Resolution on basic education for all
The 8th World Congress of the WCT, assembled in Albena, Bulgaria,
has noted with satisfaction that since the 7th Congress, in Kuala Lumpur, the basic education for all issue has been prominently on the agenda of various intergovernmental conferences and programmes, each reaffirming the fundamental importance of basic education for the development op people and peoples.
§ The World Forum on Education for All, assembled in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, aimed to strengthen, under the impetus and guidance of the UNESCO and other international partners, the international commitment by confirming and updating former fundamental goals and agreements.
§ The 46th International Education Conference of the UNESCO International Education Office assembled in September 2001 in Geneva on the theme of Education for All to Learn to Live Together.
§ During the Millennium Conference and at the Millennium Summit 2000, it was confirmed that many promises from the past were never fully kept, but that there is an urgent need to work on this in solidarity in order to bridge the oppositions in the world and to achieve sustainable development for all.
§ The United Nations World Summit of Children, initially scheduled for September 2001 but postponed until May 2002 because of the tragic 11 September events, demands in the approved plan of action to focus the attention on the development of quality basic education for all as a prerequisite for observing (enforcing) effective respect for the rights of all children and youths.
§ Several initiatives from the civil society and the NGO world, eg the setting up of networks, in which also intergovernmental bodies participate in some cases, bear witness to a growing concern of the organised world community to effectively realise the basic right to an adequate basic education for all.
The WCT, actively involved in the preparations and development of these and other initiatives to realise basic education for all:
§ reaffirms its commitment as expressed in its 1998 Congress resolution;
§ reaffirms its demand that basic education must be free of charge in all countries;
§ endorses fully the conclusions of the aforementioned initiatives but deplores that the role and importance of the teachers in them were not always sufficiently highlighted, witness the difficult situation and the little decent working conditions under which they have to accomplish in many cases their task called essential for all that;
§ calls on the governments of developing and developed countries to make efforts in solidarity in order to achieve that the over 100 million children currently left without education are given a guaranteed access to education before 2015, the date to which the international community committed itself in Dakar. This date should be respected as the ultimate deadline which should not be extended;
§ warns international bodies that would make the granting of financial resources dependent on conditions by which the autonomous policymaking of the countries concerned would become subordinate to commercial or external interests, that such practices will be expressly exposed and fought;
§ insists on focusing the attention on education for girls, children of poor people and children of ethnic or linguistic minorities, children who remain victims of child labour and children from remote inaccessible areas;
§ states that it is essential that in the educational structure of all countries there is the possibility to fulfil all special needs of pupils/students, either in regular or special education.
The WCT is aware of the fact:
- that globalisation, of which economic globalisation is the most express phenomenon, has a very strong impact on the development of the countries and more particularly also on the development of the education system;
- that the progress of democracy is by no means sufficient to achieve everywhere the much-needed peace and solidarity in order to ensure respect for the basic right to education for all.;
- that basic education is the first and most important link of lifelong learning, the pre-eminent instrument to impart the necessary elementary knowledge, insight and skills to all the members of the community;
- that the quantitative expansion of education has not always gone hand in hand with a rise in its quality;
- that worldwide there is still a shortage of millions of teachers to make it possible to effectively achieve the general right to basic education;
- that teachers are nevertheless indispensable actors to ensure in a professional manner quality education, tailored to todays and tomorrows challenges.
The Congress of the WCT urges the international community and the regional and national authorities again to remove the burden that is still lying on the evolution towards a peaceful and equitable world due to the fact that millions of children are still denied the elementary right to quality basic education. It calls on its member organisations to take an active part in the drawing up, development and implementation of the plan of action to which the governments have committed themselves during the Forum in Dakar, a condition, further, for being assured of support from the international community.
Resolution on Secondary Education
Referring to the resolutions of the previous congresses and particularly the one adopted by the 7th WCT Congress, in Kuala Lumpur in 1998,
The 8th WCT World Congress,
considering the framework for action of Education for All (EfA), defined in Dakar (2000),
considering the Recommendation on the Status of the Teaching Staff (1966) and the conclusions of the recent meeting of the CEART (2000) on the application of this Recommendation,
considering the preparatory works for the International Conference on the New Policy for Secondary Education, which will discuss Secondary Education for a Better Future: Trends, Challenges and Priorities (Oman, December 2002), and particularly the report of the meeting of international experts on secondary education in the 21st century (Beijing, China, 2001),
considering the conclusions and resolutions of the International Conference on Vocational Education (Seoul, Korea, 1999),
considering the conclusions of the joint meeting of the ILO on Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century the Changing Role of the Education Staff, in particular at the level of teachers training,
is pleased with
the reflection in the international community on the importance and the role of secondary education within the framework of lifelong education;
the new approach to secondary education, going beyond the transition to and preparation for higher education, and particularly with the will to fit secondary education in with the conceptual framework of basic education, based on the four pillars identified by the Delors Report and preparing for lifelong education. So secondary education does not only prepare for higher education, but also for professional life, society and citizenship
recommends
to the international community and the political decision-makers:
to see to it that secondary education is given a new mission based on a conceptual framework rethought within the context of lifelong education;
to see to it that secondary education is provided with the necessary human, financial and logistic resources to accomplish its rethought mission;
to the participants in the Congress:
to act to achieve the Recommendation on the Status of the Teaching Staff (1966) is at last applied everywhere and to be involved in the follow-up of the CEART reports;
to act to ensure that the new approaches to the role and tasks of secondary education are introduced at the national level without this worsening the situation of the teachers and personnel in secondary education;
to ensure that secondary education in its new tasks achieves the social aim of education and that the necessary functional framework is created to enable teachers to really become education professionals, actors of social inclusion.
states
that it is essential that in the educational structure of all countries there is the possibility to fulfil all special needs of pupils/students, either in regular or special education.
Resolution on Vocational Education
Referring to the resolutions on vocational education adopted by the previous WCT congresses and in particular by the 7th Congress, in Kuala Lumpur,
the 8th WCT Congress, assembled in Albena, Bulgaria,
considering the conclusions, resolutions, declarations and action programmes adopted by the International Conference on Vocational Education in Seoul (1999), setting a new paradigm for vocational training,
considering the conclusions and the framework for action of the World Forum on Education in Dakar (2000) and particularly the redefinition of the basic education concept,
considering Report V on Training for Employment, Productivity and Social Inclusion, discussed at the 88th International Labour Conference of the ILO in 2000,
considering the conclusions of the ILO Joint Meeting on Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century the Changing Role of Education Personnel and particularly the one related to teachers training,
considering the Recommendation on the Status of the Teaching Staff (1966) and the conclusions of the recent meeting of CEART (2000) on the application of this Recommendation,
considering the GATS and its possible effect on education and on adult education in particular,
considering the preparatory works of the UNESCO on the World Conference on Secondary Education, the main theme of which will be: Secondary Education for a Better Future: Trends, Challenges and Priorities (Oman, December 2002),
is concerned about
the ever stronger trend to consider vocational education from a purely functional point of view, aimed only at employability, short-term mobility and direct occupational integration;
the too modest place reserved in basic education for education in elementary know-how, yet clearly identified in the Jacques Delors Report as one of the four pillars of Education for the 21st Century;
the increase in the number of informal sector workers and the absence of education, particularly of vocational education, adapted to the specific needs of individuals active in this sector;
recommends to the international community
to act to achieve that vocational education, in its component to development elementary know-how necessary for social insertion, remains an integral part of basic education;
to invest in the development of a vocational education that enables individuals to develop forms of intelligence other than conceptual intelligence, out of concern for the self-fulfilment of the individuals in their entirety;
to see to a fair balance in the relation between vocational education and the economic world, so that vocational education can accomplish its twofold mission of developing individuals and facilitating occupational integration;
to rethink the role of school and of vocational education to enable to be responsible actors of introducing quality lifelong learning;
to pay particular attention to the vocational training of women;
recommends to the participants
to ensure in their actions the development of a vocational education that goes beyond immediate occupational integration and aims at the self-fulfilment of the individual through learning or the updating of generic capacities;
to ensure the development of open and socially responsible educational systems capable of complying with the demand for quality lifelong vocational education of individuals and society;
to ensure the development of a vocational education that is accessible to all, including to the most underprivileged, not as a channel towards banishment, but integrated into an education that is aimed at the individual, social and occupational development of each citizen;
to act to achieve the same social and financial status for the teaching staff in vocational education as for the other teaching staff and respect for the international standards, in particular for the Recommendation of 1966 and the conventions of the ILO.
states
that it is essential that in the educational structure of all countries there is the possibility to fulfil all special needs of pupils/students, either in regular or special education.
Resolution on Higher Education
Referring to the resolutions of previous congresses and particularly to the one adopted by the 7th WCT Congress, in Kuala Lumpur in 1998,
The 8th WCT World Congress,
considering the World Declaration on Education for the 21st century: vision as well as the framework for priority actions for change and development in higher education of the World Conference on Higher Education, which the UNESCO organised in Paris in 1998;
considering the Recommendation on the status of teaching personnel in higher education (1997) and the conclusions of the first CEART meeting on the application of this Recommendation;
considering the recent publication of the World Bank on higher education[12] and the conclusions of the joint World Bank and UNESCO report on the challenges of higher education in developing countries;
considering the role of higher education for the development of individuals in a society based on lifelong learning and for occupational development in an economy based on knowledge;
considering the conclusions of the joint ILO meeting on Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century the Changing Role of Education Personnel, particularly in the training of teachers;
considering the impact of information and communication technologies on the development of higher education;
considering the GATS agreements and their possible impact on higher education;
considering the increased share given to industrial research to the detriment of basic research;
is pleased with:
the importance accorded to the role of higher education in the development of individuals and society, as well as in the training of teachers;
the increase in women participation in higher education;
the conclusions of the CEART on the application of the Recommendation on the status of teaching personnel in higher learning.
is concerned about:
the increasing share of private funding in higher education institutes, which implies a growing tendency towards commercialisation, jeopardising the aim of higher education. Nevertheless it is of great importance that good relationships between higher education institutes and trade, industry and society are established;
the growing tendency to introduce into higher education institutes a human resources management that is aimed more at economic results to the detriment of academic, pedagogic and scientific results;
the share left for basic research and particularly for research in education;
the difference in development of higher education between North and South;
recommends:
The international community and political decision-makers:
to ensure a fair balance in the relations with the economic world in such a manner that higher education can fully participate in local and international development with regard to missions defined by the World Conference on Higher Education;
to ensure that in higher education, next to the regular system possibilities are created to develop dual (studying - working) and distance learning;
to ensure access to quality higher education for all in developed and developing countries, and to take the necessary measures to avoid brain drain;
to ensure public funding for higher education, which guarantees its academic independence and enables it to undertake the necessary basic research.
The participants in the Congress:
to act so that the Recommendation on the status of teaching personnel in higher education is better monitored and applied;
to act so that all members of personnel in higher education have decent working conditions and a socially appropriate salary;
to act so that all members of personnel in higher education can develop their professional qualifications and thus exercise their social responsibility for the development of individuals and the local, national and international society;
to act so that all member organisations strengthen their solidarity so as to improve the situation of personnel in higher education through better application of international standards and particularly the 1997 Recommendation and the ILO conventions.
states
that it is essential that in the educational structure of all countries there is the possibility to fulfil all special needs of students.
esolution on adults education
Referring to the resolutions on adult education adopted by the previous WCT congresses and particularly by the 7th Congress, in Kuala Lumpur,
The 8th WCT Congress, assembled in Albena, Bulgaria,
considering the Declaration of Hamburg, Agenda for the Future, on the occasion of the International Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg (1997),
considering the Framework for Action of the World Forum on Education in Dakar (2000) and in particular the commitment to reduce by 2005 the education gap existing between boys and girls,
considering the conclusion of the International Conference on Vocational Education in Seoul (1999) and in particular the recommendations on vocational training for women and girls,
considering Report V on Training for Employment, Productivity and Social Inclusion, discussed at the 88th International Labour Conference of the ILO in 2000,
considering the resolution the TUAC ministers of Transport passed at their ministerial meeting in 2001, and the Declaration of the Advisory Committee to the OECD,
considering the Memorandum 2000 on Lifelong Learning of the European Community,
considering the conclusions of the ILO Joint Meeting on Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century the Changing Role of Education Personnel and particularly the one related to teachers training,
considering the Recommendation on the Status of the Teaching Staff (1966) and the conclusions of the recent meeting of CEART (2000) on the application of this Recommendation,
considering the GATS and its possible effect on education and on adult education in particular,
recommends to the international community:
to consider the disaster of social exclusion due to illiteracy in the knowledge society and of the accentuation of the internal and external dualisation in society, which it develops;
to look upon adult education from the perspective of its twofold mission literacy and quality lifelong education for all. This requires, of course, to go beyond the functional approach to adult education and to opt for aim of social inclusion;
to consider the social impact of adult education on youth and, in particular, womens education. Adults are and remain the reference of youths, and the family is the first actor responsible for education;
to make available the necessary human, financial and logistic resources to develop an adult education in keeping with the goals set;
invites the participants:
to fit their actions for adult education in with the Declaration of Hamburg and its follow-up and to see to it that adult education is aimed at the development of the individual in his or her human, social, occupational, cultural and religious component;.
to develop, by means of a constructive social dialogue, a close co-operation between all the social partners so as to develop an interaction benefiting the development of adult education;
to seek and develop a partnership with other NGOs active in the field of adult education. This partnership will develop in particular if it fits in with the training programmes of the WCL;
to favour the access of women to adult education, taking into account the multiplier effect on youth and family education;
to fight every commercialisation of adult education as it would harm the aim of social inclusion, and of every system of adult education that fails to respect the cultural and linguistic differences of the populations;
to pursue the development of adult education in all its aspects, including adult basic education and the recognition of prior learning: struggle against illiteracy and the digital gap, and for lifelong learning of the individual at the level of knowledge, know-how, learn to be and learn to live together.
states
that it is essential that in the educational structure of all countries there is the possibility to fulfil all special needs of adults.
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