UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

9.1 PRESIDENTE:
Excelencia, estoy muy contenta de saber que los Presidentes del Perú y de Ecuador se encuentran
reunidos en Quito, Ecuador, conmemorando el primer aniversario de la firma del Acuerdo de Paz entre ambos
países.
(9.1) La PRESIDENTE (traduit de l'espagnol) :
Excellence, je suis très heureuse de savoir que les Présidents du Pérou et de l'Equateur se sont rencontrés
à Quito, en Equateur, afin d'y célébrer le premier anniversaire de la signature de l'Accord de paix entre les deux
pays.
(The President continues in English)
9.2 May I now call the next speaker, His Excellency Mr Andrew Gonzalez, Secretary for Education, Culture
and Sports of the Philippines.
10.1 Mr GONZALEZ (Philippines):
Madam President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the warm greetings of His Excellency
President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, who was last year overwhelmingly elected in a process that affirms our
country’s long-cherished democratic tradition.
10.2 The Philippines is a mature nation that last year celebrated the centennial of its declaration of
independence. Yet in one sense the Philippines is a young country. Of its 75 million people, two thirds, or
50 million, are aged 26 years and below. We have 18 million students in our elementary and secondary schools,
and an additional 2 million in the tertiary level. Filipino educational planners, like their counterparts in the
developing world, have long grappled with the twin challenges of burgeoning population growth and spiralling
resource requirements. Nevertheless, consistent with the constitutional imperative, we seek to increase the share
of education in the national budget. We continue to build school buildings in the remote, far-flung areas of the
archipelago, update textbooks to include new discoveries in the major disciplines, and train our teachers using
modern methods that are at par in our region.
10.3 The Philippines shares UNESCO’s conviction that education, science, culture and communication must
all converge and work together for the progress of our nation and the world. We believe that applying the
inherent inter-relatedness of these competencies – an acknowledgement of UNESCO’s ethical mission as the
world’s forum for international human solidarity – is the first requirement if UNESCO is to remain relevant in
the twenty-first century. We therefore urge UNESCO to assume the lead in mobilizing the intellect and will of
humanity towards lasting peace and an equitable world order, particularly by focusing on the needs of the
developing countries of Asia.
10.4 The Philippines urges UNESCO to dedicate the next biennium to follow-up actions in education.
Moreover, UNESCO should focus on intercultural education as an indispensable tool to develop a culture of
tolerance and prevent violence. This should lead to a better understanding and appreciation of people and their
cultures, and thereby guarantee peace, just as much as human rights education strengthens democracy.
10.5 UNESCO’s goals are priority values that have guided the restructuring of our educational curricula. In
this regard, the Philippines continues to pursue qualitative targets in developing humanitarian understanding
among Filipinos. We subscribe to the truth that without peace there can be no progress. We equally believe that
education is the single most important instrument in the defence of peace. The Philippine authorities, together
with our Muslim brothers and sisters and other sectors of civil society, are working hand in hand to strengthen
and defend peace on the island of Mindanao. Our principal tool is an education anchored in human security and
development, which seeks and maintains freedom and peace through human rights and dignity. This is the kind of
education that has won for the Philippines the 1998 Félix Houphouët Boigny Peace Prize, and has led to the
creation by President Estrada of the National Committee on the Culture of Peace.
10.6 As we pay greater attention to basic education, the Philippines continues to cultivate wisdom and a love
of learning attuned to the traditions of our people. We also seek benefits from the creative synergy between the
arts and sciences in order to raise the quality of life of our people. While actively caring for our natural and
human-made environment, we are pursuing scientific knowledge to become a recognized science and technology
community with a social and humanist view. We therefore deem it essential that UNESCO intensify its standardsetting
role in promoting ethics within the scientific community, hand-in-hand with pursuing the concept of
science for the masses.
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