Address by the Minister of Education of South Africa Naledi Pandor at the 34th session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) general conference, Paris

Mr President, George N Anastassopoulos
Chairperson, Mr Zhang Xinsheng
Director-General, Mr Koichiro Matsuura
Honourable colleagues and delegates

I would like to begin by congratulating His Excellency Dr Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan, President of the 33rd session of the general conference, for his excellent speech yesterday and congratulations to you, Mr President, on your election as President of the 34th session of the general conference.

Dr Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan reminded us of our obligation to ensure the total emancipation of women. His speech was a welcome reminder. I trust the executive board will act on this reminder rigorously.

Chairperson, as we gather here in Paris, it is fitting that we consider ways of strengthening Unesco's ability to respond effectively to the pressing challenges of education opportunity, scientific exclusion and cultural discrimination.

These are challenges that confront millions of people on the five continents that make up our world.

To those millions, Unesco is a haven of promise and opportunity. The reality of so many millions dependant on our actions and our deliberations should spur us to act with focus and energy to ameliorate the impoverished conditions experienced by children and adults world-wide.

One of the truisms we should draw energy from is the fact that the most marginalised in the world continue to have faith in the United Nations and its key organs.

Girls believe Unesco will facilitate access to and success in education. Marginalised communities believe their indigenous knowledge will enjoy protection under the banner of Unesco, and that the march of science will not mean that they lose their national control of the intellectual property that is an inherent part of their villages, forests and towns.

The aspirations of these citizens of the world should shape our agenda at this and future conferences.

I applaud the work of the executive board and the Secretary General. I admire their commitment to ensuring that Unesco functions maximally. However, I believe we must be concerned, if the primary content of our conference concerns financial and administrative matters, elections and debates on thematic topics.

We must be concerned, if we give scant attention to reviews of our influence in ensuring more children are educated well or more scientists from Africa are trained in Africa and work in Africa. We must be concerned, if more girls and women do not enjoy basic education and that increasing cultural diversity is not a basis for national unity and pride.
Unesco produces excellent global reviews of education. They give us an excellent understanding of the state of education in member states. Yet these reports do not form part of our reflections at conference.

And it appears as if these reports do not serve as a planning tool for the programmes of Unesco. Ministers should probe this. Why do we ignore excellent research that reveals the progress of our systems of education or the lack of progress in countries that lag behind?

The annual reports on 'Education for All' clearly show that several countries in Africa and some in Asia and Latin America need focused and well-planned interventions, if they are to meet some of the Education for All goals.

The reports do not inform us of the actual problems that need attention. We need to analyse in a much more rigorous manner, if we are to identify barriers. Such analyses should be the basis upon which our programmes are planned. Our experts should be located not in Paris, but at the site of the most intractable problems. We should agree, this conference should agree, that the core focus must be the poorest, the most disadvantaged, and the member states in greatest need of support.

The restructuring of Unesco field offices toward problem-solving is urgently necessary. The executive board is correct in promoting decentralisation, but such remodelling must include decentralising senior officials to areas of need.

Furthermore, it is vital that more funding is devoted to programmes and system support rather than to air travel, per diems, and conferences. Let us take conference money and create 60 science bursaries for girls from the south to do postgraduate studies.

All of us know that education is an expensive area of policy action, because of the huge numbers of teachers and support staff involved. Unesco must be better funded to carry out its strategic agenda. Of course, we as member states would assist greatly by paying our contributions timeously and regularly.

Unesco has built an excellent record in its six decades of existence. We need to extend this record by ensuring that all children have quality education, all who need to learn to read and write are able to, that we bridge the digital divide, and that we build bonds of cultural friendship and respect for diversity within and between nations.

Our organisation, the African Union, has encouraged education ministers to begin working in a more focused manner on our educational challenges. In 2006 we agreed to a second decade plan for education in Africa.

Its priority areas are higher education; gender and culture, education management information systems; teacher development, technical and vocational education and training; curriculum and teaching and learning material and quality management.

These priorities should inform the content of Unesco's "priority Africa". As the Conference of Education Ministers of the African Union agreed, we will use our resources and partner support to advance education access and quality.

All our departments will be working on plans in this regard. Perhaps Unesco can play a supportive role in the planning and implementation. The Conference of Education Ministers of Africa has acknowledged that we must assume greater control and reliance on ourselves if we are to succeed.

We firmly believe Unesco can play a vital role in partnership with the African Union and its partner organisations, such as Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). We are convinced that a focused development-oriented Unesco can make a very positive and practical contribution to Africa achieving the Education for All goals for the good of all children in Africa.

Issued by: Department of Education
17 October 2007