systems, none excepted, and then announce their findings publicly. Only then will these results mirror scientifically the reality of educational systems, and only then shall-we recognize who has got to reconsider their curricula, which curricula nurture tolerance, and which ones perpetuate violence and the values of hegemony and false superiority.

We are fully convinced that these results will motivate the world as a whole to consciously and objectively shoulder responsibility towards educational development and upgrading through pragmatic cognitive argument acceptable nationally and internationally, at the same time.

It goes without saying that decent upbringing of future generations can never be realized unless they can tell good from evil, and unless they come to observe their rights and obligations amongst which the right to resist occupation and exploitation and all aspects that could mar the national and personal dignity, added to this, the right to strictly withstand any action that might harm the humanity of man, who is innocent of marring the rights aforementioned .

You will certainly excuse me when we say that a world free from the values that distinguish between legitimate resistance and terrorism can never be congenial to humanity, which our species take pride in belonging-to.

On this occasion, we fully support the approach of the conference to adopt a message to be addressed to the world, and we support the results and proposals for future action, which will function as a guide for the educational policies of the different state members .

We look forward with full confidence to the results of the conference, and we attach to them great importance and look at them with great appreciation .

We are convinced that they will contribute to more understanding and rapprochement amongst the peoples who will draw plans and forge strategies bound to positively develop their educational systems in a manner that will secure a better academic future for the generations to come.

Peace be upon you ( assalamu alaikum )