Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09PARISFR1474
2009-11-03 12:19:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Mission UNESCO
Cable title:  

UNESCO'S 35TH GENERAL CONFERENCE: EDUCATION MINISTERIAL AND

Tags:  SCUL PREL UNESCO HO 
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UNCLASSIFIED   PARIS   00001474 
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FM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS FR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC
INFO RUCNSCO/UNESCO COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS FR 001474 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12598: N/A
TAGS: SCUL PREL UNESCO HO
SUBJECT: UNESCO'S 35TH GENERAL CONFERENCE: EDUCATION MINISTERIAL AND
COMMISSION MEETING

REF: PARIS FR 1407 and previous

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS FR 001474

SIPDIS

E.O. 12598: N/A
TAGS: SCUL PREL UNESCO HO
SUBJECT: UNESCO'S 35TH GENERAL CONFERENCE: EDUCATION MINISTERIAL AND
COMMISSION MEETING

REF: PARIS FR 1407 and previous


1. Summary: At UNESCO's 35th General Conference, approximately 70
Education Ministers and Vice-Ministers participated in the
Ministerial Roundtable October 9-10 to discuss education policy
issues. The Education Commission met October 13-15 and considered
the UNESCO education sector's budget for 2010-2011 and the
establishment of new UNESCO education centers. A political
discussion about Honduras, initiated by a resolution put forward by
Brazil, ended in a compromise text with no mention of Honduras by
name. (REF) End Summary.

Ministerial Looks at Major Education Policy Issues


2. The Education Ministers were welcomed by UNESCO Director General
Koichiro Matsuura, Assistant Director General for Education Nick
Burnett and by two youth delegates (from the Philippines and Saudi
Arabia) representing UNESCO's Youth Forum. Manitoba's Minister of
Advanced Education and Literacy Diane McGifford moderated the first
session which addressed, "Knowledge, Values, Competencies, and
Skills for Today's and Tomorrow's Societies." Keynote speakers
included Russia's Minister of Education and Science, who stressed
mathematics education, and Tunisia's Minister of Education, who
focused on the use of information and communications technologies in
the classroom. The important role technology can play in education
as well as the teaching of technology skills that are needed in the
workplace were themes of many country interventions.


3. U.S. Department of Education Senior Counselor Marshall Smith
outlined U.S. efforts to better equip students at the K-12 levels by
promoting reforms and innovation at all levels. Mr. Smith also
touched on efforts at the post-secondary level to provide job
training, specifically focusing on community colleges.


4. The second ministerial session focused on building inclusive,
equitable and high quality education systems. Interventions
included calls for free, compulsory and relevant education (Norway,
Finland); securing the right to education (Pakistan); and
establishing universal preschool (Sweden). The U.S. intervention
focused on the importance of recruiting and retaining high-quality
teachers and principals and on the need to help states and districts
improve schools that have continually lagged behind other schools.




5. OECD Secretary General, Angel Gurria, delivered the keynote to
start the third ministerial session. He said we are facing the
"greatest job crisis of our lifetime." He said students needed
greater financial literacy and training to be collaborators and
innovators. Several member states spoke about the challenge to
alter the general perception of technical and vocational education
to promote greater awareness of the skills and economic relevance of
this sector. The U.S. stated strong support for UNESCO's Education
for All goals and the United States' commitment to help countries
improve access to and the overall quality of their education
systems.

Education Commission - Broad Consensus Except on Honduras and
Holocaust Education


6. On Monday, October 19, Member States convened to consider and
adopt the agenda items discussed in the Education Commission report,
which resulted from the Commission's deliberations October 12-15.
The Commission was chaired by South Africa's Duncan Hindle. The
co-chairs were from Spain, Serbia, Grenada, and the Solomon
Islands.


7. The Commission's first debate considered the education portion of
the UNESCO draft program and budget for 2010-2011. The education
budget of UNESCO for the coming biennium focuses on four key areas -
literacy, teachers, technical and vocational education, and
sector-wide planning for education - with special emphasis on the
needs of Africa and gender equality. Speakers generally expressed
support for the 2010-2011 budget, especially its focus on technical
and vocational education. Many countries called for more attention
on gender equality and challenged UNESCO to move towards
outcome-based results. There was also general support for the
UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) and for Education
for Sustainable Development (ESD).


8. Member states considered 15 draft budget resolutions, some with
budgetary implications and others with proposed changes to main
program items and expected results. The United States sponsored two
budget resolutions: one resolution focusing on promoting UNESCO's
work in Open Education Resources (OER) to improve access at all
education levels to quality learning and training materials; the
other emphasizing UNESCO's coordination function for the United
Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD). The U.S. gained 11 co-sponsors for
the OER resolution: Belgium, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Mali, the
Netherlands, Oman, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, and the
United Kingdom. The U.S. gained 3 co-sponsors for the UNLD
resolution: India, Nigeria, and Mali.


PARIS 00001474 002 OF 003



9. France proposed a budget resolution (co-sponsored by Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Poland) to include a mention of UNESCO's continuing
work on Holocaust education and combating anti-Semitism, pursuant to
a General Conference resolution adopted two years ago that requested
the Director-General to consult with the United Nations
Secretary-General to explore the role UNESCO could play in promoting
awareness of Holocaust remembrance through education and combating
all forms of Holocaust denial. Member states spoke in favor of the
French resolution (the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Poland, and the
United States),but others sought to reopen the debate as to whether
UNESCO should be involved in Holocaust remembrance including Iran,
Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and the UAE. The Chair of the Education
Commission suggested a working group be formed to seek consensus
language on the resolution. The French Ambassador chaired the
working group which included Libya, Syria, Qatar, Jordan, Belgium,
Syria, the Netherlands, India, Germany, and the United States. The
French Ambassador and the DCM at the U.S. Mission to UNESCO helped
focus the working group's attention on the actual language contained
in the French budget amendment, which addressed a required technical
issue, and the working group agreed on a consensus text that would
reference UNESCO's specific work on Holocaust remembrance in the
more detailed Volume II of the budget. When the consensus text was
presented to the whole Education Commission, Iran spoke against
consensus but the India Ambassador to UNESCO helped gain consensus
on the final decision.


10. During Commission's second debate, member states joined
consensus on four draft decisions: 1) approving amendments to the
statutes of the Intergovernmental Regional Committee for the
Regional Education Project in Latin America; 2) requesting the
Director-General to convene two international conferences to examine
amendments to existing higher education recognition conventions for
the African States and Asia and the Pacific; 3)requesting the
Director-General to gather expertise to consider approaches for debt
swaps for education and other approaches to education financing; and
4) inviting the Director-General to continue implementing a
resolution concerning educational and cultural institutions in the
Arab territories.


11. In the third debate, member states expressed support for the
Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (DESD),joining
consensus on a resolution submitted by Finland, Germany, Indonesia,
Japan, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea supporting
UNESCO's efforts to draft a strategy for the second half of the
decade, endorsing the Bonn Declaration (adopted at the World
Conference on Education for Sustainable Development),and welcoming
Japan's offer to host the end-of-decade conference. The commission
also adopted a resolution submitted by Russia to request the
Director-General to convene the World Conference on Early Childhood
Education in Moscow from September 22 - 24, 2010.


12. In the fourth debate, member states approved the establishment
of a new Category I education institute in India: the Mahatma Gandhi
Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. All
of the costs, will be funded by India with the exception of a D-1
post (approximately $500K over the biennium) that will be funded
through existing resources.


13. In the final debate, member states adopted a general resolution
requesting the Director-General to follow developments within
UNESCO's competence in the interest of the right to education and
freedom of expression.

Honduras


14. As noted above and in reftel, the Education Commission became
the battleground for a proposed resolution on Honduras. Brazil with
the support of many Latin American states submitted a draft
resolution condemning disruptions of the educational system in
Honduras and the suspension of civil liberties which was referred by
the President of the General Conference (a Bahamian national) to the
Education Commission. The U.S., Canada, Colombia and several others
states strongly objected to a country-specific resolution of
condemnation, arguing that such resolutions are normal practice in
New York and Geneva but not at UNESCO. The U.S. and its friends
also argued that the Organization of American States (OAS) was
actively involved in trying to broker a peaceful settlement of the
crisis, and that UNESCO intervention could potentially disrupt
delicate talks in Tegucigalpa. In the end a working group was
convened and agreement reached on a resolution text without a title
and that did not mention Honduras by name (see Para 16 below for the
text of this resolution).


15. The Education Commission's Report was approved by the General
Conference Plenary with no changes, but, after its adoption Brazil,
Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic quickly lined
up to express their thanks to the working group, which they
described as recognizing the urgency of the situation in Honduras,
especially in regard to education and freedom of expression. The
U.S. and Canada also spoke, appreciating the working group's efforts
but firmly asserting that consensus was reached only because the
text was not country specific and because there are other countries

PARIS 00001474 003 OF 003


to which it could apply.


16. Following is the text of the Resolution:

Begin Text.

The General Conference,


1. Taking into account the Constitution of UNESCO and in particular
its Article 1,


2. Reiterating the democracy and civil liberties remain the best
guarantee for the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms
in the context of UNESCO's core mandate,


3. Underlining the possible negative impacts on the functions of an
education system resulting from a breakdown of a democratic system.


4. Stressing its desire for UNESCO to continue to provide its
support to Member States whose education systems may have been
disrupted,


5. Requests the Director-General to follow developments within the
fields of competence of UNESCO in the interests of the right to
education and freedom of expression.

End Text.

KILLION