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EducationThe International Forum “Civil G8-2006”. The Round table discussion on the problems of Education, 9-10th of March. Short reporting.The Round table participants began their work with the formulating the main directions which don’t double the official agenda but at the same time are extremely important for the civil society. They determined two main directions. 1) Civil society and Education: - Civil education - Citizens’ participation in the development of education 2) Education as an instrument of integration: - Education for all - Education if multicultural society - Education as an instrument of migrants’ integration The Moderator Anton Lopukhin stressed that different countries demonstrate different approaches to the problem, so it is important to elaborate the recommendations being interesting for all G8 states. The Head of the Russian Children Fund, the President of the International Association of Children Funds Albert Likhanov said such problems as the respect of children rights and orphanage are among most acute problems for Russia. “We have to solve the problem immediately if we don’t want to witness a catastrophe”, - he said. The GB education expert Nail Davis stressed the importance of the civil society participation in the development of education. He was speaking about the role of the educational process in the integration and socialization of various social groups. He also mentioned the enormous importance of education in the multicultural society as well as its significance for the people with physical diseases. Maria Filatova from “New planetary Television” told about two projects - “The World through the Children’s Eyes” and “The Children’s Town” providing the creation of the Center for planetary Culture. The projects also provide a special multilingual TV channel and a reality show “The Children’s Town”. The main aim of these two projects is teaching the children mutual understanding. Alexander Sungurov from the humanitarian scientific center “Strategy” (St Petersburg) demonstrated the participants a presentation showing the sense of civil education. Particularly, he said that the civil education is aimed at preparing citizens to live in the civil society, nurturing civil qualities, ethic and legal skills, human rights understanding. The target groups of the project are scholars, students, pedagogues, law-enforcement bodies officials. Alexander Sungurov also said the people ready to teach civil education issues often face the lack of the support from the state structures. Nodar Khananashvili of the Union “Civil Society for the Children of Russia” stressed that one of the most problems of education in our country is its reforming. At the Soviet period the education had many good traditions but now the reality has changed, but we still witness now reforms in this sphere. We have to transfer the education from its authoritarian state to the partner project when the pupils and teachers are cooperating through the dialogue. He also stressed the need of new educational standards. The president of Russian education Fund Serguei Komov draw the participants’ attention to the fact that all over the world about 2 million children get no education at all and the creation of the universal system of education is necessary. Alexander Klepikov of the All-Russia Society of Invalids said the society needs the special Convention protecting the invalids rights, especially, children, particularly, their right for education. Diana Rishie from “Inclusion International” (Canada) invited all the participants of the round table to support the program “Education for All” as well as the UNESCO programs dealing with education development. She stressed that one of the priorities within the framework of education development must be the implementation of inclusive forms of education for street children, orphans, invalids and all people who need socialization. “It is very important for the state, law-enforcement officials, education experts and civil society institutions to cooperate in this sphere”, - she added. The professor of the Superior School of Economy Nina Beliaeva said in her intervention that the recommendations formulated by NGOs for G8 leaders must respond to the new challenges, such as terrorism, the increasing migration etc. So, the recommendations must touch upon such issues as the education in the sphere of tolerance, migrants adaptation, professional education etc. Larisa Konovalova of the UNESCO Department of the State University of Management mentioned such UNESCO programs as “Education for All”, “Adult Education”, “Permanent Education” and suggested to consider it as the priorities. That could guarantee the leadership of G8 in these programs implementation. The participants also stressed the importance of such issues as the civil rights of all the educational process participants, international legal protection in education, inclusive education for invalids, stable development and financing initiatives in educational sphere. |
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