A global review after 50 years of Unesco ASP schools

AUCKLAND — It is the height of winter in this capital city of New Zealand although the land is generally green, mostly grazing land and the sun shines brightly. Being one of the last explored countries of the world, just across the Antarctica, New Zealand as conference choice had to match the theme of the 50th Anniversary Conference of UNESCO Associated Schools Project — "Navigators for Peace." The Dutch stumbled upon New Zealand in 1642, almost a century after Magellan discovered the Philippines but it took another 130 years before any European returned.

The International Congress on Quality Education for the 21st Century lasted for five full days last week at the Waipuna Conference Center under the auspices of the New Zealand UNESCO National Commission in close cooperation with the new UNESCO Pacific isles (Apia) office and UNESCO Paris headquarters.

After World War II, the founders of UNESCO launched ASPnet in 1953 as part of their quest for real and lasting peace. It is one of UNESCO’s longest running programmes and involves some of its youngest collaborators — the students from 7,500 member schools and educational institutions spread throughout more than 170 countries.

Going Beyond Lip Service

The UNESCO founders were aware of the need to go beyond lip service and ministering circulars for teachers "to teach peace." Peace building through education, they believed, called for committed teachers, relevant curricula and a climate of self-respect.

The three main objectives of the Congress were: First, to take stock of the ASPnet Global review results, recently completed by the University of Birmingham UK researchers. Second, to commemorate the ASP networking in support of UNESCO’s commitment to quality education under its Education For all (EFA-DAKAR) strategy, part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (UNMDG). The Congress concluded fulfilling the third objective, that of charting a new course for ASPnet for 2004-2009 by drafting the ASPnet Strategy and Plan of Action 2004-2009 — "quality education in practice."

These objectives were analyzed by the main speaker Sir John Daniels, the Assistant Director for Education of the Paris headquarters, Ms. Mary Joy Pigozzi, Director of the Division for Promotion of Quality Education, and Bangkok Regional Director Sheldon Shaeffer. According to Mrs. Elizabeth Khawajkie, ASP International Coordinator, ASP networking grew from its humble beginning of 33 secondary schools from 15 countries to be the largest network of its kind becoming a "pulse taker" and an educational "pacesetter" sensitive to what is happening in the world.

Chairing the Conference was Margaret Austin of the NZ National Commission who "navigated" monthly the 213 participants of 91 countries including officials of the Ministries of Education, National Commissions for UNESCO, ASP National Coordinator and a number of observers including principals, teachers, experts, UNESCO headquarters staff, as well as members from Bangkok, Amman, Windhoek, Apia and Santiago.

Prosperity Of Countries Depend On Their ‘Human Capital’

Margaret Austin is a well-known university educator. As a former member of the NZ Parliament for 13 years, the congress imagined somewhat that her little bell, which allowed speakers to speak not more than five minutes, was the same bell she used to call the attention of her colleagues in the legislative assembly.

Mrs. Austin defined the two goals of UNESCO: elimination of extreme poverty and the 2015 goal that all primary school children be able to have access to free schooling of acceptable quality, eliminating gender disparities.

Austin said, "An estimated 115 million children in the world today have no access to education. Some 40 percent of them live in sub-Saharan Africa where enrollment has actually fallen in the past ten years."

"There is a wide disparity in quality learning outcomes between students, schools and countries principally as a result of the socio-economic background of students, as confirmed in the recent OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation Development) Programme for International Student Assessment report."

"The issue of quality education has never been more important than it is today when the prosperity of countries derive so much from their human capital, as well as the opportunities available for people to acquire knowledge and skills that will enable them to continue learning throughout their lives," Mrs. Austin said.

"ASPnet contributes to quality education through the development of curricula that promote life skills, human rights, respect for diversity, and a culture of people learning to live together," Mrs. Austin stressed.

Montessori Pagsasarili Literacy Course For Quality Grassroot Aspnetwork Involvement

The most concrete project presented to lift up the quality of education in developing countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia was the Montessori Pagsasarili Mothercraft Literacy program for underprivileged urban and rural mothers and children. I was selected as one of three speakers on "innovative approaches for quality education." Using 31 illustrated frames, I lectured and demonstrated the Pagsasarili technology by power point.

Dr. Utak Chung, head of the Education committee of the Korean National commission thought it the best and the clearest presentation specially since it has been replicated successfully for 20 years in eight laborers districts in Metro Manila and the Mothercraft version was tried out in the Visayan region. ASP National Coordinator for Indonesia Ms. Hasnah Gasim, Deputy Secretary General of UNESCO Thailand Ms. Churairat Sangboonnum, and Vietnam UNESCO Commissioner Ms. Hong Lethikim thought it most appropriate to adapt as a regional UNESCO training program for ASP secondary schools of the Asian clusters of Bangkok and Jakarta.

Mission Statement Of Draft Strategy

ASPnet is a network of committed schools engaged in fostering and delivering quality education in pursuit of peace, liberty, justice and human development in order to meet the pressing educational needs of children and young people throughout the world.

As "navigators for peace" and agents for positive change ASPnet schools are instrumental to achieve Education For All as well as to implement UNESCO’s strategies and programmes in education, the sciences, culture and communication. They serve as laboratories of ideas on innovative approaches for quality education for all.

An Army Of Youth

The ASP net schools are armies of youth from elementary, high school and college level including the young professionals of the UNESCO Clubs. They are flying the standards of truth to develop the "knowledge society" through UNESCO’s mandates of education, the sciences, culture and communication. They are fighting for freedom from ignorance, the root cause of poverty.

Indeed the army of youth is the light of the nation which will help direct its destiny. We adults must pledge ourselves to the role of "keepers of the flame."