Resolution on the impact of new information and communication technologies in education
The 8th WCT-congress in Albena
– recognising that the information technologies are at the heart of the new processes driving wealth creation and that productivity and competitiveness in the market system are, to an increasing extent, determined by knowledge generation and information processing;
– taking into account the enormous differences between the rich and the poor countries and acknowledging, with Nelson Mandela, the fact that eliminating the distinction between information-rich and information-poor counties is critical to eliminating other inequalities between developed and developing countries;
– considering the growing impact of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in education and training and in the day-to-day life of the people all over the world. The WCT wants to point out that overemphasising the importance of ICT in education could result in neglecting the basic pedagogical tasks of education as the teacher plays a foremost part in the personality development of the pupil/student and is therefore an essential actor in social inclusion.
– considering that the influence and the possible consequences from the more widespread and diversified access to knowledge poses major challenges to education and teaching. This will effect their training and their working conditions and will impact on their professionalism;
– considering that ICT can and should be the means of improving education and strengthening union rights by facilitating access to information, and democracy however realising that ICT can generate inequality between developed and developing countries, between the privileged and the disadvantaged in all countries;
– recognising that cross-border E-learning is likely to have a major influence on the future development of educational services, especially in higher education - it will increase the number of students taking foreign courses; it will accentuate the need for an agreed international quality framework for higher education; it might reduce the growth rate of international student mobility - and that growing cross-border activities will most likely accentuate national concerns to regulate these activities;
– taking into consideration the conclusions and the strategic plans of the G7, the European Council, the OECD, the relevant programmes from Unesco, the ILO, the Council of Europe and other international bodies in relation to the introduction of ICT and e-learning in education and training, the development of adequate hard-and software, the implementation of ICT as a tool to be integrated in the pedagogy and the new visions on learning in the education systems;
– recognising that no amount of technology transfer will be able to compensate for the huge inequalities in education that divide rich from poor.
– stressing that technology transfer has a role to play in the elimination of the division between the developed and developing countries, but that without rapid progress towards universal primary education, the foundations needed to close the ’digital divide’ between rich and poor will not be in place; that so far efforts to address the ‘digital divide’ have focused on the development of grandiose, multi-billion dollar schemes for technology transfer; but that in countries where fewer than one in two children progress through the primary-school-system, where most leave the system without basic numeracy and literacy skills, and where mass illiteracy prevails, no amount of technology will have the desired effect.
The congress
– urges the governments and the international community to take up their responsibility for enough public financing measures to guarantee the equal opportunities for ‘the education for all’, real opportunities for all countries in line with the principles of the Framework for Action as adopted in Dakar in 2000;
– warns that public funding for education should remain a national responsibility and priority and be the main financing resource since sponsoring or unilateral dependency from foreign powers would lead to unacceptable inequality between schools, rural areas and cities, between countries and regions because of a dependant relation, and an unjustified influence of the sponsor on the curriculum and the organisation of the school system, at the detriment of the cultural diversity, the identity, the values and the historical context of the education system concerned;
– invites the governments to take up their responsibility for financing the conditions for implementing new visions on learning in the initial and in-service- training of teachers, in the infrastructure for help services and research, a free of charge internet-connection for all schools and for adequate equipment in ICT (hardware and especially software) as one of the important tools to reach the new goals of education in the 21th century. Therefore the WCT asks all governments to provide major investments to reach these goals.
– urges the governments to negotiate in a transparent manner with the teacher unions about:
– the changing working conditions of the teachers and the educational personnel in the developing process from teaching to learning in the schools and universities also to prevent stress caused by overloaded tasks and expectations;
– the accreditation systems for ICT training and the conditions for mobility, nationally and internationally;
– the new role and responsibility of the teacher and the education personnel, the necessary competencies they need and the new possibilities for their career paths in the changing organisation;
– mandates the World Board and the regional boards of the WCT to organise the necessary contacts with all the relevant international instances as Unesco, ILO, WTO, the World Bank, the OECD, the EU, Mercosur, Asean,… to advocate for the necessary steps and come to the necessary agreements to introduce the ICT *in under the best pedagogical conditions, taking into account basic principles as equal opportunities for all schools and individuals, respect for the culture, the languages, the values and the specificity of the countries and the rights and the conditions of service of the educational staff involved;
– invites the member organisations to negotiate with their governments about the necessity to introduce ICT in the school system taking into account basic principles as equal opportunities for all, a minimal provision of hard-and software, free internet connection, fair agreements with international bodies, sponsoring agencies to safeguard a pedagogical approach instead of commercial interests and qualitative standards for educational software
– invites member organisations, governments and other stakeholders in education to carefully consider the consequence on the status and the working conditions of the educational staff;
– invites the member organisations to stimulate and motivate their members to participate actively in the changes and challenges in the education systems and schools and universities; to take their own responsibilities in the changing processes by asking facilities for their life-long-learning on the quality of their profession;
– to play an active role in the activities of their unions to influence the teacher training institutions on the quality of the courses and curricula, the accreditation system and the development of quality-standards for the profession.
Resolution on the struggle against poverty
The WCT Congress in Albena, confirming the resolution on the struggle against poverty in the world, passed by the Congress in Kuala Lumpur,
establishes:
- that at the United Nations Millennium Summit, assembled in New York in September 2000, the political authorities of all countries committed themselves to reducing, before the year 2015, by 50% the percentage of the world population living on less than one dollar a day; considering that, except for East Asia, the number of people involved, in the developing countries, went up by ten million a year on average in the 1990s;
- that in a world in which the economic wealth amounts to thirty billion dollars, it is unacceptable that around 40% of the children from developing countries, around 600 million, remain condemned to feed and develop on less than one dollar a day. But also that in the richest countries one out of six children, around 47 million, is living below the poverty line;
- that the International Food Policy Research Institute – IFPRI has predicted that in twenty years’ time there will still be 132 million undernourished children worldwide, unless radical measures are taken; one-third of them will live in India; 39-49% of all African children will still be undernourished in 2020;
- that, as a consequence, children suffering most from poverty at a stage in their lives in which they enjoy their strongest physical, intellectual and affective development, are cut off the possibility of a normal physical and psychological development of their potential;
- that the current welfare worldwide generates sufficient resources to give all children the opportunity to develop normally.
Together with the NGOs at the World Summit for Children, the WCT Congress states:
- that the widespread poverty in a world of global welfare constitutes a morally unacceptable violation of the rights of children; that the struggle against poverty requires an adequate and guaranteed protection of these rights through the economic and social policies of the countries; that the struggle against poverty must be waged on many fronts, from the provision of basic needs to the supply of jobs, from the supply of infrastructures to the remission of debts and to lawful commercial practices, from the positive discrimination of single women with children to a proper budget administration and the struggle against corruption, ...
- It affirms that each child must be given the right to a minimum living standard and all chances of developing its potential; that the globalisation and the fast technological development offer unexpected opportunities to achieve social and economic progress and to take up great challenges such as insecurity, poverty, social exclusion, environmental issues, unequal treatment, marginalisation, ...
- Reality teaches, however, that the globalisation has weakened many states, particularly those already poorly equipped to satisfy basic needs. A sustainable development, focused on the needs of people, on an open, equal and non-discriminatory trade and on a fair and transparent financial system regulating the relations in and between countries and regions, must check the negative effects of globalisation.
- The necessary investments in education and training must take top priority in each realistic programme to fight poverty and to build a dignified existence for all.
The WCT Congress in Albena,
mindful of the decisions made in Kuala Lumpur,
- calls on the governments to put into practice without further delay the formal pledges formulated at the Social Summit in Copenhagen (1995) and at the Millennium Summit (2000). The WCT points out that education, training and culture can make an essential contribution to an adequate struggle against poverty; people living in poverty are indeed particularly vulnerable and must be partners in the development of their communities by means of a monitored participation in political, economic and social life. In particular the implementation of the conclusions of the Dakar Conference on Education for All (2000) – generalisation of basic education, training of sufficient teachers who are qualified, specific measures for pupils facing special educational needs, ... – deserves to be a matter of priority.
- affirms the fundamental importance of the involvement of all stakeholders in society and in the communities to enable and support the achievement of these goals through partnerships and networking at the local level.
- calls in particular on the teachers and their organisations to assume in this matter a guiding and inspiring role, in line with the conclusions contained in the general Congress resolution.
Resolution on the effects of AIDS/HIV on education and teaching staff
The 8th WCT World Congress:
– aware of the fact that AIDS/HIV is today’s third cause of death worldwide; that in Africa, in 2001, an estimated 2.3 million Africans died of AIDS and 3.4 million Africans more, among whom many children, carry the HIV virus; that the vast majority of them will die in the foreseeable future; that the total number of HIV positive people is estimated at 40 million worldwide, 28.5 million of whom in Africa and 6.1 million in Southeast Asia; that, worldwide, around 2.7 million children below 15 are reckoned to be part of this group;
– confronted with the reality that the AIDS plague has made already 13.2 million orphans, 95% of whom are living in Africa, and that most of those children will be doomed not to go to school or to leave school early for lack of an income to provide for their livelihood;
– aware of the fact that many teachers die of AIDS, as a result of which the shortage of qualified teachers is growing spectacularly in various regions; that the deployment of still functioning HIV positive teachers is strongly on the decrease, which of course is not without consequences for the quality of their work; that this fact causes, besides other kinds of deprivation, an additional jeopardy to the right to education of very many children and youths;
– knowing that the AIDS pandemic has tragic effects for the lives of countless women and young girls; that 55% of all HIV positive people are women, victims like in so many other cases of unequal treatment and culture-based practices that keep stating male supremacy and female submissiveness;
– convinced of the fact that elementary social provisions and initiatives to improve health and hygiene are lacking or insufficiently available in many cases; that many governments, particularly in Africa, refuse to or cannot set up clearly defined or adequate programmes to combat AIDS/HIV;
– convinced of the fact that as a result of the aforementioned, AIDS/HIV constitutes an enormous threat to the economic and social development of the countries and peoples affected most, nipping in the bud each development programme aimed at sustainable development.
The WCT Congress
– calls on the international community and the national leaders to combat the AIDS epidemic by whatever means and to make all necessary resources available for this;
– calls attention to children in the first place, who threaten to become the main victims of this hellish developments because they are the most vulnerable section of the population, as regards not only their health but also their prospects and socio-economic development. Sport and physical education can play an important role in this regard. The importance of paying attention to ethics and religious values should not be ignored.
– calls on the teachers and their organisations to commit themselves, jointly with the political leaders, to realistic programmes in prevention of AIDS, to support special programmes and initiatives to treat AIDS and particularly to pursue a sufficient qualitative and quantitative relief for the orphans concerned, in order not to further jeopardise their prospects; sound education opportunities are primordial in this respect;
– calls on the teachers’ organisations to pursue, besides information and training with a view to an effective reduction of and fight against the epidemic, as permanent parts of their action programmes also an ethically sound attitude of the teachers themselves, inviting them to overcome prejudices and culture-based attitudes and objections by pointing out their fundamental responsibility;
– demands expressly to make sure that the virus-affected teachers be protected in their professional interests and human dignity and that in each case the access to treatment of the disease by the Health Systems must be guaranteed. Therefore all possible supplies (including medicines) to combat AIDS should be available in all countries free or at very low prices;
– calls on the regional organisations of the WCT to exchange information and experiences in support of the member organisations in this delicate but necessary task and to co-operate in this matter with institutions and organisations that help combat AIDS/HIV in their respective regions.
Resolution on Child Labour and Children’s Rights
Referring to the resolution the WCT passed at its Congress in Kuala Lumpur, in 1998, and to its general resolution, the 8th World Congress of the WCT, assembled in Albena, which states:
- that the scourge of child labour continues to prevent millions of children from acquiring through education the necessary skills and knowledge to build a dignified existence and to achieve their full social and economic integration;
- that this situation also continues to impact heavily upon the medium- and long-term economic development of the communities in which they grow up, as the number of people having the necessary skills to advance a sustainable development remains limited.
The WCT Congress is pleased with the fact
that the standard-setting instruments capable of eliminating this scourge have been extended and strengthened in recent years and that international intergovernmental and non-governmental campaigns have given the movement towards a more just treatment of children more impact and a wider range.
The UN Convention the Rights of Children (20.11.1989) added to the strength of the ILO Minimum Age Convention (no. 138), adopted in 1973, in that it protects children against exploitation and hazardous work and against all obstacles to their education, health and physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
In 1999, the General Assembly of the ILO adopted by common consent the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (no. 182) and decided on immediate action to eradicate these practises for all youth under 18. This Convention, too, underlined the decisive role of education in this respect. The IPEC programme, to which the WCT subscribes, lends assistance and has successfully stressed the ILO’s commitment in recent years.
- The Congress welcomes the growing international co-operation in the struggle against child labour and points out the commitment of the UNESCO, UNICEF, the UNDP and the World Bank in this respect. It applauds the growing interest in the child labour issue, referring to the International Conference Against Child Labour (Oslo, 1997), the United Nations Millennium Summit (2002), the World Summit for Children (2002), and other such initiatives.
The Congress therefore concludes and resolves that:
- The WCT must expressly associate itself with the actions of the international community, at the intergovernmental and the non-governmental level alike, to effectively guarantee the rights of children highlighted through international treaties and conventions and to express formal complaints in cases where these rights are violated.
- It underlines the essential contribution education and therefore the teachers make, through their trade unions, to effectively combat the exploitation of children, to keep watch over the application of the international standards in all countries and to develop joint initiatives and plans of action capable of mobilising large sections of the population. The guaranteeing of the basic right to quality basic education for all must take the highest priority.
- All the member organisations are called on to develop in their plans of action direct or supportive initiatives as a logical consequence of this resolution and of the general resolution as passed by the Albena Congress.
Resolution on respect for human rights and for international standards
Referring to the resolutions of its congresses in Caracas, Dakar and Kuala Lumpur and to the general resolution of this Congress, in Albena,
whereas
the international community confirmed expressly at several world conferences, staged in the course of the last decade of the previous century and in the period of transition to the 21st century:
- that all human rights must be interpreted in a universal, co-ordinative and inextricably interrelated manner;
- that all human beings have a right to respect for their dignity and unicity;
- that special attention must be paid to the protection of the rights of children, women, indigenous populations, minorities, elderly, disabled people, sexually otherwise oriented people, carriers of the HIV/AIDS virus, refugees and displaced persons;
- that greater attention must be paid to respect for the economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, because these rights have been largely neglected to this day;
whereas
the International Labour Organisation, in its Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of 1998, stressed again that the member states have committed themselves to respecting the following basic conventions:
- Convention 87 on the freedom of association and protection of the right to organise (1948);
- Convention 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining (1949);
- Convention 29 on forced labour (1930), substantiated further by Convention 105 on the abolition of forced labour (1957);
- Convention 100 on equal remuneration (1951);
- Convention 111 on discrimination in employment and occupation (1958);
- Convention 138 on minimum age (1973), strengthened by Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour (1999);
whereas
the conclusions of the Joint ILO Committee of Teaching Personnel, which assembled in Geneva in April 2000 on Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century: the Changing Role of Educational Personnel, and of the 8th Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART) (1966 and 1997), which confirm that respect for the basic rights of teaching personnel is still systematically neglected in many countries;
aware that a policy aimed at greater autonomy and responsibility for educational establishments and a personnel policy based on the HRM principles… are not detrimental to the fundamental options taken in the aforementioned documents;
the 8th WCT Congress, assembled in Albena,
- confirms the resolutions passed by the Congress of Kuala Lumpur, in 1998, on the human rights in general and respect for the international standards for the teaching personnel in particular;
- endorses the conclusions to which the community of non-governmental organisations and particularly the international trade unions recently subscribed on the occasion, for example, of the Millennium Conference and the Millennium Summit, in 2000, and of the Conference of the Least Developed Countries, in 2001;
- reaffirms the commitment of the WCT to the positions of the WCL and its regional organisations as well as to the WCT’s fundamental mission to protect worldwide and nationwide the human rights in general and the rights of the teaching personnel and of education in particular; with this end in view, it pledges again to co-operate with the international, regional and national bodies that stand up for respect for these rights;
- calls on all the affiliates to continue to develop initiatives in protection of these rights and to report on them to the WCT with a view to an effective protection of interests at the international forum.
Resolution on the commercialisation of education
The 8th WCLT Congress, assembled in Albena (Bulgaria),
observes with growing concern:
that the economic developments worldwide lead to a commercialisation not only of commodities but increasingly also of services, including the ones that are traditionally reckoned among the tasks of the public authorities;
that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) concluded in 1994 a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), in which education is considered a service to be liberalised;
that the GATS classification provides for five subsections (elementary, secondary, higher, adult and ‘other’ education), which in the WTO logic qualify for commercialisation ‘except for the services organised under government responsibility to the extent that they do not enter into a competition with private initiatives’. A too narrow interpretation of this classification can result in jeopardising the assurance of an adequate, public funded system of universal basic education for all;
- that the commercialisation of education could constitute a threat to the working conditions and statutes of the educational personnel;
The Congress
takes note of the fact that within the framework of the GATS all countries are to communicate by March 2003 what branches of education they wish to open up for the international market on a general basis. It points out that bilateral contracts and agreements can have far-reaching consequences in case of non-endorsement of the general commitments;
observes that over commercialisation is already in progress in higher education (enrolment of foreign students, marketing of courses and services, creation of foreign branches, marketing of educational appliances and methods, marketing of scientific research…) and that this commercialisation has a strong impact on the organisation, content and competitiveness of the higher education institutes and their research centres;
observes, further, that at the national level education establishments are increasingly approached for commerce-oriented initiatives, in which the lack of sufficient public funding is compensated for by receipts from sponsoring or commercial activities. Within this framework schools are looked upon as elements of a commercial strategy and educational initiatives are offered as paid services.
The Congress
confirms expressly that it would be unacceptable to measure the role and meaning of education by purely economic criteria; it reiterates the essential meaning of values-oriented education for the development of an equitable society based on solidarity, mutual understanding and respect, driven by a pursuit of equal opportunities for all and lasting social peace.
confirms emphatically that a fully-fledged quality education, and in particular basic education for all, is only feasible if the public authorities continue to assume full financial and regulatory responsibility for it; that the millennium commitment by the international community concerning “Basic education for all”, cannot be achieved if the governments do not fully take up their responsibility;
- calls on the governments to fulfil their responsibility towards the conditions of training, schooling and guiding of the teaching personnel and the evaluation system;
opposes the current state of affairs with the GATS, because it threatens to cause, in the matter of education, a further dualisation on economic grounds between individuals, countries and peoples, raising the independence of education establishments from external bodies in order to serve commercial interests, and making them vulnerable for influences that ignore their identity, culture and specific missions in relation to the own context;
stands up against co-operation between education establishments and the business world if this leads to a dependence relationship jeopardising the own pedagogic mission of education, and if it implies education establishments selectively serving purely commercial interests without taking into consideration the specific role education establishments play in many cases in the social development of the community in which they are organised; besides, this co-operation holds a serious threat for the status and the salary and working conditions of the teaching staff and places the institutions in a position of unequal competition;
turns down each agreement within the GATS, by which countries can be punished or discriminated against because they fail to adjust, or adjust insufficiently by the GATS standards, to commercial or so-called competitive agreements on education, the more so if such agreements jeopardise the identity or the accomplishments of the core tasks of education establishments;
warns against cultural domination by the richest countries with the strongest technological potential at the cost of the cultures and traditions of countries that are lacking the financial and material resources to develop their own programmes in strongly culture-related fields;
- calls on the developed countries to support other countries in their technological evolution;
calls on the national authorities not to tolerate initiatives that treat education establishment unequally for the sake of external interests, so impacting heavily on the prospects of the socially weaker sections of the population in particular. It is the government’s task to prevent over-commercialisation of education;
calls on the member organisations to carefully monitor the developments in the respective countries, to inform and create awareness among their members and to intervene timorously with government officials so to prevent agreements that run counter to the spirit of this resolution.
Resolution on Equal Opportunities
Referring to the resolutions on equal opportunities adopted by the previous WCT congresses and particularly to the one passed by the 7th Congress, in Kuala Lumpur,
the 8th WCT Congress, assembled in Albena, Bulgaria,
– considering the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Declaration of Beijing (1995) and the Declaration of Beijing 5 (2000),
– considering the Declaration of Hamburg, Agenda for the Future, adopted by the International Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg (1997),
– considering the framework for action of the World Forum on Education in Dakar (2000) and particularly the commitment to reduce by 2005 the education gap between boys and girls,
– considering the conclusions of the International Conference on Vocational Training in Seoul (1999) and particularly the recommendations on the vocational education of women and girls,
– considering the Maternity Protection Convention 183 and Recommendation 191, adopted by the 88th International Labour Conference of the ILO (Geneva, 2000),
– considering the conclusions of the Conference on Development (Geneva, 2000), the Millennium Forum (2000) and the Conference of the Least-Advanced Countries (2001),
– in view of the too high percentage of women (62 to 71%) who have no access to education in sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab states, West and South Asia and who account for around two-thirds of the illiterates worldwide,
– notwithstanding all the promises and efforts, more than 60% of the 250 million children not attending school are girls,
– whereas women and children, even in the rich countries, account for the majority of the population currently living below the poverty line,
– in view of the high rate of feminisation of the teaching profession worldwide, certainly in basic education, and of the insufficient application of the Recommendation on the Status of the Teaching Staff (1966), particularly the articles 54 to 58,
– in view of the educational role of women in society, particularly in the rural societies, and given the importance, in a knowledge-based society, of real equal opportunities in the matter of youth education and employment in the education sector,
reminds:
– that basic education is essential for all the citizens and particularly for strengthening the position of girls and women in society;
– that equal participation for women and girls is fundamental for social inclusion and for favouring the development and transfer of knowledge through education;
– that education to equal opportunities is an integral part of the development of a peace culture and sustainable development;
therefore asks the international community:
– that the pledges in the matter of access to education for girls and women are respected in all the world regions, in all the strata of society and in all forms of education;
– that the professionalism of women teachers is recognised at last, ensuring them the same access to the profession and to initial and further training, the same salaries, the same working conditions and the same career opportunities;
– that the recognition of the professionalism of women teachers does not diminish at all their right to combine professional and family responsibilities, with due respect for the articles 54 to 58 of the Recommendation on the Status of the Teaching Staff (1966);
pledges :
– to participate in the efforts of the international community and to stimulate actively, both nationally and worldwide, to achieve the goals set in Dakar and to guarantee the basic right to quality education for all, paying special attention and giving special support to the positive actions in favour of girls and women;
– to guarantee the significant participation of women in its structures at all levels and to integrate to gender-related aspects in its action programme;
– to contribute to the development of the action programme of the Women’s Committee of the WCL, for which education is one of the priorities in the next four years;.
– to develop internal activities in favour of equal opportunities for men and women, aimed to implement the present resolution and the conclusions of the International Conference on Women in Education (Albena, 2002).
– to promote the cause and the course for equal opportunities for boys and girls, men and women in all contacts with governments and other stakeholders.
– to highlight the plight of thousands of children forced into prostitution and slave-like child labour robbing them of the opportunity of education and a future. It calls on international organisations, national governments and other stakeholders to launch concerted efforts to curtail these violations.
Resolution on the struggle against poverty
The WCT Congress in Albena, confirming the resolution on the struggle against poverty in the world, passed by the Congress in Kuala Lumpur,
establishes:
- that at the United Nations Millennium Summit, assembled in New York in September 2000, the political authorities of all countries committed themselves to reducing, before the year 2015, by 50% the percentage of the world population living on less than one dollar a day; considering that, except for East Asia, the number of people involved, in the developing countries, went up by ten million a year on average in the 1990s;
- that in a world in which the economic wealth amounts to thirty billion dollars, it is unacceptable that around 40% of the children from developing countries, around 600 million, remain condemned to feed and develop on less than one dollar a day. But also that in the richest countries one out of six children, around 47 million, is living below the poverty line;
- that the International Food Policy Research Institute – IFPRI has predicted that in twenty years’ time there will still be 132 million undernourished children worldwide, unless radical measures are taken; one-third of them will live in India; 39-49% of all African children will still be undernourished in 2020;
- that, as a consequence, children suffering most from poverty at a stage in their lives in which they enjoy their strongest physical, intellectual and affective development, are cut off the possibility of a normal physical and psychological development of their potential;
- that the current welfare worldwide generates sufficient resources to give all children the opportunity to develop normally.
Together with the NGOs at the World Summit for Children, the WCT Congress states:
- that the widespread poverty in a world of global welfare constitutes a morally unacceptable violation of the rights of children; that the struggle against poverty requires an adequate and guaranteed protection of these rights through the economic and social policies of the countries; that the struggle against poverty must be waged on many fronts, from the provision of basic needs to the supply of jobs, from the supply of infrastructures to the remission of debts and to lawful commercial practices, from the positive discrimination of single women with children to a proper budget administration and the struggle against corruption, ...
- It affirms that each child must be given the right to a minimum living standard and all chances of developing its potential; that the globalisation and the fast technological development offer unexpected opportunities to achieve social and economic progress and to take up great challenges such as insecurity, poverty, social exclusion, environmental issues, unequal treatment, marginalisation, ...
- Reality teaches, however, that the globalisation has weakened many states, particularly those already poorly equipped to satisfy basic needs. A sustainable development, focused on the needs of people, on an open, equal and non-discriminatory trade and on a fair and transparent financial system regulating the relations in and between countries and regions, must check the negative effects of globalisation.
- The necessary investments in education and training must take top priority in each realistic programme to fight poverty and to build a dignified existence for all.
The WCT Congress in Albena,
mindful of the decisions made in Kuala Lumpur,
- calls on the governments to put into practice without further delay the formal pledges formulated at the Social Summit in Copenhagen (1995) and at the Millennium Summit (2000). The WCT points out that education, training and culture can make an essential contribution to an adequate struggle against poverty; people living in poverty are indeed particularly vulnerable and must be partners in the development of their communities by means of a monitored participation in political, economic and social life. In particular the implementation of the conclusions of the Dakar Conference on Education for All (2000) – generalisation of basic education, training of sufficient teachers who are qualified, specific measures for pupils facing special educational needs, ... – deserves to be a matter of priority.
- affirms the fundamental importance of the involvement of all stakeholders in society and in the communities to enable and support the achievement of these goals through partnerships and networking at the local level.
- calls in particular on the teachers and their organisations to assume in this matter a guiding and inspiring role, in line with the conclusions contained in the general Congress resolution.
[1] 1990: World Summit for Children – New York
1990: World Conference on Education for All – Jomtien
1994: World Conference on Human Rights – Vienna
1995: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – the Earth Summit – Rio
1995: International Conference on Population and Development – Cairo
1995: World Summit for Social Development – Copenhagen
1995: Forth World Conference on Women – Beijing
2000: Millennium Summit – New York
[2] 1990: World Conference on Education for All – Jomtien
The international conferences on Adult Education (Hamburg, 1998); Vocational and Technical Education (Seoul, 1999); Higher Education (Paris, 1999)
The World Forum on Education for All (Dakar, 2000)
[3] 1985: Nurnberg – Education Trade Unionism in a Changing Society
1989: Caracas – Education and Teachers and the Worldwide Crisis
1994: Dakar – Education and Teachers for Democracy and Respect for the Own Identity
1998: Kuala Lumpur – Education and Teachers for the 21st Century
[4] Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century: the Changing Role of the Teaching Staff (Geneva, 10-14 April 2000)
[5] See separate resolution of the Congress of Albena
[6] See separate resolution of the Congress of Albena
[7] See separate resolution of the Congress of Albena
[8] See separate resolution of the Congress of Albena
[9] See separate resolution of the Congress of Albena
[10] See the report of the Delors Commission on “Education, the Treasure Within”
[11] See the resolution on vocational education of the Congress of Albena
[12] Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education : A World Bank Report, April 16, 2002, Education Group, Human Development Network
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