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Reaching the missing millions

UNESCO Courier, Nov, 1993 by Cilla Ungerth Jolis

IN Croatia, 200,000 children displaced by civil strife have no access to schooling. In Somalia, where war has destroyed virtually all schools, 99 per cent of boys and girls are deprived of education. In Cambodia, most of the country's young are ill prepared to help reconstruct their country because they cannot even write their names. In Mali, 68 per cent of men and women are illiterate. In many other countries, education is underfunded, ill-equipped and given low priority.

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When Victor Ordonez, UNESCO's director for basic education, prepared the draft programme for 1994-1995, he faced the following dilemma: on the one hand, there are some 948 million illiterate adults in the world and almost 130 million children with no schooling; and on the other, UNESCO's budget is lower than that of a medium-sized university in an industrialized country. Under such conditions, what can UNESCO do to make a real difference?

A CATALYST

The new programme, which concentrates on a few large-impact actions, has two main goals: to provide basic education to those children and adults who have no access to it, while at the same time boosting its quality and relevance. One approach is to act as a catalyst. Thus Member States will be able to draw largely on the report to be submitted at the end of 1995 by the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, headed by Jacques Delors.

"Even if our budget is a drop in the ocean, UNESCO can maximize its impact by helping governments to act," says Mr. Ordonez. "They are, after all, responsible for the education of their citizens." A third of the budget (almost $200 million) has been earmarked for advisory services and other activities to help Member States frame policies and programmes, especially to assist eastern European and central Asian countries rebuild their education systems.

Another emphasis is closer co-operation with a range of partners in the follow-up to the World Conference on Education for All held in 1990. At this gathering of governments, international agencies, professional bodies and non-governmental organizations, 155 governments committed themselves to education for all before the year 2000.

One example of inter-agency collaboration is a new project focused on nine of the world's most populous countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, which account for half the world's population, 72 per cent of the world's illiterates and over half of out-of-school young people. "By targeting our action on these countries," says Mr. Ordonez, "we can make a spectacular change in the world situation." As part of the project, a Summit of leaders of these countries will be organized by UNESCO and other UN agencies in December.

Other target groups are the least developed countries in Africa, the Arab states and east Asia. "We will take an especially hard look at legislation, policies and programmes which help or hinder education for women and girls," says Mr. Ordonez. For example, a task force of women will be set up to plot action in support of basic education in this area. Other target groups are young children among refugees or with special learning needs, young people in urban slums, and cultural minorities and remote populations.

The new "Scheme of Humanitarian Assistance for Refugee Education" (SHARE) responds to the needs of the 88 per cent of refugee children who receive no schooling. It goes beyond the urgent but short-term goal of providing shelter, food and medicines, to develop a coherent policy of refugee education in co-operation with local and national authorities. After initial experiences in Cambodia, Somalia and Afghanistan, SHARE activities are now underway in Slovenia and Croatia.

But placing more children in school and more adults in literacy classes does little good if what they learn there is irrelevant to their lives. That is why UNESCO is also focusing on the content and process of basic education, with stress on boosting the effectiveness of teachers and instructors, school management, the measurement of learning outcomes, and the development of a prototype curriculum for the first four years of primary education. "Because too few children get more than four years' schooling," says Mr. Ordonez, "it is crucial that they learn something essential there to survive in life. The three R's, yes, but also health, nutrition and the preservation of the environment."

So despite the great need and limited resources, UNESCO is, in the words of Director-General Federico Mayor, "deeply committed to making the right to education an everyday reality, not a remote promise."

Reaching the missing millions

UNESCO Courier, Nov, 1993 by Cilla Ungerth Jolis

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