Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08PARISFR2265
2008-12-15 14:43:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Mission UNESCO
Cable title:  

UNESCO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION

Tags:  OEXC UNESCO AID SCUL ECA 
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TelegramUNCLASSIFIED UNESCOPARI 12152265 
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INFO RUCNSCO/UNESCO COLLECTIVE
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.

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