UNESCO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PARIS FR 002265 FOR IO/UNESCO Q K. SIEKMAN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OEXC UNESCO AID SCUL ECA SUBJECT: UNESCO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION This message is sensitive but unclassified. ¶1. Summary: Approximately 153 UNESCO member states attended the 48th session of the International Conference on Education hosted by UNESCO's International Bureau of Education in Geneva November 25-28, 2008. Held every four years, the IBE conference brings together Ministers of Education, representatives from international organizations, and civil society representatives to discuss and exchange ideas related to a specific education-related theme. The title of the 48th session theme was, "Inclusive Education: The Way of the Future." Participants generally agreed that governments must make an effort to include all groups when educating their populations if we are to achieve the Education for All Goals. Attendees also agreed on the need to put more effort into training teachers to instruct diverse populations. The conference was not without controversy, however. There was a push led by Belgium with support from some Francophone African states to include language in the final document that would have called for greater regulation of private education. The U.S. successfully resisted this, but the issue is likely to return at the World Conference on Higher Education that will be held in Paris in July 2009. End Summary. ¶2. U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO, Louise V. Oliver led the U.S. delegation. Tracy Justesen, Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education and Troy Justesen, Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education also intervened on behalf of the United States. Sally Lovejoy, Education Attachi to the U.S. Mission to UNESCO, Emily Spencer, Education Program Officer, Office of International Organizations/UNESCO, U.S. Department of State, Kenneth Schagrin, Trade Attachi, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Anna Mansfield, Deputy Legal Advisor, U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva also attended. ¶3. Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, opened the conference, by highlighting three key issues: 1) developing education policies to reach the most marginalized and vulnerable populations; 2) improving the quality of education by ensuring responsive learning methods to meet the diversity of all student needs; 3) promoting a holistic approach to learning from early childhood education to literacy and skills development for youth and adults. ¶4. The Minister of Education from Yemen, Mr. Abdusalam Joufi, was elected to serve as the Chairman of the conference. Keynote speakers at the opening session included Ms. Liu Yandong, State Councilor, People's Republic of China; Mr. Xavier Darcos, Minister of National Education, France; Ms. Naledi Pandor, Minister of Education and Chair of the Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union, South Africa; Ms. Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and Mr. Lenin Voltaire Moreno Garces, Vice President, Ecuador. Twenty intergovernmental organizations and twenty- five NGO's, foundations and other institutions of civil society also attended the conference. ¶5. Three main debates took place in the plenary: 1) inclusive educationQs role in creating inclusive societies; 2) research findings and policy challenges for inclusive education and; 3) implementation of inclusive education policies. UNESCO also organized four detailed thematic workshops that featured speakers from government, civil society, and UN organizations to address specific issues related to inclusive education. An exhibit hall was also organized to showcase different organizations and companies that were involved in different approaches to inclusive education. ¶6. During the Conference, several themes emerged. Those themes included: 1) Concerns that funding for education, both at the international and national levels, would diminish due to the global financial crisis, 2) The need to train and prepare teachers to educate diverse student populations and focus on retaining qualified teachers, 3) The important role of inclusion in achieving all of the Education for All goals. ¶7. While the central theme and topic of the conference was promoting inclusive education, there was an effort, led by Belgium, to increase state regulation over all education, particularly private education. Several participants commented on how private education was not equitable or inclusive because only the wealthy could afford to pay for private education, leaving the most vulnerable children to be educated by the state. Ambassador Ya'i, UNESCO Ambassador from Benin and President of the UNESCO Executive Board, spoke during the plenary about the ills of private education and how these providers needed to be "reined in". Several delegations UNESCOPARI 12152265 002 OF 004 repeatedly referred to education as a public good that required regulation by the state. ¶8. The United States was elected to the drafting committee which produced the final document of conclusions and recommendations for Member States and UNESCO. The Chairman of the drafting committee was Ambassador Omolewa, the UNESCO Ambassador from Nigeria. A total of 18 Member States served on the drafting committee, two from each geographical region and one from each region on the Bureau. Belgium, Canada and the United States represented Group One. Canada, India, Kenya and Oman were quite helpful in supporting our positions in the drafting group while Brazil, Belgium and Venezuela posed some difficulties. Brazil unsuccessfully pushed for the drafting committee to recommend a separate declaration on violence and education using Palestine as an example. Cameroon, who suggested language on this issue, supported the U.S. proposal to address this issue in the final document and not through a declaration. ¶9. The United States, with support from Canada, India, Kenya and Venezuela, was successful in ensuring that language promoted by Belgium mandating state regulation of private education as well as language stating that education is a public good was not included in the final communiqui. The language addressing this stated "Pursue education in the public interest and strengthen government's capacity to orientate, promote and follow up on the development of equitable education of high quality in close partnership with civil society and the private sector" was included in the final recommendations. However, there continues to be discussion around the issue of private education and the need for the state to regulate it so that education is equitable for all. (Comment: The examples Belgium gave to argue strong state regulation of private education were in the higher education arena. However, this issue of state regulation of private education continues to come up at UNESCO education conferences. This issue could pose a serious problem over the next six months when three major education conferences are held by UNESCO particularly during the World Conference on Higher Education in Paris in July, 2009. For example, the issue of education as a public good was also raised at the CONFINTEA Pan European regional preparatory conference Dec. 3- 5, 2008. Q End Note). The text of the final conclusions and recommendations is included below. ¶10. Comment: The conference participants recognized that education is a right for all but that inclusive education will present many challenges. There was strong concern that aid flowing from developed countries for education will decrease dramatically due to the financial crisis. This is why the communiqui stresses education must continue to be a top priority for both donor and recipient countries. However, one of the most positive outcomes of the conference was for policymakers and practitioners to meet and exchange ideas, research, and implementation methods that will make it easier for them to return to their countries and implement inclusive education policies. End comment. ¶11. The written "Conclusions and recommendations of the 48th Session of the international Conference on Education (ICE)": Begin Text. ED/BIE/CONFINTED 48/5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 48TH SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION (ICE) Meeting at the forty-eighth session of the UNESCO International Conference on Education (Geneva, 25-28 November 2008),we, the Ministers of Education, heads of delegation and delegates from 153 Member States have, alongside representatives of 20 intergovernmental organizations, 25 NGOs, foundations and other institutions of civil society, taken part in constructive and challenging debates on the theme of QInclusive Education: The Way of the Future.Q At the conclusion of our work, participants recalled Article 26 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights that states that everyone has a right to education. We also affirm that inclusive quality education is fundamental to achieving human, social and economic development. We agreed that governments as well as all the other social actors have an important role in providing a quality education for all and, in doing so, should recognize the importance of a broadened concept of inclusive education that addresses the diverse needs of all learners and that is relevant, equitable and effective. All forecasts suggest that the global financial crisis will UNESCOPARI 12152265 003 OF 004 have a disproportionate impact on the poor Q those who carry the least responsibility for these events. In this context, we reaffirm the importance of inclusive education for reducing poverty, and improving health, incomes and livelihoods. Therefore, despite the current global financial crisis, we emphasize that funding for education should be a top priority and that the financial crisis should not serve as a justification for a reduction in the allocation of resources to education at both the national and international levels. Building on the outcomes of the nine preparatory meetings and four regional conferences on inclusive education organized by UNESCOQs International Bureau of Education, and based on the results of plenary sessions and workshop debates which took place during this Conference, we call upon Member States to adopt an inclusive education approach in the design, implementation, monitoring and assessment of educational policies as a way to further accelerate the attainment of Education for All (EFA) goals as well as to contribute to building more inclusive societies. To this end, a broadened concept of inclusive education can be viewed as a general guiding principle to strengthen education for sustainable development, lifelong learning for all and equal access of all levels of society to learning opportunities so as to implement the principles of inclusive education. Therefore, we recommend to Member States to: ¶I. Approaches, Scope and Content ¶1. Acknowledge that inclusive education is an ongoing process aimed at offering quality education for all while respecting diversity and the different needs and abilities, characteristics and learning expectations of the students and communities, eliminating all forms of discrimination. ¶2. Address social inequity and poverty levels as priorities, as these are major obstacles to the implementation of inclusive education policies and strategies, and deal with these problems within a framework of intersectoral policies. ¶3. Promote school cultures and environments that are child- friendly, conducive to effective learning and inclusive of all children, healthy and protective, gender-responsive, and encourage the active role and the participation of the learners themselves, their families and their communities. II. Public Policies ¶4. Collect and use relevant data on all categories of the excluded to better develop education policies and reforms for their inclusion, as well as to develop national monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. ¶5. Consider as appropriate the ratification of all international conventions related to inclusion and, in particular, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted in December 2006. ¶6. Pursue education in the public interest and strengthen the governmentQs capacity to orientate, promote and follow up on the development of equitable education of high quality in close partnership with civil society and the private sector. ¶7. Develop policies that provide educational support for different categories of learners in order to facilitate their development in regular schools. ¶8. View linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom as a valuable resource and promote the use of the mother tongue in the early years of instruction. ¶9. Encourage educational stakeholders to design effective curricular frameworks from childhood onwards, while adopting a flexible approach in order to accommodate local needs and situations, as well as to diversify pedagogical practices. III. Systems, Links and Transitions ¶10. Provide for the participation and consultation of all stakeholders in decision-making processes, as the overall responsibility of fostering inclusion implies the active engagement of all social actors, with the government playing a leading and regulatory role in accordance with national legislation when applicable. ¶11. Strengthen the links between schools and society to enable families and the communities to participate in and contribute to the educational process. UNESCOPARI 12152265 004 OF 004 ¶12. Develop early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs that promote inclusion as well as early detection and interventions related to whole child development. ¶13. Strengthen the use of ICTs in order to ensure greater access to learning opportunities, in particular in rural, remote and disadvantaged areas. ¶14. Provide high-quality, non-formal educational opportunities that offer the possibilities for formal recognition of competencies acquired in non-formal settings. ¶15. Enhance efforts to reduce illiteracy as a mechanism of inclusion, bearing in mind the importance of literate parents on the education of their children. IV. Learners and Teachers ¶16. Reinforce the role of teachers by working to improve their status and their working conditions, and develop mechanisms for recruiting suitable candidates, and retain qualified teachers who are sensitive to different learning requirements. ¶17. Train teachers by equipping them with the appropriate skills and materials to teach diverse student populations and meet the diverse learning needs of different categories of learners through methods such as professional development at the school level, pre-service training about inclusion, and instruction attentive to the development and strengths of the individual learner. ¶18. Support the strategic role of tertiary education in the pre-service and professional training of teachers on inclusive education practices through, inter alia, the provision of adequate resources. ¶19. Encourage innovative research in teaching and learning processes related to inclusive education. ¶20. Equip school administrators with the skills to respond effectively to the diverse needs of all learners and promote inclusive education in their schools. ¶21. Take into consideration the protection of learners, teachers and schools in times of conflict. International Cooperation ¶22. Recognize UNESCOQs leading role with regard to inclusive education through: - Promoting the exchange and dissemination of best practices; - Providing, upon request, advice to countries on how they can develop and implement policies on inclusive education; - Encouraging South-South and North-South-South cooperation for the promotion of inclusive education; - Encouraging efforts to increase resources for education both at national and international levels. - Making special efforts to assist the Least Developed Countries and countries affected by conflict in the implementation of the recommendations. ¶23. Request other international organizations also to support Member States in the implementation of those recommendations as appropriate. ¶24. Disseminate the Conclusions and Recommendations, unanimously adopted at the closing of the forty-eighth session of the ICE among the actors and partners of the international educational community so as to inspire, guide, support and develop renewed and resolutely inclusive educational policies. End Text. 12 .The pdf document on The Conclusions and recommendations of the 48th Session of the Ice can be found on the UNESCO Website: http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_uplo ad/Policy_Dialogu e/48th_ICE/CONFINTED_48-5_Conclusions_english .pdf OLIVER