CONFINTEA VI, final report - Unesco

1.4 Career pathways: The tie between adult learning
and economic growth
Organiser: United States Department of Education/
OREALC-CEPAL
Moderator: Cheryl Keenan (US)
Presenters: Jorge Sequeira (OREALC)
Judith Alamprese (US)
Israel Mendoza (US)
Rodrigo Martínez (CEPAL)
The presenters discussed the lack of productivity as
a consequence of low educational levels and gave
examples of initiatives to increase enrolments in
adult basic skills, and improving eventual entry into
employment.
A study estimated that the cost of absolute and
functional illiteracy throughout working life was US$
25 billion in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic and
US$ 209 billion in São Paulo state in Brazil. Improved
functional literacy results in higher income, especially
before age 40. Productivity and income losses due to
illiteracy are so high that its eradication is a social
and an economic priority.
1.5 Quality education, equity and sustainable
development: A holistic vision through UNESCO’s
four World Education Conferences 2008–2009
Organiser: UNESCO Education Sector
Moderator: Ana Luiza Machado
Presenters: Anders Falk (Chair, UIL Governing Board)
Gugulethu Thenjiwe Ndbele (South Africa)
Walter Hirche (Germany)
Reviewing CONFINTEA VI and UNESCO’s education
conferences on sustainable development, higher
education and inclusion, the workshop examined
four central “ingredients” of quality in adult
education: the relevance of content, defined jointly by
stakeholders to respond to learners’ needs; the role of
teachers and educators; participatory processes; and
the nature of the learning environment. Equity and
social inclusion are critical quality dimensions which
are met by adjusting to learners’ needs. The workshop
called on UNESCO to develop tools to measure the
different dimensions of quality.
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1.6 Reading culture and literate environments
for young people and adults: A lifelong learning
perspective
Organiser: Ministry of Education of Brazil
Moderator: HRH Princess Laurentien (The Netherlands)
Presenters: Fabiano dos Santos Piúba (Brazil)
Lola Cendales Gónzalez (Colombia)
Odili Robles (Nicaragua)
Brij Kothari (India)
Policies and practices were presented which promote
reading habits and create literate environments for
adults to strengthen literacy processes and integrate
new skills into their daily lives. Subtitling TV films
in all 22 official languages could greatly improve
reading levels in India. Reading competitions could
increase the proportion of people recently becoming
literate in Nicaragua (38% of 500,000) able to read
more than shop and bus signs. Special training for
Colombian teachers to foster a love for reading, and
Brazil’s National Book and Reading Plan, aim to make
reading a pleasurable experience for both teachers and
students.
1.7 Education, gender and poverty
Organiser: Network of Popular Education among
Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (REPEM)
Moderator: Malu Valenzuela
Presenters: Sergio Haddad (Brazil)
María Cristina Chávez Castillo (Colombia)
Malini Ghose (India)
The workshop demonstrated that poverty has not only
material dimensions, but also social ones such as
discrimination and access to natural resources. Women
are more likely to be illiterate are and even more
excluded. Human rights were explained as inalienable
and indivisible, regardless of gender. The workshop
concluded that for the least empowered groups, only
collective pressure, recognising women’s potential and
leadership role, could enforce the right to education.