Jakarta, 24-25 October 2008
Rapporteur: Mohammad Reiza
Sultan Hotel
Jakarta, Indonesia
Day 1: Friday, 24 October 2008
08.30 – 09.00
Registration of Participants
Staff and youth volunteers of Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO assist the participants to register and receive the Conference kits.
09.00 – 09.45
Inauguration
Venue: Golden Ballroom
MC, Ms. Jasmine Sagita Rafiq of Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO opens the programmes by greeting the honorable and distinguished guests and participants.
Speakers:
1. Prof. Dr. Arief Rachman, M.Pd., Executive Chairman of Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO
Assalamualaikum. Honorable Dr. Agung Laksono, Mr. Nicholas Burnett, and Mr. Ahmed Sayyad. Thank God the Almighty for giving the opportunity to us to gather in this forum of FASPPED. It is an honor for us that UNESCO has chosen Indonesia to be the host of this conference. The reason of this is the achievement of Indonesian government in education development done by the Parliaments and the Ministry of National Education.
The main objective is to establish FASPEED to reach the target of “Education for All” by 2015, to foster the achievement of EFA in the Asia Pacific region. Besides this Forum we are also having E-9 Senior Official Meeting led by the Minister of National Education The total number of participants of this Forum is 50, among members of parliaments from 22 Asia Pacific countries. During the two-day conference, participants will formulate Jakarta Declaration with FASPPED Action Plan. Now, I kindly request Dr. Agung Laksono to deliver the speech and officially open the forum.
2. Mr. Ahmed Sayyad, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Cooperation, Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO
Honorable guests: Dr. Agung Laksono and Dr. Arief Rachman, and Nicholas Burnett of ADG/ED. On behalf of the Director General of UNESCO Mr. Koichiro Matsura, I extend appreciation to all distinguished guests of the Forum and all UN agencies’ representatives to present their organizations’ experiences to reflect the commitment and dynamism of the progress of EFA goals. After 60 years of the establishment of the UN and UNESCO, it is how to further consolidate cooperation among countries to enhance the accountability and legitimacy of actions.
There are diverse and significant roles that we can play in the field of education. Practical achievement of UNESCO can be accomplished, with the national education budgets within our own countries and commodities to ensure EFA to be reflected in national legislative and policies. “As the elected representative of the people, forming the world Parliamentarians and associate partners to improve life everywhere through education, science, culture and communication.”
We seek to fully develop our partnership in the Asia and Pacific region by establishing network from this meeting. This forum is to seek partnership, which is called FASPPED. We hope that this Forum will create network and the place for sharing ideas among parliamentarians in education issue for its development at regional and national levels. This network will collaborate with other Parliamentarians from other regions. “I am confident that FASPPED can ensure that the region make Education for All accessible for everyone.” I look forward a fruitful and positive dialogue. Thank you.
3. Keynote Speech and Official Opening by Dr. Agung Laksono, President of Indonesia’s House of Representative
Bismillahirahmanirrahim. Honorable Mr. Ahmad Sayyad, Mr. Arief Rachman and distinguished guests. Welcome to Jakarta, Indonesia to all conference’s participants. I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to all participants for coming to this conference. In my capacity of the Speaker of the House of Representative, I appreciate UNESCO for the establishment of FASPPED to play significant role to develop human resources in Asia Pacific Region on EFA. It is expected that Parliamentarians can discuss and exchange information and create mutual support for the realization of EFA in each participating country. I hope that this Forum can be an instrument to discuss EFA and the improvement of education quality in the region.
Indonesia’s concern on education is mentioned in the Preamble of Decree of 1945. In relations to the purposes, education is to develop and optimize the members of the society to be more functional. Nevertheless, education in Indonesia still faces challenges, which needs cooperation. The government is obliged to distribute education for all people for the nation development. People percentage and economics are required to create the critical society to provide students with knowledge and know-how in the society, groups and among nations. Therefore, EFA should be implemented. Indicator of the success of this programme is shown by the increase of students enrolled in the education system and those who completed primary education. EFA can be implemented if we not merely focus on formal education, non-formal and informal education should get proper attention as well.
The approach should emphasize on learn how to learn. Thus, it is natural that Indonesian Parliaments fully support the government’s policies on education for all. Article 1 section 1 says every citizen shall have the right to education. And section 2 says that every citizen should take primary education and the government should support it.
The framework of provision of education in Indonesia is 20 percent of the state budget, in order to meet the need of national education; also 20 percent from the regional state budget. Basically the right to education of every citizen is not only the responsibility of the government but also the Parliamentarians. Education should get more attention these days. We need to provide our young generation for development through education; therefore, we have to be able to realize the goals of EFA without losing the focus on economics and social development.
Education should be organized the best way and to be fairly distributed to all people. Subsequent to the establishment of FASPPED, will face various issues to be handled on education in Asia Pacific region, among them are funding and facilities to run the programmes. Thus, UNESCO needs to support and facilitate this programme. I finally wish that we have fruitful Forum and I formally open the Forum. Thank you.
Participant:
1. Mr. Nicholas Burnett, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education
Group Pictures
Honorable guests and participants take group picture together.
09.45 – 10.15
Coffee Break
Coffee break and refreshment are provided in the ballroom. Meanwhile the key resource people are having Press Conference in another room.
09.45 – 10.15
Press Conference
Venue: Al Coop Golden Ballroom
1. Dr. Agung Laksono (represented by Mr. Makarim)
Indonesian parliaments perceive that education is an integral factor in the development of Indonesia. Thus the parliament of Indonesia gives priority to education issue to be factors to improve the quality of the nation. Thank you.
2. Prof. Dr. Arief Rachman, M.Pd.
He gives illustrations and opens and moderates the session, as well as interprets what has been said by the representatives of UNESCO Paris.
3. Mr. Ahmad Sayyad
UNESCO’s main mission is education. We are inter-governmental organization, which means we work with the Member States. We have to open the door to the civil society and the parliamentarians even though we work mostly with the governments. Former UN Secretary General asked the President of Brazil to open network with all parliamentarians to succeed UNESCO’s programmes. We used to work together with NGO, and UNESCO Clubs in the field of education, science, culture and communication.
With the draft of our budget, we assign those NGOs to implement our programmes. With the parliamentarians, we work together before the international network, with the African Parliamentarians (established in 2002) and the Arab Parliamentarians (established in 2007). This is the third of Parliamentarians establishment. Next year is the establishment of Latin American Parliamentarian for Education. This is a good experience from the parliamentarians in setting up decrees, budgets and policies. Thank you.
4. Mr. Nicholas Burnett
It is important to engage Parliamentarians on EFA movements, in accordance to MDGs and its major objective to give all children education. The good news is that there is an increase of education distribution for all children. The bad news is that there is a long time to achieve the goals. We have a lot of success like in Indonesia but two third of those who are illiterate are in Asia Pacific region. It is important to achieve all of these and the Parliamentarians’ constituencies are the key of the success. Thank you.
Questions and Comments
Rakyat Merdeka: What about the recent development of education after constant economic crisis; the issue of life skill needs a lot of funding. Referring to the global financial crises, would UNESCO enforce the role of the United States to engage in the future funding?
Mr. Ahmed Sayyad says that we are thinking about the distribution of UNESCO’s budget and through South-South cooperation that can work together in the field of education. This is very important that UNESCO can help the education development that is affected by economics condition.
Mr. Nicholas Burnett says that in this financial crisis there will be force in the government to solve some problems in most sectors especially the sector of education otherwise it will risk the entire generation in the future. From the different angle, for achieving education development, there should be sustainable funding from the donors in this financial crisis.
Mr. Makarim says that this financial crisis is big problem for all nations today. We together struggle to solve this and to prevent the impact on other sectors, especially on education; for example, the force to decrease national budget on education and the financial support from donor countries.
Koran Tempo: the impact of African parliamentarians for education.
Mr. Ahmad Sayyad says that Africa is big continent. The countries have supported the education developments through their parliamentarians. In many countries in Africa, they support the mission of UNESCO and they have become Members of the National Commission for UNESCO to work in the field of competence of UNESCO. In the Arab countries, the Forum of Parliamentarians, the second meeting was held two months ago in Beirut, Lebanon. We thank the establishment of this forum last year because it has created big difference on education development.
The Jakarta Globe: is there any objection of education standard?
Mr. Nicholas Burnett says that every child has right to go to school. We have to recognize that every country is different that makes the content of education is also different. This is very important aspect that it is possible for everybody to have basic education and to get recognition everywhere – from one country to another.
10.15 – 10.30
Setting up the Bureau
Led by Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer and he gives the opportunity to the participants to give recommendations.
Pakistan delegate recommended Indonesia to be the President and Nepal to be the Vice President. The Conference’s participants agree with the recommendation offered by the delegate of Pakistan.
President: Indonesia
Vice President: Nepal
Rapporteur: UNESCO Staff
10.30 – 12.00
Working Session 1
Venue: Asean Room 6-7
Co-chaired by the President (Indonesia) and Mr. Nicholas Burnett, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education
1. An Introduction to EFA
Presented by Mr. Nicholas Burnett, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General for Education
• The Dakar 2000 Framework for Action and the road traveled since
• Relevance of EFA goals in view of the global challenges of the day
• Implementing EFA: Issues and Challenges for legislators
• Respective roles of UNESCO and of Parliamentarians in promoting and implementing EFA
He first raises the issue of “why Education for all?” He briefly elaborates the Global Commitments: Education for All and Millennium Development Goals, which overlap each other. Six EFA goals and eight MDGs overlap in its practice and have one goal in common, which is education. A record of progress reports that there are more children in primary education: 647 million (1999) to 688 million (2006). He further explains the stronger support system for EFA that outlines political, technical, financial, advocacy and specific partnerships.
What has made a difference is because of political will, strong national leadership. Overcoming inequalities: achievements are uneven across the six EFA goals and across different regions and population groups. There is lack of policies to address learning needs of youth and adults. Furthermore, the parliamentarians are protecting the right to education. Legislative responsibilities and shaping policy ensure that education is adequately distributed to every citizen. There should be strong voices of education.
2. EFA in the Asia Pacific Region
Presented by Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer, Director, UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
• EFA Status and trends in the Asia Pacific region
• UNESCO’s regional and country level strategies
The Global Monitoring Report aims to find out the national progress and the Mid-Decade Assessment aims to figure out the sub-national progress on EFA. The GMR and MDA are to prepare policy and recommendations towards EFA. There has been progress in primary education but there are still 26.6 million children that are not in primary school in Asia Pacific.17 million in South and West and 66% of whom are girls.
National enrolment rates have increased but wide geographical difference in EFA progress remains within countries. The major concerns include lack of support for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). ECCE programme improves child well-being and prepare children for school but they are not reaching the poorest and most disadvantaged children. The barriers are including geography, poverty, HIV/AIDS status, hidden costs, legal restrictions for migrants and official language used in school.
Persistence of gender inequality exist in 118 countries out of the 188 that have achieved gender parity in primary education by 2005 – Indonesia. There is minimal attention to adult literacy and inadequate quality that are faced by the progress of EFA goals. Only 83% of students reach the last grade of primary education in East Asia and only 76% in South and West Asia. The high cost of schooling also becomes one of the problems. Families are still required to make substantial contribution for the education for their children. Lack of public financing of education is also a consideration to take. Four broad policy priorities for Asia and the Pacific: trained and motivated teachers, effective teaching and learning strategies, learning time, materials and textbooks and healthy and safe learning environments. How to improve the management of education for low system of the society; all the actors must be involved to achieve EFA by 2015. Thank you.
Questions and Comments
India: how to develop and improve the quality of the textbooks of education system.
Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer says that it is major issue that the roles of teachers should be rewarding and respected. There should be support from the government and the continuous training for the career development.
Mr. Nicholas Burnett says that the education should use mother tongue or official national language to learn better.
Pakistan: how to develop the level of expansion of education system and enrolment. Another problem is the issue of HIV/AIDS that UNESCO has to consider as well as ICT progress to better the evaluation and monitoring programmes.
Mr. Sheldon says that sometime the issue is not dropouts only but also push-outs that come from within the school system.
Mr. Nicholas says that dropout issues have something to do with economics condition.
1. The World Bank and EFA: Education for Competitiveness and Growth
Presented by Ms. Mae Chu Chang, World Bank, Lead Education Specialist
There has been a great deal of success in the area of access, but access and completion rates alone are not enough. Studies show that quality is, in fact, the key determinant of the impact of education on economic growth. Despite use of access, many students still have low literacy and cognitive skills. She shows the progress of Indonesia and the Philippines on primary education graduates and literacy rates. The graph of education quality distribution shows that the Philippines and Indonesia are slightly different of percentage with 49% and 55% respectively. Conditional-years of education is a minimal factor for growth when education quality is not taken into account. Education quality and economic growth are interrelated.
Key drivers in achieving EFA goals include improved policy environment. World Bank Education Projects worldwide has spent about 27 million. Indonesian students see science, reading and math as very important relative to other countries. “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” Research has shown that what teachers know and are able to do, does improve the academic performance of their students. Together with the government of Indonesia, World Bank created framework of quality of education. World Bank Indonesia work related to improving quality – so called AAA work focuses on teachers quality and some projects including BERMUTU, BOS-KITA and Pipeline SWAp. Thank you.
2. UNDP and EFA: Integrating Basic Education in National Developing Strategies and Poverty Reduction Strategy
Presented by Ms. Diana Alarcon, UNDP, Cluster Leader, Inclusive Development for Poverty Reduction, Poverty Practice
She highlights the UNDP’s work and UNDP’s strategic role in EFA including the role of the original Convenors of the EFA Global Action Plan. UNDP promotes pro-poor choices and measures in national development strategies and frameworks. Education is key to achieving all MDGs. To ensure development effectiveness it makes sense that MDGs and EFA goals be mutually reinforcing. Through MDG-based national development strategies, UNDP assists over 100 countries to develop MDG-based National Development Strategies (NDGs).
MDGs can be integrated into national development strategies through the office of the President/Prime Minister/Minister of Planning and Finance, MDG Strategy Group and Thematic Working Group. Key assumptions for Education Needs Assessment including: interventions, targets, investment model and financing. Intervention needed to meet Universal Primary Education (UPE) Goal through direct primary education interventions, secondary education interventions and adult literacy programmes. She gives some country reports on the progress of education agenda. Thank you.
3. UNICEF and EFA: Education for Children in Emergency and Post Conflict Contexts
Presented by Dr. Cream Wright, UNICEF, Education Sector
He gives brief explanation of the first establishment of the Parliamentarians Forum. UNICEF safeguards the need of children on education, so that they can benefit from the quality of basic education. What happens in emergency and post crisis situation? First interest in education is to create spaces for children to learn. Because we work for the need of children like nutrition and safe place, like when Tsunami hit the region.
The leadership of the country – the government should also be taken into account. Parliamentarians also represent the voice of children. It is mostly about fundamental rights of all children. What are we doing if the whole generation loses the access to education? Parliamentarians are seen as strategic partners to struggle for the rights of all children.
Questions and Comments
Pakistan: to have high system shall have merit system. Education has become very critical and that needs to be emphasized through the Parliamentarians. It is very integral contribution that the members of parliaments can give. Another consideration is to support the national evaluation in literacy rate and find out the indicators of its development. The findings can be used to create constituency on literacy, in specific.
Ms. Diana Alarcon says that it is the depolitization of its target. This is one of the efforts in relations to MDGs agenda – the need to improve the role of the office of statistics to find out the opportunity for policy dialogue where parliaments have important role.
Ms. Mae Chu Chang says that Indonesia uses merit basis system; how certification system is done to support the evaluation programme conducted by the government. In fact, that the government of Indonesia has monitored the development of teachers nation wide. To have the data right and to get the data broken down and to disseminate the information are three things to be considered and have been done by the government of Indonesia.
Dr. Cream Wright says that there are things to be considered why teaching should be politisized. Teaching career should not be politisized. Importantly, teachers have lost what they had: respect and status in the society. The segregated data can be managed by statistic office, as this is important. In this case, the parliamentarians play important role. This is evidence base advocacy towards the children rights.
The President, Mr. Makarim thanks the speakers and closes the session and invites the participants to applaud for the three speakers.
12.00 – 14.15
Lunch
Venue: Asean Room 8-9 and Friday Prayer
Venue: Bazzar in Front of Golden Balroom
Lunch is provided for the participants and time given to Muslim participants for Friday congregation. Informal discussions among the participants also take place.
14.15 – 15.30
Working Session 2
Venue Asean Room 6-7
MC invites the honorable and distinguished participants to summon and start the next session.
Prof. Dr. Arief Rachman opens the session and gives the time to the Minister of National Education, HE. Bambang Sudibyo.
Welcome Speech by Prof. Dr. Bambang Soedibyo, MBA, Minister of National Education of Indonesia
Assalmualaikum Wr.Wb. Mr. Bambang Sudibyo greets the honorable and distinguished guests. It is a happy moment that UNESCO has an initiative to have this kind of Parliamentary Forum on how the parliaments could support the requirement of funding for EFA activities, especially after the issuance of national education system and teachers. Indonesia has gone fundamental reforms until the year 2002 when the government has completed the amendment, suggesting that education is the rights to every citizen and human rights.
To ensure that the system is working, serving the people, at least 20% of national budget must be allocated for education. It was decided when Indonesia at the bottom of the nation’s financial crisis. It was hard for the government to meet the requirements for education improvement. The burden is also carried by the parliaments, but starting in 2009, the President of Indonesia decided to allocate 20% of the state budget, together with the Minister of Finance. Having said this, the role of the parliaments is very strategic and important. Without the support of the parliaments, it is impossible for the government to fulfill the constitutional condition on education. There are requirements for teachers before teaching, especially on their education background. The government is upgrading their capacity and certifying them by 2014.
We just finished the Senior Official Meeting of E-9, which includes 9 most populous developing countries that represent the world towards EFA goals in 2015. It emphasizes teacher training to better serve the goals of EFA. The meeting was also to identify projects that can be shared or done together by E-9 countries and to achieve 8 points but not limited to E-9 countries. I wish that you enjoy your stay in Indonesia and during the deliberation of the meeting. Thank you.
Co-chaired by the President (Indonesia) and Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer, Director, UNESCO Bangkok Office, Regional Bureau for Education in the Asia and the Pacific
1. Lifelong Learning: Non-Formal Education
Presented by Dr. Hamid Muhammad, Director General Directorate of Non Formal and Informal Education, Indonesian Ministry of National Education
• The EFA agenda calls for a comprehensive approach to learning in which non-formal education is an essential and integrated part. Non-formal education is now playing a major role in facing the challenges of equipping youth with proper life skills.
He firstly elaborates the conceptual framework of comprehensive approach to learning that has been adopted by Indonesia in regards of continuing education and lifelong learning. He shows the average flow rate of cohort student in 20 years and it finds that there is only 26.2% graduate from highs school. The problem is that the country has dropout students or those who are not continuing their education.
Another illustration is on the non-formal education programmes in Indonesia that focuses on literacy education, equivalency education, life skills education and lifelong learning. By the end of next year, the remaining of illiterate people in Indonesia will only be 5% of the total population. Another programme is functional literacy that has three levels: basic, intermediate and advanced. The target that the Ministry of National Education is going to recover is 2 million people and by the end of the programme, everyone who passes the test and they will receive certificate.
Community Reading Centers (CRCs) is a follow-up programme to avoid literate people to become illiterate again. Meanwhile, the equivalency education programme that has three levels: Package A (equal to primary schools), Package B (junior schools) and Package C (high schools). There are actually 3.3 million students dropout annually, 10.01 million full unemployment; while 44% of youth unemployment is high school graduates. Adequate life skills development is for income generating activities. The programme is called income generating training courses and life skills for adults. Another programme is women empowerment education. Another concern is ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education), which is achieving national target for 2015 by reaching 75% of education progress. Thank you.
Questions and Comments
Pakistan: Indonesia has similar problems to Pakistan. Education has relations to economic development. In spite of those problems, education should be taken into serious account.
Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer says that systematic and well-organized programme can be implemented in Indonesia. About monitoring and evaluation on adult education issue, there should be also test to find out that they are already illiterate. Analysis should be done to find out the fact of cohort students.
2. Literacy as Freedom: United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD)
Presented by Ms. Maki Hayashikawa, Programme Specialist in Gender and Quality Basic Education, UNESCO Bangkok Office, Regional Bureau for Education in the Asia and the Pacific
• UNESCO is the lead agency for the UNLD, 2003 – 2012. The UNLD emphasizes the goal of literacy for all people of all ages, in all regions of the world, in rural and urban areas, in school and out-of-school, within families, communities and the work place.
United National Literacy Decade (UNLD, 2003-2012) A UN response to the emerging challenge of achieving “Literacy for All.” Broader vision of literacy, literacy at the heart of EFA and priority groups are the three considerations to take to further progress UNLD in the Asia Pacific region. The regional launch was held in Bangkok on 8 September 2003.
At the mid point of UNLD, where do we stand today? The global situation is about 774 million adult illiterates. Women make up 64% in East Asia. In 2005, 72 million children remain out of school. Illiteracy is at the root of exclusion and social inequality. The issues include lack of concrete policies, lack of research evidence to convince more resource allocation, lack of capacity to manage resources effectively, and lack of Management Information System (MIS) for literacy.
A mid-decade implementation report on the International Plan of Action for UNLD was prepared by UNESCO for the UN (June 2008). The challenge persists and remains undiminished. Furthermore, UNLD – the second half (2008 – 2012) shapes the new agenda for literacy and integrates literacy with international target like MDGs. The next 5 years and beyond focuses on making difference: stronger commitment, more effective resources and new resources for literacy. A call for greater political commitment to ‘Literacy for All’ should be done by parliamentarians to their governments. Thank you.
Questions and Comments
Republic of Korea: do you have any useful information or data from the other agencies to evaluate the studies regarding the outcomes and the international collaboration?
Ms. Maki Hayashikawa says UNESCO has collaboration with other UN agencies like UNICEF and UNDP. Mostly, we have worked together with UNICEF that provides data and statistics as well as with UNFPA regarding population.
Pakistan: Is there any mechanism that is used by the UN regarding the indicators of global monitoring report towards the standard data. Sometime one agency has similar or different results from another on the same issue.
Mr. Nicholas Burnett says that there are two types of data: administrative and survey. Administrative data is collected by UNESCO, the Institute of Statistics and is used by other agencies. Another source is survey data that is difficult to compare them across countries in some ways compared to administrative data.
Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer gives analogy on how different people have different perception towards one same thing; how we reflect the goals and the satisfaction of the people.
3. Women and Girl’s Education
Presented by Ms. Maki Hayashikawa, Programme Specialist in Gender and Quality Basic Education, UNESCO Bangkok Office, Regional Bureau for Education in the Asia and the Pacific
• The 2008 EFA Global Monitoring Report shows that the goal of eliminating gender disparities in both primary and secondary education by 2005 has been missed in a great majority of countries. Women account for 64% of the 774 million adults worldwide who still lack of basic literacy skills. Gender parity in access to schooling is the first step towards gender equality in education.
94/149 countries in the world missed the targets of EFA. MDG review report (2005) on Target 4 “Eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education.” Significant progress has been made in girls’ education and gender parity in primary and secondary enrolments. “We have no gender issue here,” some countries would say. Nearly half of the regional countries are at risk of not achieving parity by 2015 in secondary education and primary completion remains a challenge.
Disparities to the disadvantage of boys at secondary education are growing, especially in East Asia and the Pacific. National data hides sub-national disparities. She shows some diagrams on the progress of gender equality education. Education is a feminized profession especially at the lower level. Is parity leading to equality in outcomes? Gender is crosscutting goal 5 and EFA strategy 6. Impact of major global threats on EFA and Gender Equality goal focuses on the rise in poverty, increase in food prices and emergency context.
There are two key messages for the parliamentarians in every Asia Pacific country to be extended to their governments: “gender equality in education is a human right” and “move beyond gender parity to achieve equality under EFA.”
Questions and Comments
Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer shares stories about gender equality in government official members; the distribution of male and female officials.
Pakistan says that there is proportion of about 30% of female representative in the parliaments in the government of Pakistan.
Prof. Arief mentions that in Indonesia, the government has the position of the Ministry of Women Empowerment and women also receive 3% of portion in the Parliamentarian membership.
Pakistan mentions that women should receive protection that is legally formed by law, which is great opportunity for women to get employed.
15.30 – 15.45
Coffee Break
Coffee break is provided in the hall.
15.45 – 17.00
Working Session 3
Venue: Asean Room 6-7
Co-chaired by the President (Indonesia) and Mr. Hubert Gijzen, Director, UNESCO Jakarta Office, Cluster and Regional Bureau for Sciences (represented by Mr. Anwar Alsaid), Moderated by the Vice President (Nepal)
1. Inclusive Quality Education
Presented by Mr. Sheldon Shaeffer, Director, UNESCO Bangkok Office, Regional Bureau for Education in the Asia and the Pacific
• UNESCO addresses the education needs of street and working children, learners with disabilities, children of ethnic/linguistic minorities and other vulnerable groups
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
He firstly mentions about one-sex school in relations to gender equality and continues with the explanation of the excluded, unreached groups. Who are the excluded? He shows the table of percentages of children with and without disabilities not attending school and sub-national disparities in access to education—the national primary enrolment ratios. The objective of inclusive education is to support ‘Education for All’ by removing barriers to enrolment and learning for those who are enrolled in school but are excluded from learning.
Inclusive policies and practice outlines experiences in different countries in Asia. A school of good quality is a child-friendly school, child-centered and child-seeking. It does not exclude, discriminate against, or stereotype on the basis of difference. The government obligations and the right to education – so called 4 A’s: availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability.
Regarding policy-maker and politician “education”; national policy-makers and politicians must become fully committed to inclusive education. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) graph shows where the system is failing—dropout rates by grade in primary education. An inclusive approach to ECCE can offset disadvantage – poverty, emergencies, or special needs – by acting early.
Comprehensive ECCE policies are important to develop EFA. Fostering strong policies for ECCE highlights policy environment and policy elements. Inclusive education is a process. Those excluded from education are often simply not seen. Inclusive education means making visible the invisible and ensuring that all learners fulfill their right to an education of good quality.
Questions and Comments
Indonesia says there are some excluded children in the country. The most difficult thing living with these excluded groups are the data. What is the actual numbers of excluded children in the remote areas or on the country’s borders? Is there any tool that UNESCO has developed to figure this out?
Mr. Sheldon says the government should go down to the bottom system to get the actual numbers and find out how many children are excluded and then get them included in education; and this is not easy to do.
Republic of Korea says that this issue is crosscutting to the protection of human rights as well as cultural diversity protection. Is there any information to deal with issue from other countries regarding this concern?
Mr. Sheldon says that education demands compulsory action from parents to get all parents to send their children to school. Constituency should support children to go to school. Compendium magazine, which was found in Indonesia, highlights equality of opportunities for inclusive education.
2. National Competency-Based Teacher Standards (NCBTS)
Presented by Mr. Ramos, Department of Education of the Philippines
• UNESCO mobilizes and assists Member States in designing and implementing viable national teacher policies concerning teacher education and training (pre-service academic programmes, in-service empowerment), recruitment and retention and issues of status and working conditions, and professionalization of the teaching profession
• Teacher Education was the focus of the E9 Conference which was held in March 2008
Philippine Education for All (EFA) plan 2015 is the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA). There are 5 key BESRA changes as of today. The national competency-based standards outline both traditional and new paradigms. Teaching is a technical process (traditional); teaching is facilitating learning and the qualities of good teaching (new). Teachers should use the NCBTS as a guide to reflect on their current teaching practices.
Furthermore, it is as a framework for creating new teaching practices, as a guidepost for planning for professional development goals and it can be used as assessment too. It makes certain assumptions about improving teaching. Individual teachers have various types and levels of motivations, different capabilities and diverse range of opportunities to teach better.
Seven domains of NCBTS: social regard for learning, the learning environment, the diversity of learners, curriculum, planning, assessing and reporting, community linkages, personal growth and professional development. Each domain influences and is closely related to each other. Each domain is given key question and specific questions for the teachers and some sub-domains’ key concerns.
3. Education for A Sustainable Future: UN Decade of ESD
Presented by Mr. Derek Elias, Programme Specialist, UNESCO Bangkok Office, Regional Bureau for Education in the Asia and the Pacific
• The goal of United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014, DESD), for which UNESCO is the lead agency, is to integrate the principle, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning.
Sustainable development cannot be achieved without education for all. Quality education and sustainable development are interrelated to each other and UNESCO has very integral part to carry on this duty. It requires big societal transformation. Rapid changes and economic growth disadvantaged the poor. He quotes the statements of the delegates of Timor Leste regarding sustainable development and education for sustainable development. ESD is global issue that promotes just and sustainable society.
ESD also highlights food security—agriculture and food in an era of growth. Education for understanding linkages, making informed decisions, changing behavior, taking local action and adapting to changing needs. The four ESD Thrust (Agenda 21): basic education, reorienting existing education programmes developing public awareness and understanding sustainability and training. ESD and EFA should strengthen their common linkages.
In addition, universal education goals: developing good relationship with others, self-competence and confidence, etc. EFA and ESD integrate together to achieve quality and relevant learning for just and sustainable society. Quality focuses on 3 dimensions: assessment of leaning performance, condition for teaching and learning and quantity and quality of workforce. Life skill is another of many links between EFA and ESD.
Parliamentarian contribution to ESD; UN DESD International Implementation scheme is to incorporate ESD into national sustainable development. Asia Pacific Member states should incorporate ESD into national development plans. There are messages from Asia Pacific region. “We need to put ESD into the policy agenda to engage other stakeholders and decision makers in ESD, particularly those engaged in EFA” (From South East Asia).
Questions and Comments
Pakistan says that there is a lot of knowledge on ESD – the know-how. How should the teacher develop the children moral integrity? What can kind of module can be developed? UNESCO may share with the Member States regarding the issue of teachers’ capacity in developing moral issue of the students.
Mr. Derek Elias says that it is a very good concern in students’ attitude and behaviors through school or education system. One of the challenges is how to match that soft skill with the curriculum of the school; to make two approaches come together as fundamental challenge.
18.00
Welcome Dinner by the Minister of National Education, Republic of Indonesia
Venue: Golden Ballroom
Cultural Dinner is hosted by the Minister of National Education of Indonesia. Cultural performances are performed during the dinner by Diponegoro School students Jakarta (Javanese Gamelan), students of State High School 8 Jakarta (Rampak Gendang) and students of Saraswati Foundation (Javanese Gong Kebyar).
The MCs, Ms. Jasmine Sagita Rafiq and Mr. Mohammad Reiza of Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO accompanied the honorable guest and distinguished participants throughout the night. Speeches are delivered by the Minister of National Education, HE. Mr. Bambang Sudibyo and the Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO, Mr. Nicholas Burnett.
Photo sessions and informal discussion also take place for the delegates with the Minister of National Education and the cultural performers.
