 |
 | |
International Conference on Education
 Since 1934, the International Bureau of Education has organized the International Conference on Education (ICE), which provides a forum for dialogue between Ministers of Education. While Ministers of Education play the most active role during the ICE, other partners such as researchers, practitioners, representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations also participate actively in the dialogue. Despite its intergovernmental nature, the Conference is open to all those concerned with the topics to be discussed.
The themes of the ICE are proposed by the IBE Council and approved by the UNESCO General Conference. Alongside the regular ICE plenary sessions, major debates, etc., other meetings, round-tables and special exhibitions are also organized. Before the start of the Conference, Ministers of Education are invited to send a “message” related to the theme to be discussed during the session. (In 2004 young people were also invited to send their messages for discussion.)
Since 2001, the ICE has been structured into plenary sessions on the principal aspects of the Conference theme and workshops to discuss particular topics in order to enhance dialogue between ministers, experts and representatives of civil society. Video documents are also produced to introduce the topics of the workshops. The ceremony for awarding the Comenius Medal to outstanding personalities or institutions in the field of educational research and innovation takes place during the Conference.
After each ICE session the final report adopted by the Conference is distributed in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. This document contains the proceedings of the Conference, the addresses by the principal speakers, the list of documents distributed during the session (including the working documents and the national reports presented by Member States), and the list of participants.
Themes of the recent sessions of the ICE
47th session (2004) - Quality education for all young people: Challenges, trends and priorities.
46th session (2001) - Education for All for learning to live together: contents and learning strategies - problems and solutions
45th session (1996) - Strengthening of the role of teachers in a changing world.
44th session (1994) - Appraisal and perspectives of education for international understanding
National reports
Since the 1930s, Member States have presented to each session of the ICE a National Report on the Development of Education. These reports are distributed widely, both during the Conference and afterwards. They represent one of the major sources of up-to-date official information on education worldwide and are a useful tool for sharing data and experience in the field of education. The series of national reports were made available in electronic format for the first time in 1994 (CD-ROM and Internet). Since 1996, the reports serve as a basis for the preparation of profiles of national education systems included in the database World Data on Education, which is also available on the IBE website and on CD-ROM. The National Reports can also be consulted through the Country Dossiers database. They are also used as a source of data in the preparation of a range of studies and analyses.
|
|
|
