PRESENTATION OF THE SEMINAR
I.
INTRODUCTION
The Dakar Framework for Action invites the Member States to develop a National Plan
of Action (NPA) on Education for All (EFA) before the end of 2002. Few countries were
able to reach this objective within this deadline, even where a long-term development
plan or programme is already in place, which could have been updated or completed,
in accordance with the Dakar spirit. Many countries are still preparing such a plan in
2003 and should speed up this process in order to respect a reasonable deadline.
In order to support the efforts of these countries, in the framework of the current
budgetary biennium and the main action entitled: "National and regional education
strategies and EFA action plans", the UNESCO Education Sector has planned to organize
seminars to allow exchange of experiences among countries. These seminars will be
jointly facilitated by the representatives of the participating countries and by the
concerned units at UNESCO Headquarters and in Field offices. The objective of this
action is to help countries give a concrete reality to the objectives of EFA, by the
dissemination of good practices regarding reform strategies.
Surveys and regional and international meetings have shown that some countries are
having great difficulties in designing reform and development measures advocated in
the recommendations of the Dakar World Forum. Others are confronted with serious
difficulties in formulating operational strategies. One important part of these difficulties
is directly caused by or the consequence of weak information systems for planning, and
imprecise strategies and programmes of action. The plan should be credible in order to
reassure the financial partners of the good foundation of the national education policy
adopted. But, more important, it should be credible to the countries themselves,
whether or not they need to mobilize external financing. Once these plans are designed
and their financial framework defined, they will not be effectively implemented unless
they include clear indications on the way the reform and development options would
be realized.
II.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
At every stage of preparation and execution of their EFA plan, our Organization should
provide countries with the necessary technical support they request for. In addition to
the ad hoc assistance directly provided to individual countries, UNESCO provides its
support to groups of countries concerned by common problems. The organization of
seminars and thematic workshops on subjects of interest to many of them, is part of this
second modality of support. UNESCO works on the strengthening of national capacity
building by putting at the countries' disposal its own competence, but also by
facilitating exchanges among countries from different regions of the world. The
dissemination of international experience dealing with different educational aspects is
one of the means of transferring technical know-how, regarding the design and
implementation of development plans. Favouring the exchange of experience in
different regions of the world will help the national managers to identify the practical
solutions which best answer the problems regarding the functioning of their
educational systems.
Experience shows that at the time of developing their plan of action, some countries
have difficulties in defining implementation strategies, because of insufficiently studied
options at the time of their adoption, or not clearly defined operational implications.
Studying these planning options further and translating them into a clear-cut action
programme, are often postponed because of lack of time or lack of information or
national skills in the subject.
It is often about the serious questions dealing with objectives or implementation
strategy of the educational development plan. Among the priority questions which
often come up are those of decentralization, financing, and teaching staff policy.
Whether the preparation of plans is previous to Dakar or more recent, to define and
programme actions in these three fields is necessary because the achievement of a
certain number of objectives depends on them Although these questions are considered
as key options allowing the solution of many determining problems in the
((achievement)) of tangible improvements in education, they are often presented as
pious wishes. Most often, they are not dealt with in depth nor accompanied with an
operational programme. This lack of rigour in the development of the plans of action
has subsequent negative consequences in their feasibility.
III.
THEMES AND OBJECTIVES OF SEMINARS
The following are the three transversal themes which have been retained for these
seminars:
a)
b)
c)
The financing and the implementation of education development plans;
Decentralization policies and strategies in education;
Teaching staff policies
The seminars organized on these themes have the following general objectives:


strengthen national capacities in dealing with these important questions which
have not generally been given the required attention by countries at the time of
the preparation of their EFA plan.
understand which, among the different practical measures adopted, meet the
needs of educational systems best;
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

Confront the participating countries' respective experiences in terms of
conception design, strategies, processes and results;
Offer the participating countries a better understanding of the stakes and
strategies adopted by those who have faced the same challenges, and who have
found and applied original solutions to overcome them.
In addition to improving a better knowledge of the topic by the participating countries
in view of completing and reformulating their EFA planning, the different seminars will
make it possible for UNESCO to draw lessons from the different national experiences
studied. At the end of the exercise, each seminar will produce a formal document of
identified good practices. This compilation of international experiences will be available
to other countries likely to be confronted with this type of questions, at any time in the
process of revising or implementing their EFA plan of action.
IV. CHOICE OF PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES
A minimum of ten countries will be invited to participate in each of these seminars.
These countries will be those who wish to improve their own comprehension of the
problems laid down, practical solutions foreseen, and concrete difficulties encountered
at the time of implementation. The countries can come from the same region of the
world or from different continents. Participants to these meetings will essentially be
national officials involved in the design and the operational implementation of the
strategies of EFA plans.
To have a wide enough vision of each of these retained themes, the choice of
participating countries will give a representative sample of the variety of situations in
the world. Two other criteria are applied: willingness and the ability to meaningfully
contribute to the theme concerned. This means that they should express their wish to
participate in the selected topic, on the one hand, and should be capable of sharing their
own national experience with other participants, on the other.
These seminars of exchange of experiences will be organized and facilitated by
specialists at UNESCO Headquarters and in Field offices, as well as by the national
officials of the countries chosen to host them.
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IV.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SEMINARS
The meeting will allow a group of countries to bring to the fore the difficulties
encountered during the reforms, concerning each of the major questions retained, and
to identify the set of suitable means to address them. To achieve these goals, the
seminars will take place in seven main sessions spread over three days and a half.

The first session will be devoted to the introduction of the seminar, the presentation
and the discussion of one theoretical analysis on the general questions, followed by
the approval of the seminar programme and the setting-up of working groups.

The presentation of national reports will take place in the course of four
consecutive plenary sessions. These sessions will include reports and debates on the
strategies developed by the countries to face the challenges before them, and which
have led to the success or failure of the implemented measures. It goes without
saying that the presentations will endeavour to emphasize the strategic dimension
of the reforms, their assumptions, the expectations they create and the means they
mobilize. The participants will underline the weaknesses, the failures, the difficulties
of implementing these reforms, the possible reasons of failure, and the precautions
which could have been taken to avoid them, etc. After each presentation, a first
exchange of questions and comments will take place in plenary.

These meetings will be followed by two or three sessions of group discussions to
allow participants to go deeper into the subject and analyze the relevance and scope
of these reforms, the processes and methods of their formulation and their
implementation, as well as the synthesis of reports and lessons to record.

The last session will be devoted to the summary of reports and debates, as well as
prospective co-operation, notably to identify priorities and modalities of
collaboration between countries, and between the latter and UNESCO, in each of the
fields studied. The recommendations dealing with the main problems encountered
and good practices identified by each one, in each of the debated subjects, will be
drafted.
In order to facilitate the smooth proceeding of debates, the following arrangements will
be considered:
o Moderator-rapporteur: for each session of presentation of national experiences, a
moderator will be elected among the national representatives. He/she will facilitate
the debate and take note of the main questions discussed in view of writing a
synthesized report of the session.
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o Time of speech accorded to each national presentation: The average being three/four
presentations per session, each intervention will be limited to a maximum of 40
minutes to leave enough time for questions and clarifications to follow.
o Group work : the national representatives will work in thematic or linguistic groups
or depending on their respective experiences, to draft the recommendations and/or
conclusions of the seminar.
o Interpretation and working languages: a simultaneous interpretation in English/French
as well as the language of the host country of the seminar will be provided during
the debates. The presentations and the reports have to be drafted in English or
French. For information projected on screen, the use of English or of French is
recommended. The reports will be available to all participants.
o Presentations: in order to make oral reports easier to follow, it is advised to use a
visual support: transparencies, PowerPoint presentations, etc. The conference hall
will normally be equipped with a computer, a video-projector, an overhead
projector, and a blackboard.
o Drafting of recommendations: The debates will ((give rise)) to the drafting of a certain
number of conclusions and recommendations on the best practices concerning the
subject dealt with. This document will be drafted throughout the sessions of
presentations by the working groups and will be discussed and approved during the
last session.
VI.
WORK METHOD AND PRESENTATION OF REPORT
The speakers have to prepare their participation ahead of time and in particular,
provide UNESCO, at least three weeks before the seminar, with the whole text of their
speech, accompanied, if necessary, by annexes useful to facilitate the understanding of
their national experience (sending a copy on diskette is strongly recommended). Their
written reports should consider the following guidelines for form and content:

Length and structure: it is recommended that the report does not exceed 20.000 words
but should not be less than 15.000 without the annexes. Each report will include a
title, the name of the author (or authors), the institution, and a table of contents. All
pages should be numbered.

Format: It is recommended to use the font Times New Roman, size 12 (and size 10 for
footnotes). Tables, diagrams and other figures should be numbered and recorded in
an index.
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
Bibliographic references: the bibliographic references should be in parentheses (Name,
year). The complete bibliographic references should appear at the end of the report,
by alphabetic order of the names of the authors.

Content and main themes: The report should inform on : i) the political, intellectual,
pedagogical background which are behind the current or foreseen reforms; ii) the
relevant information on the objectives and institutions (their statutory mandate and
their achievements) set up in the country to carry out the missions of designing and
implementing these reforms; iii) the nature of human and material resources
mobilized in support of these policies and strategies of development; iv) the
successes and the failures and the reasons behind as well as what are the measures
to take to reinforce some and avoid others?
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