The right to education - Asia Pacific Knowledge Base on Open and ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Towards basic <strong>education</strong> for all27Box 2.1<strong>The</strong> content, means and methods of ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’ (UNESCO, 1949)ContentWhile the whole range of human activity provides thesubject matter of fundamental <strong>education</strong>, each particularprogramme should give first attention <strong>to</strong> the mostpressing needs and problems of the community concerned.<strong>The</strong> content, therefore, varies widely with circumstances;but in the long run it should include:• Skills of thinking and communicating (reading andwriting, speaking, listening and calculation);• Vocational skills (such as agriculture and husbandry,building, weaving and other useful crafts, andsimple technical and commercial skills necessary foreconomic progress);• Domestic skills (such as the preparation of food andthe care of children and of the sick);• Skills used in self-expression in the arts and crafts;• Education for health through personal and communityhygiene;• <strong>Knowledge</strong> and understanding of the physical environmentand of natural processes (for examplesimple and practical science);• <strong>Knowledge</strong> and understanding of the human environment(economic and social organization, lawand government);• <strong>Knowledge</strong> of other parts of the world and thepeople who live in them;• <strong>The</strong> development of qualities <strong>to</strong> fit men <strong>to</strong> live inthe modern world, such as personal judgment andinitiative, freedom from fear and superstition, sympathyand understanding for different points ofview;• Spiritual and moral development; belief in ethicalideals, and the habit of acting upon them; with theduty <strong>to</strong> examine traditional standards of behaviourand <strong>to</strong> modify them <strong>to</strong> suit new conditions.Means and methods<strong>The</strong> very difficulty of the task of fundamental <strong>education</strong>brings with it a sense of urgency. If themeasures taken are <strong>to</strong> be effective, they must producewidespread and lasting results. Full use should bemade of all possible <strong>education</strong>al agencies, and thelatest techniques for the teaching of adults should betried.Corresponding <strong>to</strong> the diverse human needs, severalforms of activity have been developed in fundamental<strong>education</strong> programmes: adult literacy campaigns, agriculturaland health training and extension services,co-operatives, organizing of community groups for culturalends. An expanded and improved primaryschooling can provide one firm institutional basisfor fundamental <strong>education</strong>: community centres, withlibrary and museum techniques, may play a similarpart. All these activities require teaching methodswhich include but go beyond the direct teacher-pupilrelationship – hence the importance of the media ofmass communications: the printed word, the film andthe radio.Fundamental <strong>education</strong> is concerned with the communityas a whole, and should lead <strong>to</strong> social action.<strong>The</strong> methods must therefore be chosen with this endin view: <strong>to</strong> help people <strong>to</strong> help themselves.Source: Fundamental Education, A Description and Programme, pp. 11–12, Paris, UNESCO, 1949.words of Julian Huxley, the Executive Secretary ofthe Prepara<strong>to</strong>ry Commission and UNESCO’s firstDirec<strong>to</strong>r-General:Where half the people of the world are denied the elementaryfreedom which consists in the ability <strong>to</strong> readand write, there lacks something of the basic unity andbasic justice which the United Nations are pledged<strong>to</strong>gether <strong>to</strong> further. Fundamental Education is only par<strong>to</strong>f the wider and fuller human understanding <strong>to</strong> whichUNESCO is dedicated, but it is an essential part.<strong>The</strong>re was some uncertainty at that time overwhat exactly was meant by ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’,especially as this term did not correspond<strong>to</strong> any of the terms then in use in most countries<strong>to</strong> describe a particular level or part of their <strong>education</strong>systems, but there was general agreementthat it meant an <strong>education</strong> that would provide forthe acquisition of literacy and the other essentialskills, knowledge and values needed for full participationin society (Box 2.1). It was preferred <strong>to</strong>other cognate terms which were circulating then,
28World <strong>education</strong> reportsuch as ‘Mass Education’, ‘Popular Education’ (aterm which was included in UNESCO’s Constitution)and ‘Basic Education’. ‘Mass Education’ forexample, was specifically rejected because it‘evoked unpleasing connotations of <strong>education</strong>almethods which paid insufficient attention <strong>to</strong>individual differences’ (Fundamental Education:Common Ground for All Peoples, p. 12, Paris,UNESCO, 1947. Report of a Special Committee <strong>to</strong>the Prepara<strong>to</strong>ry Commission of UNESCO, Paris,1946).As can be seen by comparing Box 2.1 withBox 1.3 in the previous chapter (page 19), thecontent at least of ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’ wasconceived not very differently from that of ‘basic<strong>education</strong>’ half a century later, the main differencesbeing the emphasis of ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’on the ‘pressing needs and problems of thecommunity’, and that of ‘basic <strong>education</strong>’ onpreparation for ‘lifelong learning’. <strong>The</strong> latternotion was not current in the 1940s. ‘Fundamental<strong>education</strong>’ was regarded as a kind of ‘minimum’or ‘basic amount’ of <strong>education</strong> that eachcommunity or society needed <strong>to</strong> provide foreveryone; the question of access <strong>to</strong>, or preparationfor <strong>education</strong> beyond this ‘minimum’ wasmostly left <strong>to</strong> one side.From an operational standpoint, in terms of‘means and methods’ of implementation, ‘fundamental<strong>education</strong>’ was broadly interpreted ascommunity <strong>education</strong> (adult literacy programmes,agricultural and health <strong>education</strong>, and so on). Insome formulations of the community <strong>education</strong>approach, as seen for example in Box 2.1, it wassuggested that primary schooling could serve as‘one firm institutional basis for fundamental <strong>education</strong>’,along with community centres. This laterdeveloped in<strong>to</strong> the idea of ‘community <strong>education</strong>centres’ providing primary schooling as well asadult literacy and other non-formal adult <strong>education</strong>programmes.At that time, some experience of the community<strong>education</strong> approach had been accumulated in certaincountries such as Brazil, India and Mexico,but there was little real understanding internationallyof how <strong>to</strong> go about implementing thisapproach on a scale that could seriously respond<strong>to</strong> the ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’ needs of thevast rural populations of Africa, <strong>Asia</strong> and LatinAmerica which had never experienced any formal<strong>education</strong>. At the grass-roots level, the approachpresupposed a certain degree of community initiativeand responsibility, as well as the capacityof communities <strong>to</strong> mobilize the necessary materialand human resources for <strong>education</strong>, whether forformal <strong>education</strong> such as primary schools, or fornon-formal <strong>education</strong> such as agricultural extensionand health <strong>education</strong>. In much of Africa and<strong>Asia</strong> in the 1940s and 1950s, and also <strong>to</strong> a largeextent in Latin America, significant advances inthe provision of ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’ at thecommunity level could hardly be made withoutthe injection of substantial financial and/or materialand human resources from outside thecommunity, and this was not a major priority formost governments at that time.Still, those who drew up the Universal Declarationof Human Rights were arguably less concernedwith the precise form that ‘fundamental<strong>education</strong>’ should take than with the problem itwas intended <strong>to</strong> address, namely, the millions ofilliterate adults and others in the world who hadnot previously had an opportunity for modern<strong>education</strong>, whether formal or non-formal. Howthis problem could best be tackled was essentiallya practical and not a theoretical matter: it woulddepend on the efforts undertaken – and the experiencethus gained – by individual countries,whatever the label these efforts went under.Overlap with adult <strong>education</strong> and literacy<strong>The</strong> notion of ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’ remainedcurrent internationally for only a decade or so,while its concern with literacy was absorbed in<strong>to</strong>an expanded concept of ‘adult <strong>education</strong>’.At first, ‘fundamental <strong>education</strong>’ and ‘adult <strong>education</strong>’were regarded as two different aspects of
Page 5: List of boxes, figures and tablesFi
Page 9 and 10: AcknowledgementsTHE INFORMATION pre
Page 11 and 12: 16World education
Page 14 and 15: A multi-faceted right</stro
Page 20 and 21: 2Towards basiceducation</st
Page 24 and 25: Towards basic education</st
Page 73 and 74:
78World education
Page 75 and 76:
80World education
Page 77 and 78:
82World education
Page 79 and 80:
84World education
Page 81 and 82:
86World education
Page 83 and 84:
88World education
Page 85 and 86:
I. The writingof A
Page 87 and 88:
94World education
Page 89 and 90:
96World education
Page 91 and 92:
98World education
Page 93 and 94:
100World education
Page 95 and 96:
102World education
Page 97 and 98:
104World education
Page 99 and 100:
106World education
Page 101 and 102:
108World education
Page 103 and 104:
II. Regionaltables
Page 105 and 106:
Regional tables113Table 1Dependency
Page 107 and 108:
Regional tables115Table 5Enrolment
Page 109 and 110:
Regional tables117Table 9Number of
Page 111 and 112:
Regional tables119Table 13Estimated
Page 113 and 114:
III. Worldeducation</strong
Page 115 and 116:
World education in
Page 117 and 118:
World education in
Page 119 and 120:
World education in
Page 121 and 122:
World education in
Page 123 and 124:
World education in
Page 125 and 126:
World education in
Page 127 and 128:
World education in
Page 129 and 130:
World education in
Page 131 and 132:
World education in
Page 133 and 134:
World education in
Page 135 and 136:
World education in
Page 137 and 138:
World education in
Page 139 and 140:
World education in
Page 141 and 142:
World education in
Page 143 and 144:
World education in
Page 145 and 146:
World education in
Page 147 and 148:
World education in
Page 149 and 150:
World education in
Page 151 and 152:
World education in
Page 153 and 154:
World education in
Page 155 and 156:
World education in
Page 157 and 158:
World education in
Page 159 and 160:
World education in
Page 161 and 162:
World education in
Page 163 and 164:
World education in
Page 165 and 166:
174World education
Page 167 and 168:
176World education
Page 169:
178World education
show all

The right to education - Asia Pacific Knowledge Base on Open and ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?