Commonwealth educators look towards Malaysia conference

Government officials, experts and civil society organisations are finalising plans for the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, which runs from 15-18 June 2009, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This high-level meeting, which takes place every three years, will bring together education experts from the Commonwealth around the theme: Towards and Beyond Global Goals and Targets.

Delegates from a range of specialities and backgrounds will discuss achievements with regard to the internationally-agreed Millennium Development Goals in Education and the Education For All initiative, which aims to meet the learning needs of adults and children by 2015.

With just five years to go, the focus is on how to accelerate progress towards reaching these goals, particularly for the most vulnerable countries at risk of not attaining them.

The impact of the global financial crisis is a critical factor and educationalists are looking at how this can be mitigated so that successes secured so far are not eroded and education remains a priority, at national and international level.

Shaping global education needs beyond 2015 forms a significant part of the ministerial agenda with key discussions on the challenges of post-primary education, including the implications for financing and technical and vocational education training and skills.

The ministerial meeting will run alongside four other forums: Stakeholders (for civil society, non-governmental organisations and the corporate sector), Teachers, University Vice-Chancellors and Youth. Commonwealth Vice-Chancellors are meeting for the first time in the wings of a ministerial meeting.

Youth Delegates will also be drawn from around the Commonwealth to discuss issues of direct concern to them, such as how education is preparing young people for productive citizenship and access to the job market. Prior to the main conference, they will spend five days in the historic Malacca region of Malaysia, living with local families. They will have an important opportunity to talk to ministers when they return to Kuala Lumpur for their forum.

During the conference, civil society, non-government agencies and business representatives will meet under the Stakeholder banner to discuss amongst other things, partnerships, education for the world’s most marginalised communities and public-private financing models.

The Teachers Forum takes place for the second time since Commonwealth Education Ministers met in Cape Town in 2006. On the agenda are issues of quality in teaching and the importance of governments retaining their commitment to education in the face of the global recession.

On Tuesday, 16 June, the winners of the Commonwealth Good Practice Awards will be announced at a dinner hosted by the Government of Malaysia. These awards recognise outstanding educational work that has made a positive difference to primary school children, their teachers or the education system of a country.

The values of respect and understanding in education will be considered at a joint forum during the morning of the final day of the conference. These values take forward recommendations made by the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding, which promotes the importance of education as ‘central’ to addressing issues of violence and conflict.

The Commission was established by the Secretary-General at the request of member governments to look into the root causes of terrorism and violence.

In their resulting publication ‘Civil Paths to Peace’, presented to Heads of Government in November 2007, it states: ‘In the longer run, the biggest gains in shaping shared narrative across potential divides will most likely come from investment in, and rethinking of, education.’

Secretariat Links:

• Education
• Country Profile: Malaysia