UNESCO has made its mark on a global scale

As UNESCO -- the specialised agency of the United Nations and the heir of the League of Nations' International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation - now enters the 68th year of its operations, it is worthwhile to take note of its activities on a global scale over the years. Very recently, UNESCO has also drawn world-wide attention on the issue of Palestine's membership and the subsequent suspension of financial assistance by the USA. The purpose of the Organisation is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to promote further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms. These all are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programmes: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information. The projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes, international science programmes and promotion of independent media and freedom of the press. Besides, it extends support and cooperation for regional and cultural history projects, promotion of cultural diversity; facilitation of international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage (World Heritage Sites) and to preserve human rights and encouragement of endeavors to bridge the world-wide digital divide. I had no idea about UNESCO when I was an undergraduate student in the early sixties. I was made interested in UNESCO by late Principal AKM Shahidullah after I joined in teaching in a college in the month of August, 1972. Shahidullah used to write on the rights, obligations and status of teachers in line with the recommendations of UNESCO, approved by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). I could get better idea about UNESCO when I visited its headquarters in Paris in 1997 and 1999. In 1997, I was a participant in the 29th General Conference of the world body as a member of Bangladesh delegation. I last visited UNESCO head office this year on February 23 and met Mr. Tang Qian, Assistant Director General in-charge of Education, when I went to Paris to participate in the programme organised by Global Campaign for Education (GCE). My meeting with Mr. Tang Qian was arranged by Bangladesh Embassy in Paris at the request of Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid. The Director General Ms. Irina Bokova was not available in Paris due to her programmes fixed earlier, during my weeklong stay in the French capital. Otherwise I would call on her. I submitted few written proposals to Mr. Tang Qian during the meeting. It included curriculum revision and development along with teachers' training. My submission was that UNESCO can provide technical support in areas of curriculum revision, curriculum dissemination and text book development. It is usual to revise the teachers training curriculum when the national curriculum is revised. Technical support of UNESCO is possible in this area. It may be mentioned here that the prime objective of our national curriculum is to ensure quality education of our children to international standard. Earlier in the 80's and 90's, UNESCO supported Bangladesh with experts of international repute. They closely worked with local experts and developed competency-based curriculum for primary school children. We started the implementation of the curriculum from 1992. It is still in use after some modifications in 2003. Simultaneously international experts supported us in developing textbooks and disseminating the revised curriculum among the teachers. They also gave active support in revising teachers training curriculum including development of training materials in line with national curriculum. Now in line with the Education Policy 2010 recommendations, the government has already initiated the process of curriculum revision and related reforms under National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). We expect professional support by UNESCO, as provided to us earlier, in this area to achieve goals and objectives of our nation in education. For improving the quality of teaching-learning situation in the classroom, we are to strengthen the professional capacity of teachers through pre-service and in-service training. We are to identify national teacher competency, reform training materials and redesign training programmes. In fact we need to develop a comprehensive teacher training policy for all categories of teachers, in line with the National Education Policy 2010. The government has already initiated this process. UNESCO can provide professionals and expertise in this area also like its support in other countries in this field. As per recommendations of the new Education Policy, 2010, the government of Bangladesh has recently decided to introduce pre-primary education formally in primary schools. For developing child friendly, attractive learning materials and teacher-friendly training materials, the support of international experts through UNESCO can be very useful. On the issues related to service training of teachers, exchange of teachersexpert for specialised institutions like NAEM, National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE) , HSTT , IER , Dhaka University, National University, NCTB can render positive contributions. The support from UNESCO in developing the research and evaluation capacities of spceialised institutions involved in activities concerning service training of teachers in Bangladesh can help the country immediately in pursuit of the goals and objectives of its new education policy. There is no denying the fact that for continuous professional development of teachers there is no substitute of in-service training of teachers. In our country at present we do not have adequate regular outfit for providing this to our secondary and higher secondary teachers. In primary education, such opportunities exist at the sub-district level (upazila). For secondary and higher education, it is very much a local necessity. Training centers there, can not only conduct training programmes but also facilitate the conduct of local training need and develop training materials suitable for the teachers of the locality. These may be treated as resource centres equipped with labs, library, information communication technology (ICT) facilities. There may be some facilities for the local community to use the centre for interaction with teachers. UNESCO can render technical support in designing and setting up these centres considering the local need. In his speech in Paris at the 36th session of the General Conference of UNESCO October 28 last Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said, "We identified education as the sine qua non for ensuring sustainable development. But ensuring education for a huge young population like ours is a gigantic task. The enrollment in our primary level schools is 19 million. Around 11 million students are there at secondary and higher secondary levels and more than 1.5 million students study in pre - and post-graduate levels. Yet our interventions in the education sector have started to show results. The rates of access and retention in both primary and secondary education have increased. Gender parity has not only been achieved but also being retained among students both at the primary and secondary levels of education. 57% of our primary and 30% of our secondary level school teachers are now females. The qualitative improvement in the performance of the students is also visible." After the recent U.S. announcement to withhold funds as a reaction to Palestine's membership, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova made an important statement on November 02, 2011. She said, "The announced withholding of U.S. dues owed for 2011 will immediately affect our ability to deliver programmes in achieving universal education, supporting new democracies and fighting extremism." She, however, expressed her optimism: " UNESCO is encouraged that the United States will maintain its membership in the Organization and hopes that a resolution to the funding issue will ultimately be identified." As an observer of the activities of UNESCO, I am of the opinion that both the United States and UNESCO had their own compulsions on the Palestine issue. US legislation dating from the 1990s requires the US administration to withdraw funding from any UN agency that admits Palestine as a full member before a final peace deal is reached with Israel. On the other hand, as for membership in UNESCO, required two-thirds support of the agency's general conference is reguired. Palestine received 107 votes while 52 countries abstained from voting. Only 14 members of the General Conference cast negative vote. Under the circumstances, Palestine's membership was unavailable. Personally I believe that the U.S.A. will amend its decision on suspension of financial assistance to UNESCO in its own interest; it cannot afford to draw total imbalance in the Middle East. There are reasons to be optimistic also to find the forces of logic and humanitarian principle gaining ground within Israel day by day. They not only support membership of Palestine in UNESCO, but also are in favour of Palestine as an independent state. I am convinced that UNESCO will tide over the present impasse and overcome the challenges under the able and forward-looking leadership of Irina Bokova, the first ever Woman Director General and the expectations of the people of Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world will get appropriate attention from UNESCO. Prof. Quazi Faruque Ahmed is Chairman, Initiative for Human Development (IHD) and Chief Coordinator, National Front of Teachers & Employees (NFTE), Bangladesh. He can be reached at e-mail: principalqfahmed@yahoo.com