ERIC ED332852: Education for All. South East Asia and South Pacific Sub-Regional Conference Report (Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, October 14-19, 1990).

223 Pages·1991·5.7 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 332 852
RC 018 161
AUTHOR
Devlin, Brian C., Ed.
TITLE
Education for All. South East Asia and
South Pacific
Si:lip-Regional Conference Report (Darwin,
Northern
Territory, Australia, October 14-19, 1990).
INSTITUTION
Northern Territory Dept. of Education,
Darwin
(Australia).
SPONS AGENCY
Australian Dept. of Employment, Education
and
Training, Canberra.; Australian International
Development Assistance Bureau.; International
Literacy Year Secretariat, Canberra (Australia).;
United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural
Organization, Bangkok (Thailand). Principal
Regional
Office for Asia and the Pacific.
REPORT NO
ISBN-0-7245-2500-9
PUB DATE
91
NOTE
232p.
PUB TYPE
Collected Works - Conference Proceedings
(021)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC10 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Access to Education; Adult Education;
Bilingual
Education; *Disabilities; Education Work
Relationship; Elementary Secondary
Education; Equal
Education; Foreign Countries; *Indigenous
Populations; *Literacy Education; Multicultural
Education; Poverty; *Rural Education;
Teacher
Education; *Womens Education
IDENTIFIERS
*Asia (Southeast); Australia; Pacific
Islands; *South
Pacific
ABSTRACT
In October 1990, 223 delegates from 22
nations of
Southeast Asia and the South Pacific met
in Australia to discuss
plans and strategies for achieving universal
education in the region.
To inform planning and action, the
conference defined five
groups of
people for whom universal education is
a priority: indigenous people
and minorities, people in poverty,
people in remote areas,
people
with disabilities, and
women and girls. This report contains
summaries of 25 workshops and 25 round table
discussions that
examined education for each of these
groups from the standpoint of
access and equity, curriculum and professional
development, literacy,
elementary education, and the school/work
interface and continuing
education. These sessions included
descriptions of how various
countries are addressing each of these
issues, and recommendations
for further action. Appendices contain
background information
on the
region; proposed areas for cooperative
action; conference
organ4zation; highlights of country
reports; Australia's national
literacy strategy;
conference participants; and the
opening address.
Outlines of objectives,
inputs, outcomes, indicators of
progress, anc:
constraints for strategies in
the following areas of
concern are
presented in tables: early
childhood interventions
for literacy,
improvements in Eqementary
school literacy and
numeracy, functional
literacy to generate
income, literacy education for
women, literacy
and numeracy for disabled
adolescents and adults, development
of
educational materials for
literacy in the mother tongue,
provision of
technology for literacy
in remote areas, producing learning
materials
for literacy, and training
teachers and personnel for
literacy.
(SV)
SOUTH EAST ASIA AND SOUTH
PACIFIC
SUB-REGIONAL CONFERENCE
.r
CONFERENCE
REPORT
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This 00Cumen1 hes been reproduced
as
the person Or organilahon
isteinvae;:li nglro
Darwin Austfalia 14
19 October 1990
0 Minor changes have been mode
to irn0fOv
rePrOduCtiOn oratory
Points 01 view or opinions slated in this
00Cu-
ment 00 not necessarily represent official
OE qf positron or policy
ALL
EDUCATION FOR
SOUTH PACIFIC
SOUTH EAST ASIA AND
SUB--REGIONAL CONFERENCE
DARWIN
NORTHERN TERRITORY
AUSTRALIA
-
19 OCTOBER 1990
14
Edited by Dr Brian Devlin
Northern Territory Department of Education
Darwin 1991
© Northern Territory Department of Education1991
ISBN 0 7245 2500 9
For further Information please contact:
Executive Officer
Education For All Conference
Department of Education
GPO Box 4821
Darwin NT 0801
Telephone: [phone]
Printed by the Disance Education Branch
of the Northern Territory Department of Education
P&PFebruary91/284-400
Conference report : Education for all, South East Asia and
South Pacific sub-regionol conference, Darwin, Northern Territory,
Australia,
October 1990 / edited by Dr. Brian Devlin.
14 - 19
Darwin : Northern Territory Dept. of Education, 1991.
Hi, 220 p. ; 30 cm.
0724525009 : CIP
1. Literacy - Congresses. 2. Unesco, Asia-Pacific Programme
of Education for All.
I. Unesco. Asia-Pacific Programme of
Education for All. South-East Asia and South Pacific sub-regional
conference (1990 : Darwin, N.T.).
II. Northern Territory. Dept. of
Education. III. Title : Education for All. IV. Devlin, Brian.
374.012 20
4
Darwin 1990
Education For All
Contents
Page
Introduction
1
3
Background
5
Opening Ceremony
Program
11
34
Attendance
35
Organisation of the Conference
38
Election of Office Bearers
39
Plenary Addresses
53
Workshop Programs
97
Case Study Excursions
108
Round Tables
129
Action Plans
133
Resokitions
145
Draft Resolutions
149
Conclusion
155
Bibliography
Appendixes
157
Opening Address by the Minister for Education,
1.
Northern Territory, Australia
South East Asia and South Pacific Regional Action Plan
161
2.
185
A National Lit6racy Strategy for Australia
3.
193
List of Participants
4.
211
Conference Support
5.
ill
Darwin 1990
Introduction
(A note to conference delegates)
I hope you will forgive me if I talk to you as a person rather than hiding behind the report as
It is not an attempt to draw attention to myself or to 'grandstand', but
if I were invisible.
since so many people have taken the floor at this conference and spoken in a wonderfully
direct and honest way about their lives, fears, hopes, problems, programs, teaching, research
and dreams, I want to take this opportunity as conference rapporteur to say that you were
heard.
I think it was. When you packed your bags and said
You wanted this conference to be real.
goodbye to your friends and family, you probably did so in the belief that speaking at such a
I think it did. The final test, of course, will be the
conference could make a difference.
actions and changes which flow on from here.
If it is
Mr Paula Bloomfield (Tonga) spoke about bringing down the walls that divide us.
possible to bring down the Berlin wall, brick by brick, then surely it is possible for us to pull
that separate us. Although part of the wall remains,
down the walls
visible and invisible
many bricks were removed during the conference.
One of the ways we found to communicate, despite the differences that separate us, was to
For example, the Yolngu (Aboriginal) educators
use appropriate metaphors and images.
from Yirrkala used the term garma to convey the idea of Western knowledge flowing in
from the sea with the incoming tide, and Yolngu knowledge bubbling up from deep springs
in the land. Where and when the salt water and fresh water mingle, they produce foam and
brackish water. This metaphor integrates old and new, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, fresh
and salty, sea and land, past and future, changing and being changed.
1
f:
Education For All
that were put forward at the
While this report c4nnot hope to capture all the ideas and images
discussions and
conference, its writers have aimed to include: summaries of presentations,
and sub-regional action plans and conference tesolutions.
case study visits, the Australian
which its words are
The true test of the value of this report, however, will be the extent to
effectively put into actions.
B C Devlin
Conference Rapporteur
2
Darwin 1990
Background
The Asia-Pacific Programme of Education For All (APPEAL) was launched on 4 November
1986 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of UNESCO.
APPEAL's basic objectives are to eliminate illiteracy, to attain universal primary education
In an effort to achieve these objectives, APPEAL
and to promote continuing education.
endeavours to strengthen the capability of each nation in the Asia-Pacific region and to foster
regional cooperation.
Prior to the World Conference held in Jomtien, Thailand, in March 1990, *he Australian
National Commission for UNESCO considered the desirability of holding a follow-up
conference in Australia to develop a National Education For All Action Plan and so a
proposal was developed.
When the scope of the proposal became clear, it was apparent that many of the possible
themes and priorities were not confmed to Australia. The Commission asked that the plan
also take into account the possibility of joining with the South East Asia and Pacific
Sub-Region to consider possible areas of mutual interest.
This was
A draft proposal was developed and circulated during the Jomtien conference.
considered at a meeting of members from Sub-Regional National Commissions immediately
after the conference.
Following a positive response from the sub-regional members represented at Jomtien and
confirmation of Australia's willingness to act as host, a sub-regional planning group
comprising nominees from UNESCO's Principal Regional Office in Bangkok and the office
South East Asia and
for the Pacific states in Apia, as well as individuals from the Pacific,
confetence in accordance with the
was established to plan and implement the
Australia
3
Education For All
World Declaration on Education For All and the Framework for Action to Meet Basic
Learning Needs as agreed at Jomtien.
Sub-Regional Reference Committee meetings were held on 15 and 18 June 1990 in
conjunction with UNESCO's Fifth High Level Consultation of Pacific States Educators.
Mr Geoff Spring
Sub-Regional Committee members present
(Chair),
included:
Dr Leonardo de la Cruz
Mr Paula Bloomfield
Bangkok),
(Tonga), (UNESCO
Dr Greg Hancock
Mr Peter Higginson
Apia)
(AIDAB), (UNESCO
and
Professor Dr Moegiadi (Indonesia). During three and a half hours of meetings the members
planned many aspects of the Education For All Conference including clarification of the
boundaries of the South East Asia and South Pacific Sub-Region and topics which might be
emphasised during the conference.
4
Darwin 1990
Opening Ceremony
by members of the
Delegates to the conference were given a traditional Aboriginal welcome
and didgeridoos.
Yothu Yindi band who sang and danced to the accompaniment of clapsticks
who travelled
This welcoming ceremony included a song celebrating the Djan'kawu sisters
distributing knowledge and culture to the people,
across North-East Arnhem Land long ago,
and assigning them to their clan groups.
Mandawuy Yunupingu in his
The theme of traditional knowledge was then developed by Mr
welcoming address to the conference participants. What Aboriginal people were searching
for now, he said, was an authentic pedagogy which respected Aboriginal culture, processes
and content.
Ms Julie McLeod, from Casuarina Secondary College, continued the welcome to visitors
with a recital of Oodgerie Nunuccal's poetry.
Mr Tom Harris, Minister for Education in the Northern Territory, then officially welcomed
It was important, he said, to work through
all delegates to Darwin and to the conference.
forums such as this to fmd common ground since there were many issues to be confronted.
Mr Harris pointed out that he had recently concluded an extensive process of consultation
with Aboriginal people, which had involved more than 36 000 kilometres of travel. His aim
had been to identify Aboriginal perceptions of what the problems were without recourse to
His
behalf.
experts and other well-meaning individuals who purported to speak on their
findings were set out in a report entitled Talking is not Enough which had just been released
for public discussion and comment. (For the text of the Minister's speech please refer to
Appendix 1.)
Dr Namtip Aksomkool welcomed all delegates on behalf of UNESCO's Principal Regional
Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific. She urged participants to 'make it work this
5
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