LearningThe Treasure within教育财富蕴藏其中

Members of the Commission Jacques Delors, Chairman In’am Al Mufti Isao Amagi Roberto Carneiro Fay Chung Bronislaw Geremek William Gorham Aleksandra Kornhauser Michael Manley Marisela Padr6n Quero Marie-AngPlique Savane Karan Singh Rodolfo Stavenhagen Myong Won Suhr Zhou Nanzhao . 1 - . - R e p o rt to U N E S C O o f th e In te rn a ti o n a l C o m m i s s i o n o n E d u c a ti o n fo r th e T w e n ty -fi rs t C e n tu ry U N E S C O P U B L IS H IN G Education: the necessary Utopia Jacques Delors Looking ahead . Tensions to be overcome Designing and building our common future Learning throughout life: the heartbeat of society The stages and bridges of learning: a fresh approach Getting the reform strategies right Broadening international co-operation in the global village ,,PART ONE: OUTLOOKS :,r ‘“‘“‘ ,.$&S,, $9 _: ” ::: : ‘:,; I. From the local community ‘3.C to a world society An increasingly crowded planet Towards the globalization of human activity Universal communication The many faces of global interdependence An uncertain world i The local and the global Understanding the world and understanding others Pointers and recommendations ‘2. From social cohesion to democratic participation Education and the crisis of social cohesion Education versus exclusion Education and the forces at work in society: some principles for action Democratic participation Civic education and the practice of citizenship Information societies and learning societies Pointers and recommendations 3. From economic arowth to human development 4 Highly inequitable-economic growth The demand for education for economic purposes The uneven distribution of knowledge Education for women, an essential means of promoting development Counting the cost of progress Economic growth and human development Education for human development Pointers and recommendations PART TWO: PRINCIPLES 4. The four pillars of education Learning to know Learning to do From skill to competence . The ‘dematerialization’of work and the rise of the service sector Work in the informal economy Learning to live together, learning to live with others Discovering others Working towards common objectives Learning to be Pointers and recommendations 5. Learning throughout life An imperative for democracy A multidimensional education New times, fresh fields Education at the heart of society Seeking out educational synergies Pointers and recommendations PART THREE: DIRECTIONS 6. From basic education to university A passport to life: basic education Early childhood education Children with special needs Adult basic education and literacy Community participation and responsibility Secondary education: the crossroads of life Diversity in secondary education Vocationalguidance Higher education and education throughout life The functions of higher education A p/ace for learning and a source of knowledge Higher education and the changing labour market The university as a place of culture and learning open to all Higher education and international co-operation The vital need to combat under-achievement Recognizing subsequently acquired skills by means of new methods of certification Pointers and recommendations 7. Teachers in search of new perspectives The world comes into the classroom Expectations and responsibilities Teaching: an art and a science The quality of teachers Learning what and how to teach Working teachers The school and the community The administration of the school Drawing teachers into decision-making on educational matters Favourable conditions for effective teaching Pointers and recommendations 8. Choices for education: the political factor Choice of education means choice of society The demand for education Evaluation and public debate Opportunities offered by innovation and decentralization Involving the stakeholders in the educational undertaking Encouraging genuine autonomy The need for overall regulation of the system Economic and financial choices The force of financial constraints Pointers for the future Using the resources of the information society The impact of the new technologies on sociep:pn(.on education A wide-ranging debate : >,‘,, ,< \ . . i Pointers and recommendations ,_ .,,,,, 9. International co-operation: educating the global’village Women and girls: education for equality Education and social development Making debt-swaps work for education A UNESCO observatory for the new information technologies From aid to partnership Scientists, research and international exchanges New tasks for UNESCO Pointers and recommendations EPILOGUE Excellence in education: investing in human talent ln’am AI Mufti Upgrading the quality of school education lsao Amagi Revitalizing the community spirit: a glimpse of the socializing role of the school in the next century RobertoCarneiro Education in Africa today Fay Chung Cohesion, solidarity and exclusion Bran&law Geremek ;: Creating opportunities Aleksandra Kornhauser & ^.r i.:Education, empowerment and social ,i :,&lea I ing Michael Manley Education for the global society KaranSingh Education for a multicultural world Rodolfo Stavenhagen Opening our minds for a better life for ali Myong Won Suhr Interactions of education and culture for economic and human development: an Asian perspective zh0u Nanzhao APPENDICES 1. The work of the Commission 2. Members of the Commission 3. Mandate of the Commission 4. Distinguished advisers 5. Secretariat 6. Commission meetings 7. Individuals and institutions consulted 8. Follow-up Jacques Delors Education: the necessary Utopia In confronting the many challenges that the future holds in store, humankind sees in education an indispensable asset in its attempt to attain the ideals of peace, freedom and social justice. As it concludes its work, the Commission affirms its belief that education has a fundamental role to play in personal and social development. The Commission does not see education as a miracle cure or a magic formula opening the door to a world in which all ideals will be attained, but as one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious form of human development and thereby to reduce poverty, exclusion, ignorance, oppression and war. At a time when educational policies are being sharply criticized or pushed - for economic and financial reasons - down to the bottom of the agenda, the Commission wishes to share this conviction with the widest possible audience, through its analyses, discussions and recommendations. Does the point need to be emphasized? The Commission was thinking principally about the children and young people who will take over from today’s generation of adults, the latter being all too inclined to concentrate on their own problems. Education is also 12 Education: an expression of affection for children and young people, whom we need to welcome into society, unreservedly offering them the place that is theirs by right therein - a place in the education system, to be sure, but also in the family, the local community and the nation. This elementary duty needs to be constantly brought to mind, so that greater attention is paid to it, even when choosing between political, economic and financial options. In the words of a poet: ‘The Child is father of the Man’. Our century has been as much one of sound and fury as of economic and social progress - progress that in any case has not been equally shared. At the dawn of a new century the prospect of which evokes both anguish and hope, it is essential that all people with a sense of responsibility turn their attention to both the aims and the means of education. It is the view of the Commission that, while education is an ongoing process of improving knowledge and skills, it is also - perhaps primarily - an exceptional means of bringing about personal development and building relationships among individuals, groups and nations. This view was explicitly adopted by the members of the Commission when they accepted their mandate. They wished moreover, by the arguments they adduced, to stress the pivotal role of UNESCO, a role that stems directly from the ideas on which UNESCO was founded, based upon the hope for a world that is a better place to live in, where people will have learned to respect the rights of women and men, to show mutual understanding, and to use advances in knowledge to foster human development rather than to create further distinctions between people. Our Commission had the perhaps impossible task of overcoming the obstacles presented by the extraordinary diversity of situations in the world and trying to arrive at analyses that are universally valid and conclusions acceptable to everyone. Nevertheless, the Commission did its best to project its thinking on to a future dominated by globalization, to choose those questions that everyone is asking and to lay down some the necessary Utopia 13 guidelines that can be applied both within national contexts and on a worldwide scale. 1. According to UNCTAD studies, average income in the least-developed countries (560 million inhabitants) is falling. The estimated figure is $300 a year per inhabitant as against $906 for developing countries and $21,598 for the industrialized countries. Looking ahead Some remarkable scientific discoveries and breakthroughs have been made during the last twenty-five years. Many countries have emerged from underdevelopment, and standards of living have continued to rise, albeit at rates differing considerably from country to country, Despite this, the prevailing mood of disenchantment forms a sharp con- trast with the hopes born in the years just after the Second World War. It may therefore be said that, in economic and social terms, progress has brought with it disillusionment. This is evident in rising unemployment and in the exclusion of growing numbers of people in the rich countries. It is underscored by the continuing inequalities in development throughout the world. i While humankind is increasingly aware of the threats facing its natural environment, the resources needed to put matters right have not yet been allocated, despite a series of international meetings, such as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and despite the serious warnings of natural disasters or major industrial accidents. The truth is that all-out economic growth can no longer be viewed as the ideal way of reconciling material progress with equity, respect for the human condition and respect for the natural assets that we have a duty to hand on in good condition to future generations. We have by no means grasped all the implications of this as regards both the ends and means of sustainable development and new forms of international co-operation. This issue will constitute one of the major intellectual and political challenges of the next century. That should not, however, cause the developing countries to disregard the classic forces driving growth, in particular as regards their need to enter the world of science and technology, with all this implies in terms of cultural adaptation and the modernization of mentalities. Those who believed that the end of the Cold War held out the 14 P Education: prospect of a better and more peaceful world have another reason for disenchantment and disillusionment. It is simply not an adequate consolation or excuse to repeat that history is tragic; that is something everyone knows or should know. Although the death toll in the last world war was 50 million, we must also remember that since 1945 some 20 million people have died in around 150 wars, both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It hardly matters whether these are new risks or old risks. Tensions smoulder and then flare up between nations and ethnic groups, or as a result of a build- up of social and economic injustices. Against a background of growing interdependence among peoples and the globalization of problems, decision-makers have a duty to assess these risks and take action to ward them off. But how can we learn to live together in the ‘global village’ if we cannot manage to live together in the communit ies to which we nat- urally belong - the nation, the region, the city, the village, the neigh- bourhood? Do we want to make a contribution to public life and can we do so? That question is central to democracy, The will to participate, it should be remembered, must come from each person’s sense of responsibility; but whereas democracy has conquered new territory in lands formerly in the grip of totalitarianism and despotic rule, it is showing signs of languishing in countries which have had democratic institutions for many decades, as if there were a constant need for new beginnings and as if everything has to be renewed or reinvented. How could these great challenges not be a cause for concern in educational policy-making. 7 How could the Commission fail to highlight the ways in which educational policies can help to create a better world, by contributing to sustainable human development, mutual understanding among peoples and a renewal of practical democracy? Tensions to be overcome To this end, we have to confront, the better to overcome them, the main tensions that, although they are not new, will be the necessary Utopia 15 central to the problems of the twenty-first century, namely: l The tension between the global and the local: people need gradually to become world citizens without losing their roots and while continuing to play an active part in the life of their nation and their local community. l The tension between the universal and the individual: culture is steadily being globalized, but as yet only partially. We cannot ignore the promises of globalization nor its risks, not the least of which is the risk of forgetting the unique character of individual human beings; it is for them to choose their own future and achieve their full potential within the carefully tended wealth of their traditions and their own cultures which, unless we are careful, can be endangered by contemporary developments. l The tension between tradition and modernity, which is part of the same problem: how is it possible to adapt to change without turning one’s back on the past, how can autonomy be acquired in complementarily with the free development of others and how can scientific progress be assimilated? This is the spirit in which the challenges of the new information technologies must be met. l The tension between long-term and short-term considerations: this has always existed but today it is sustained by the predominance of the ephemeral and the instantaneous, in a world where an over-abundance of transient information and emotions continually keeps the spotlight on immediate problems. Public opinion cries out for quick answers and ready solutions, whereas many problems call for a patient, concerted, negotiated strategy of reform. This is precisely the case where education policies are concerned. l The tension between, on the one hand, the need for competition, and on the other, the concern for equality of opportunity: this is a classic issue, which has been facing both economic and social policy-makers and educational policy-makers since the beginning of the century. Solutions have sometimes been proposed but they have never stood the test of time. Today, the Commission ventures to claim that the pressures of competition have caused many of 16 1, Education: those in positions of authority to lose sight of their mission, which is to give each human being the means to take full advantage of every opportunity. This has led us, within the terms of reference of the report, to rethink and update the concept of lifelong education so as to reconcile three forces: competition, which provides incentives; co-operation, which gives strength; and solidarity, which unites. l The tension between the extraordinary expansion of knowledge and human beings’ capacity to assimilate it: the Commission was unable to resist the temptation to add some new subjects for study, such as self-knowledge, ways to ensure physical and psychological well-being or ways to an improved understanding of the natural environment and to preserving it better. Since there is already increasing pressure on curricula, any clear-sighted reform strategy must involve making choices, providing always that the essential features of a basic education that teaches pupils how to improve their lives through knowledge, through experiment and through the development of their own personal cultures are preserved. l Lastly - another perennial factor - the tension between the spiritual and the material: often without realizing it, the world has a longing, often unexpressed, for an ideal and for values that we shall term ‘moral’. It is thus education’s noble task to encourage each and every one, acting in accordance with their traditions and convictions and paying full respect to pluralism, to lift their minds and spirits to the plane of the universal and, in some measure, to transcend themselves. It is no exaggeration on the Commission’s part to say that the survival of humanity depends thereon. Designing and building our common future People today have a dizzying feeling of being torn between a globalization whose manifestations they can see and sometimes have to endure, and their search for roots, reference points and a sense of belonging. the necessary Utopia 17 Education has to face up to this problem now more than ever as a world society struggles painfully to be born: education is at the heart of both personal and community development; its mission is to enable each of us, without exception, to develop all our talents to the full and to realize our creative potential, including responsibility for our own lives and achievement of our personal aims. This aim transcends all others. Its achievement, though long and difficult, will be an essential contribution to the search for a more just world, a better world to live in. The Commission wishes to stress this point strongly, at a time when some are being assailed by serious doubts as to the opportunities opened up by education. It is true that many other problems have to be solved, and we shall come back to them, but this report has been prepared at a time when, faced with so many misfortunes caused by war, crime and under- development, humankind is apparently hesitating between continuing headlong along the same path and resignation. Let us offer people another way. There is, therefore, every reason to place renewed emphasis on the moral and cultural dimensions of education, enabling each person to grasp the individuality of other people and to understand the world’s erratic progression towards a certain unity; but this process must begin with self-understanding through an inner voyage whose milestones are knowledge, meditation and the practice of self-criticism. This message should guide educational thinking, in conjunction with the establishment. of wider and more far-reaching forms of international co-operation which will be discussed below. Seen in this context, everything falls into place, whether it be the requirements of science and tec