REFERENCE FRAMEWORK

The main working document of the Conference (ED/BIE/CONFINTED 47/3), to be sent to Member States and invited organizations no less than six weeks prior to the start of ICE, will address the principal issues and topics for discussion at this 47^th session in greater depth. The thoughts and questions which follow are only intended to present a general framework and to invite participants to start their work as soon as possible with a view to actively contributing to the conference.

 Ten observations, thoughts or questions

1.         The number of adolescents and young people finishing primary schooling is rising rapidly. The number of enrolments at secondary school level in the world has multiplied by more than ten over the past fifty years. Between 1990 and 2000, the gross enrolment ratio at secondary level  grew, as a global average, from 56% to 77.5%, an increase of over 38%.[1] This phenomenon has developed concurrently with, on the one hand, major demographic growth in some regions of the world, specifically in poor regions and, on the other hand, with the conviction of millions of people that only secondary education can enable them to find work, to ensure a decent wage and to improve living conditions. Statistics have effectively shown a link between the level of education and that of development. In the twenty countries with ‘low human development’ for which we have data, the average net enrolment rate at the secondary level in 2000/2001 grew by an average of 19% (with variations from 5% to 40%); in the fifty-nine countries with ‘medium human development’, this rate was 55% (with variations from 21.7% to 88%) whereas, in the forty-five countries with ‘high human development’, the average rate was 83% (with variations from 49% to 101%).[2] There are naturally huge expectations for every adolescent to continue to receive training in formal secondary education—both upper and lower levels—to develop all their talents, to live better, to rise out of poverty, to enter active life and to take part in development.

2.         However, at the same time, there is growing unease in both rich and poor countries, in those structures catering to training the elite just as in those concerned with new social classes entering secondary education or as regards the case of adolescents and young people who are not integrated into the education system. Loss of confidence goes hand in hand with a generally widespread feeling that there is a decline in the standards of secondary education, in all the regions of the world. Even though this drop in the level of education acquired is not evident, and scientific studies are not available or questionable, it is undeniable that the education of young people, in the various forms of current secondary education, no longer meets the needs of individuals and societies in any region of the world. This widespread unease, even if it varies considerably from one region and one group to another, appears to be linked to the major difficulty of defining and dealing with the highly diverse education needs of adolescents and young people in a world of growing interdependencies and inequalities. At global level, there is a fairly widespread consensus that education requirements for globalization with a human face are linked to acquiring skills for lifelong learning. This will take more and more time, with alternating periods of training, work and unemployment. It will also increase the risk of marginalization or exclusion from any benefit of economic growth. It also appears that entire regions will suffer further, due to global pandemic diseases, rising geographic mobility (brain drain) and increased “voluntary” or “forced” migration, as well as other phenomena still difficult to identify. HIV/AIDS, for instance, creates specific needs in terms of skills, as it is behavioural changes which are required and not only acquiring knowledge. This is also the case for sustainable development and living together in peace.

3.         In some cases, this situation can even call into question the meaning of formal education, its value as a means of acceding to the world of work and of contributing to sustainable development, social cohesion and peace-building. Some researchers are even asking if the financial, organizational and family-related efforts for universal schooling in its current form, particularly beyond primary level, are worth it. “Learning to want to live together”, specifically, remains very difficult. Physical violence within schools is gaining ground, even among young girls, and in diverse situations. This could be said, in certain cases, to be a response to an education experienced, firstly, as too distant from the needs of adolescence and youth, and which, secondly, is far from guaranteeing employment in the fastest growing sectors of both the global economy and local economies. In the poorest regions, particularly, this often seems far-removed from the possibilities of becoming a pillar of local development and global integration.

4.         Nevertheless, families, communities and public authorities continue to take significant steps to maintain the process of school enrolment for ever longer periods, that is, beyond primary school. The question now is whether this school enrolment should take place in the types of institutions invented and “systematized” during the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth century. Education systems were created and developed in the context of national economies and states, a mostly rural population, as well as of relatively limited and homogenous calls for democratization. Current requirements are both more global and varied, with radically different family structures and means of communication and information. The Dakar Framework for Action, in Goal 3, requires “ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes.” [3] But it does not answer crucial questions such as: To be enrolled in school: to learn what? Where? For how long? How? With which teachers?

5.         National governments and public authorities in general do what they can to provide school enrolment opportunities to a growing number of adolescents and young people who seek  training or who have no other option of social integration but to resort to learning establishments. Due to a lack of alternatives, many countries, confronted with ever-increasing numbers of young people who have finished primary schooling, are investing more in creating more secondary schools and lyceums, ‘high schools’ or ‘community colleges’. At the same time as traditional and technical secondary schools are being called into question in many developed countries, similar establishments are being created and are growing in a number in the countries of the South. Even if ‘good policies’ and ‘good practices’ are becoming more widespread, they are not well known and there has not been enough thought devoted to their value in different settings. Can new models of learning for adolescents and young people in poor countries and for growing populations be developed or do they have to go through all the stages already experienced by rich countries? Or rather, are the new concepts for the education of adolescents and young people being developed in some rich countries transferable, such as for example that of the various forms of “learning centres”, disregarding their socio-economic roots and historical context?

6.         The question of the characteristics of what education after primary school is particularly important in the case of seeking high quality education for both sexes and for “new entrants”. Youth from countries or families that do not have a long and well-established history of school enrolment encounter many and varied obstacles to integration and learning in traditional secondary education establishments, whether general or technical. Throughout the world, concerns are centred specifically on access, equity and the quality of education of young girls but it has also been noted that, in some regions, the training of boys also causes an increasing number of problems. This may be due to some cultural or economic factors  but the difficulties are always linked to a feeling of inappropriateness or even of a gap between the learning needs of young people and what the system has to offer. Many young people who go on to secondary school no longer correspond to the ‘schooling standard’ of average students. It has also been noted that at times education systems, their structure and their functioning can be the source of marginalization and exclusion. Broadly speaking, what can education do to fight poverty and encourage social cohesion? There are surely “good policies” and “good practices” in various fields. What are they? Are they transferable and can they be widely replicated?

7.         There is international consensus on the need for national governments and public authorities to remain very active in regulating the education of adolescents and young people, that is, in defining standards and then monitoring. No one questions the role of governments in defining the goals and objectives of quality education for all young people. However, latent debates continue and there are differences of opinion on the way in which governments should define the goals and objectives of this education. Should they continue to do this on an individual basis, as in the period of nation-states with ‘firm’ frontiers or should they do this in a more cooperative manner? Is it possible to define desired global “standards” of knowledge or skills? On the other hand, is it politically and socially acceptable, in order to achieve globalization with a human face, to contemplate defining skills for different groups or categories of countries (developed/developing, rich/poor, etc.)? Can knowledge acquired be assessed in terms of a concept and universal values that characterize the quality of education for all adolescents and young people? It this desirable? Faced with the planet-wide challenges of poverty, environmental damage, social cohesion or peace-building, is it reasonable to think that any country can go it alone?

8.         There is also a consensus that national governments cannot ensure as they used to the functioning of education systems in general and of educational provision in particular for adolescents and young people. The question of good governance in education, based on political and social dialogue, has become vital, and forging or broadening new partnerships is the best strategy for realizing this objective. Good governance refers to, among others, the organization of “government” for education and its territorial management (centralization or decentralization), and to power itself (with more or less participation of the various actors) and to financing (who should finance what in the specific case of learning at post-primary level?). There are many questions here. Are partnerships applicable to all levels? As regards secondary education, does the private sector have a particular role to play? Which? By means of what mechanisms? How can the learners themselves be associated as partners?

9.         International partnerships and partnerships between various actors at national level are indispensable for guaranteeing quality education for all young people. In adopting the Dakar Framework for Action, the international community affirmed that “no countries seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by a lack of resources”.[4]. But the financing of quality education for all young people is still not forthcoming. Most bilateral financial partners set themselves the objective of contributing 0.7% of their gross domestic product to development aid. But most of them, excluding Nordic countries, have not reached this objective and the priorities for available resources are primary and non-formal education. Some countries often continue to invest more proportionally in higher education than in secondary education, which still appears to be the “poor relation” of education systems. Furthermore, other partnerships are increasingly important in post-primary education. The media, producers of teaching materials, curricula and Internet teaching content, families and students themselves should  be considered as partners in their own right. The question today is no longer whether or not they are recognized as such with reason, but concerns rather their productive and creative articulation in a system of good governance. How are countries to ensure the conditions and methodologies of dialogue and action needed to create a virtuous circle involving all agents for the education of adolescents and young people? How are such partnerships to be implemented and managed on a daily basis?

10.     Lastly, new technologies and other educational alternatives will fail in the face of the challenge of guaranteeing the right to quality education for all young people, if there is not sufficient teacher mediation. After periods of fascination with the emergence of new technologies, no one questions the necessity of exploiting these technologies or of counting on well-trained teachers, who are adequately paid, capable of keeping up to date with changes in knowledge, and with the skills needed to take into account the growing interdependencies affecting not only the world but also the school itself. Criteria for teacher training, recruitment, integration and on-the-job training is important for all teachers, particularly for those at post-primary level. Some subjects for which teachers have been trained are being dropped, but teachers remain in place, and a new position and new duties in the teaching system need to be found for them. New subjects are also created. Health promotion, HIV/AIDS prevention, sexual education and life skills, which before were not, or hardly, dealt with at school, involve different teaching strategies, based on strong human and interpersonal relations, and the use of new technologies is not the answer. How are the profiles of teachers to be defined for quality education for all young people? How is the updating of training to be guaranteed? How can the work of teachers in the case of “new generations” and of other young people who, often, are hardly “school-oriented”, be supported? How can teachers and school leaders be helped to improve school life in order to prevent and fight against violence in society and school?

Presented as non-exhaustive, the above thoughts and questions indicate clearly the scale of the problems, and the urgent need for effective and no doubt innovative steps to genuinely improve the quality of education for all young people. In all education systems, there is great tension between unease and hope, between concern in the face of future challenges and the duty to face problems head on. What can one do and how? What are the risks and the obstacles of current systems? Which policies and practices are the most successful? On which door does one knock? With which partners?

The 47th session of  ICE intends to contribute to an in-depth review of all of these issues, with a view to future action. Its main objectives will be:

·       to discuss in an open manner and in depth the key issues related to the quality of education for all young people;

·       to identify consensual or controversial questions and the lessons to be learned as regards educational policies;

·       to stimulate and strengthen international dialogue on educational policies;

·       to adopt a Message to the World, as well as some Conclusions and Proposals for Action capable of developing capacities, both individual and, above all, collective, national and international, to build short- and long-term views on these questions so as to implement, across the world, education policies better adapted  both to the individual and collective educational needs of young people and to the socio-economic realities of this commencement of  the twenty-first century.

The framework provided by UNESCO gives the International Conference on Education a global dimension and the meeting should exploit to the fullest its added value, the inter-regional dimension,  which means that  each region can benefit from the experiences of others.