PALESTINE won full membership of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris, a day
before the start of the 2011 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in
Doha, Qatar. With the necessary two-thirds vote cast by the 193 UNESCO
members needed for membership, Palestine garnered a majority of 107, 14
against, and 52 abstentions.
The decision seemed appropriate given that the
Palestinians have been deprived of educational, scientific and cultural rights
and opportunities to advance themselves.Those whose land was once occupied and
colonised would understand the importance of education because the lack of it
would cast a lasting impact long after the colonisers have left.
In that regard, it is difficult to comprehend why
there should be any objection at all, on anyone’s part, to the Palestinian
desire to be a full UNESCO member.More so an objection led by the United
States, a country that has benefited so much from education, scientifically and
culturally, and which is very much aware of its importance.
In fact, the US is concerned about losing out
following the decline of its educational achievements internationally.It is
therefore baffling to learn how the successful Palestinian bid could prove
costly to UNESCO because the US has a law that prohibits Washington from
funding any UN-affiliated body that accepts Palestinian membership.
The US is likely to withdraw its financial
contribution of about 22 per cent of the agenc y’s budget, even though this
will damage “core US interests” in a number of key countries, including
Afghanistan and Iraq undertaken by UNESCO, as warned by its director-general
Irina Bokova in the Financial Times.It is indeed ironic that the US can spare
billions of dollars to facilitate the blossoming of the Arab Spring to usher in
the future. And trillions were squandered to pursue regime change
militarily.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University in
the US, who spoke at the summit, cited that the country spent 30 times more
militarily than for social development.This has resulted in the widening
inequalities in education among the US minorities, namely the Hispanics and
African-American population. He described this as a failure on the part of the
US. Palestinians need more opportunities to educate themselves and
preserve their cultural heritage which goes back thousands of years to the days
of antiquities.With the full UNESCO membership, they are better able to seek
UNESCO’s assistance in recognising several monuments in the occupied
Palestinian territories as world heritage sites that cut across
religio-cultural lines.The need for this was highlighted at the summit in the
Culture and Learning session, whereby the importance of transmitting traditions
from generations to generations is regarded as a crucial part of lear ning.
This is well illustrated by Chief Almir Narayamoga
Surui, leader of the Paiter Surui, an indigenous Amazonian tribe in Brazil,
whose population, language and way of life are being threatened with
extinction. Culture, after all, shapes approaches to education and
learning, and provides the basis for identity and diversity.The summit is
reminded yet again of the tens of millions of children who are not in school
and their dark world without the benefits of education when we fail to provide
for them despite the stated target of Millennium Development Goals on access to
basic education universally.
Instead, UNESCO director Professor Georges Haddad
said that education today is being turned into a “market” that puts “humanity
in danger”.In this respect the summit sent a powerful global message when it
celebrated a Laureate in Education for the first time. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed,
founder and chair of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, was honoured with
the Inaugural 2011 WISE Prize for Education in recognition of his work that
spans four decades to empower millions of poor children worldwide through
education by pioneering a system outside the prevailing one.
The US$500,000 (RM1.5 million) prize and a gold
medal aim to put education on the same pedestal as the various prestigious
international awards in other disciplines so as to raise public awareness of
the importance of Changing Societies, Changing Education, the theme of the
summit. WISE 2011 was attended by 1,200 participants from 120 nations. It
has indeed created another milestone in transforming education globally.
The writer is vice chancellor of Albukhary
International University
