OPEN EYE - February 2001
VC's Column
Going Global with Education for All
Before Christmas I announced that I will leave the Open University this summer to take up a new appointment in Paris as Assistant Director-General (ADG) for Education at UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. The previous UNESCO ADG to come from Britain was Richard Hoggart, who received an honorary doctorate from the OU in 1973. It is an honour to follow in the footsteps of the author of The Uses of Literacy, who made a memorable speech at the opening of the present offices of the OU’s Yorkshire Regional Centre in Leeds in November 1994.
Richard Hoggart wrote entertainingly about his years at UNESCO in a chapter in his autobiography entitled A World Apart: UNESCO 1970-75. He noted that ‘the British lack of much concern, amused dismissal or near contempt for some international organisations have been constant for half a century’. One of his colleagues urged him to accept the UNESCO job by suggesting that he should ‘walk the plank in the service of a valuable idea’.
I am pleased to say that my colleagues have been more encouraging. Since the 1970s Britain has spent ten years outside UNESCO. In the 1980s the UK quit in disgust at the way the organisation was being run, as did the USA. Rejoining UNESCO, which by then had begun a process of reform, was one of the first acts of the present government in 1997. The dozens of messages of good wishes that I have recently received express warm feelings for UNESCO and its mission, although some judge its past performance as disappointing. I am enthusiastic about my new challenge, although I do not underestimate the magnitude of the task ahead. I believe that the contemporary world is propitious in several ways for UNESCO’s activities.
It is now ten years since the end of the Cold War. A new international system is coming into being that allows the community of nations to agree on common agendas in a way we have not seen before. A concrete manifestation is the development targets that have been agreed by the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD. Their core aim is to reduce world poverty by half over the next fifteen years. Achieving Education for All, especially universal primary education, is a central goal. The evidence is now overwhelming that giving all children a primary education is the best investment that a country can make in its economic and social future.
Co-ordinating the drive towards Education for All is at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and is the top priority in my new job. The task is a natural progression from leading the OU although the numbers are daunting. At present 100 million children do not go to school at all and another 150 million leave before they have learned to read, write and use number. Then there are one in four of the world’s adults, some 900 million people, who are illiterate.
Many now believe, however, that a concerted effort by the nations of the world can redress this dismal situation. This is because they see globalisation as a powerful force for international development, as a recent UK government White Paper argues persuasively. As well as bringing the peoples of the world much closer together the forces of globalisation can, given a judicious blend of public policy and private enterprise, make them more prosperous.
Others take a different view. Globalisation is a controversial phenomenon, as last year’s demonstrations at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation revealed. However, UNESCO’s mission positions it well to mediate between these opposing perspectives and promote globalisation with a human face.
A further reason for optimism is the current Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura. He has shown in his first year in office that he is a determined reformer who is making UNESCO focus on its core mission and discharge its mandates in a professional and effective manner. I look forward to working with him.
It has been an immense privilege to lead the Open University for a decade during which it has grown in scale, scope and reputation. In my remaining issues of Open Eye I shall explore how we can carry even further the OU’s mission of being open to ideas, methods, places and people.