Events

The event is organized by the UNESCO Regional Bureau of Education in the Arab States, the Regional Center of Quality and Excellence in Education and the Islamic bank for Development in collaboration with UNESCO Headquarters. It will be a major regional platform for education policy dialogue among Ministries of Education and other stakeholders (researchers, practitioners, representatives of intergovernmental organizations and civil society).

In line with the global efforts and to contribute to the achievement of SDG4 and the 2030 agenda, the UNESCO Regional Office in Beirut has organized in 2016 a high level seminar with a group of education experts and member states’ representatives. The consultations of the seminar concluded with a set of recommendations and a proposed road map documented in the “Cairo Declarations for Rethinking Education” which stressed on shifting from “traditional pedagogies” to investing more in “new pedagogies” that are based on developing 21st century skills and competencies and improving the quality of education with focus on: life skills and competencies, renewed role of teacher, ongoing learning assessment, ICT in education, flexible and alternative approaches to curricula, global citizenship education, and long-life learning.

Following up on the Cairo Declarations, UNESCO and partners organize the second consultative seminar on rethinking education to:
- Help sharpen the vision of the future of education in the Arab States
- Create a deeper understanding on key issues and developments addressed in the rethinking education publication.
- Discuss preliminary orientation of regional policy papers on critical thematic issues as addressed in the Cairo Declarations.
- Establish and launching a regional support network and expand professional regional partnerships.

The themes of the regional policy papers will be around new role of teaching and learning for the 21st century skills, curriculum and learning content in a changing world, learning assessment, global citizenship education, privatization in education: trends and consequences in the Arab States.

The seminar will bring together participants from different Arab States: high level representatives of Ministries of Education, representatives of four regional Category II centers in education, representatives of Arab League, ALESCO, and ISESCO, representatives of key research centers, academic institutes in the region, civil society, national and international organizations, education experts and researchers.