Final
Report: 39th SEAMEO Council Conference
The Empire Hotel and Country Club, Jerudong
Negara Brunei Darussalam
1-4 March 2004
The Empire Hotel and Country Club, Jerudong
Negara Brunei Darussalam
1-4 March 2004
Proceedings
Contents |
| Proceedings |
| Appendices |
Statement
by Dr Sheldon Shaeffer Director, UNESCO Bangkok/Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education |
As Director of both UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific and of its sub-regional office for the Mekong region covering all sectors of UNESCO’s work, may I take this opportunity to reiterate my readiness to work with SEAMEO across a range of programmes and activities of mutual interest to the two Organizations. |
We
are especially pleased to be working with SEAMEO in several areas
of particular concern to the region. These include: |
1. |
The
development of preventive education related not only to AIDS but
also to the other risks that children of this region today face.
This is especially important given the clear evidence of the steady
increase in the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on Southeast Asia
– on its adults and children and, more and more, on its schools
and students. The programme my office has developed with SEAMEO
in regard to AIDS prevention in the Mekong region -- funded with
generous ADB support -- is evidence of this priority as are ongoing
discussions to support the development of a Partner Forum on HIV/AIDS
with the Ministry of Education in Thailand and perhaps with other
ministries in the region. |
2. |
The
promotion of the use of ICT in education. This is seen best in the
collaborative project between UNESCO and SEAMEO, including several
of its centers, in developing SchoolNet programmes within and across
countries in the region. |
3. |
An
increased focus on the achievement of Education for All. According
to the EFA Framework for Action, approved by all of your governments
in Dakar almost two years ago, as Ministers of Education you are
committed to ensuring that all children in your country –
at least of primary school age -- are in school. The recent Global
Monitoring Report on EFA, published by UNESCO but written by an
independent team, indicated that although steady progress has been
made toward the achievement of EFA, there are still a number of
SEAMEO countries which will not reach the goal of eliminating the
gap in gender disparities in enrolment by 2005 or of achieving universal
primary education by 2015. The Report estimates that there are still
over 5-1/2 million children of primary school age not in school
in the region and almost 4 million illiterate adolescents and youth.
A summary of the Report’s findings for Southeast Asia is now
being prepared by my office for the upcoming SEAMEO-UNESCO Congress;
a summary of the full report along with a recent statistical report
of the UNESCO Institute of Statistics has been provided your delegations.
|
UNESCO
has collaborated actively with many of your ministries and with
other development agency partners to ensure the finalisation of
credible EFA action plans. We continue ready to assist in the development
of specific EFA programmes and of ministerial capacity to implement
these plans at all levels of the education system. Although not
limited to EFA programmes, the upcoming SEAMEO-UNESCO Education
Congress and Expo is an excellent example of our collaboration in
promoting the more general cause of good quality education –
at all levels – for all. |
|
4. |
Continuing
efforts in improving access to, and the quality of education at
all levels. This includes a special interest in the development
of education which is truly inclusive of all children and of schools
which are both child-centred and child-seeking. Here UNESCO attaches
great importance to the education reforms being carried out in many
countries of this region – reforms most generally associated
with decentralisation and more child-focused learning. And it is
in this area that we are happy to collaborate with SEAMEO and with
UNICEF to support a Ministerial Forum on Increasing Access to, and
the Quality of, Education through Child-Friendly Learning Environments.
|
This
Forum, to precede the SEAMEO-UNESCO Congress in late May, will be
an opportunity for Ministers, high officials, and experts of SEAMEO
member countries to share experiences on how to promote and implement
– at both national and school level – a more comprehensive
definition of quality education. In doing this, examples of programmes
based on the development of child-friendly learning environments
(or similarly comprehensive programmes), both in SEAMEO member states
and beyond, will be presented and their major components, strengths,
and weaknesses analyzed. Supporting agencies, including the World
Bank, FAO, and WFP, will also be asked to present their perspectives
on – and their specialized contributions to – these
programmes. The output of the Forum will be a summary of discussions
and a short statement of the Ministers declaring renewed support
for efforts to adopt and implement a more comprehensive view of
educational quality. More details of this Forum will be presented
later in the agenda of this meeting, but may I just say now how
pleased I am that the three agencies concerned – UNICEF, UNESCO,
and SEAMEO – are joining forces to promote further reflection
on this very important topic. |
|
With these comments, may I give thanks to my old colleague from Indonesia, Dr Arief, the SEAMES staff, and the Ministry of Education of Brunei for their organization of this important meeting – and wish it great success. |
|
