Singapore - The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) will assist the United Nations in its initiative to provide education for all by 2015.
SEAMEO president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the organisation would use its regional language centre in Singapore to help the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) which was embarking on the initiative.
Hishammuddin, who is also Malaysian Education Minister, said he was inspired by Unesco`s "Education for All" or EFA initiative when he attended its 179th session Executive Council Board meeting in Paris last week.
The minister, who is the newly-elected one-year term SEAMEO president, said this when opening the 43rd SEAMEO Regional Language Centre (RELC) International Seminar here.
About 500 people from the teaching fraternity in Southeast Asia and international speakers are taking part in the three-day seminar themed "Language Teaching in a Multilingual World: Challenges and Opportunities".
Hishamuddin said the Unesco`s initiative which was similar to the "Dakar Goals", hoped to achieve a comprehensive and inclusive system of quality education for all global citizens in the next seven years.
He said two of EFA`s goals were closely related to RELC`s aspirations as a language centre, which were to achieve an improvement level of up to 50 per cent in adult literacy by 2015 and to focus on improving all aspects of quality education such as literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
The minister said RELC carried not only a very important function in creating a comfortable bridge between many races and cultures for Southeast Asia, but also a platform for SEAMEO to engage Unesco at a global level, particularly in achieving education for all and fostering cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.
He told a media conference later that he would visit all the SEAMEO member countries to seek their cooperation and to draw an action-oriented agenda before presenting it to Unesco at its next meeting in October for consideration.
Hishammuddin also told the participants the importance of the English language which was increasingly becoming the lingua franca of the world they work and live in today.
He said the issue of English language "is an issue beyond the politics of language, linguistic nationalism and race".
The minister said if their children did not acquire a basic command of English they would be blocked out of mainstream of wealth creation in their countries and around the world "as surely as we raised a physical wall between them and the highest paying jobs of the future".
He said in Malaysia, the knowledge divide between rural and urban, rich and poor was not just a technical issue but also about language.
"However, the challenge for us is to be able to allow the people of Southeast Asia to enjoy the benefits of a globalisation process dominated by the English language without losing sight or possession of our indigenous cultures and languages.
"We must not forget the unique tapestry of national and ethnic languages that also exist within the region," he added.
Source: www.bernama.com.my (22 April 2008)
