News

On 30 September 2022, APCEIU and UNESCO co-organized the First Meeting of UNESCO Chairs Relating to Global Citizenship Education. The meeting has gathered 30 participants from 19 countries, including UNESCO Chairs from areas relating to global citizenship and representatives from UNESCO and APCEIU. The meeting was held with the main objective of gathering UNESCO Chairs from GCED-related fields to discuss the need for a platform for information sharing and knowledge exchanges. In addition, ideas of how UNESCO Chairs could collaborate with each other through joint projects were also explored. 

The meeting began with the opening remarks of Mr Hyun Mook Lim, Director of APCEIU. In his remarks, Mr Lim highlighted the urgency of transforming education to tackle various challenges that we are currently facing. Therefore, collaboration and cooperation among all stakeholders, including the UNESCO Chairs, are critical to ensure synergy in ensuring meaningful impacts. 

Furthermore, Ms Cecilia Barbieri, Chief of Section of Global Citizenship and Peace Education at UNESCO, extended her appreciation to all UNESCO Chairs on their collective efforts on transforming education and encouraged their ongoing support to ensure the flame to transform education keeps burning as envisioned by the United Nations Secretary General, Mr António Guterres, during his concluding vision statement of the UN Transformative Education Summit held in mid-September 2022. 

Following the remarks, Ms Maggie Yang from APCEIU shared several joint collaborations between the UNESCO Category II Centre in Education with UNESCO Chairs, including UNESCO Chairs’ participation as resource persons in APCEIU’s programmes and activities and contributors in numerous APCEIU publications. Future programmes to which UNESCO Chairs could contribute were also shared. 

Mr Hyun Mook Lim then led the discussion session to gather the participants’ opinions on three issues, including 1) the necessity for regular meetings of UNESCO Chairs relating to GCED, 2) types of joint collaborations expected by them, and 3) what kind of contribution that UNESCO and APCEIU can provide. 

The participating UNESCO Chairs collectively agreed on the need for regular meetings to update each other on the latest research activities and programmes they conduct. The participants also shared various initial ideas for joint collaboration, including the necessity for the availability of non-English materials to support the education process, inclusive of GCED. Some other concerns shared over the meeting were the representation of UNESCO Chairs on the global level as currently there is no UNESCO Chair relating to GCED in every UNESCO Member State. Initial ideas on how to ensure updated information sharing among UNESCO Chairs, including through UNESCO and APCEIU’s platforms, were also shared. 

In the second session, the participants listened to Ms Lydia Ruprecht of UNESCO regarding the latest development of the revision of the 1974 UNESCO Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which is an instrumental document related to the global efforts on GCED. UNESCO is currently under the last phase of the revision process where they are awaiting the Member States’ feedback on the revised draft prepared by the International Expert Group. During the meeting, methods on how the UNESCO Chairs could contribute to the revision process were discussed. 

Through the implementation of the First Meeting of UNESCO Chairs Relating to GCED, the invited UNESCO Chairs had agreed on the importance of sustainable communication channels among the Chairs to ensure ongoing sharing of information that may influence meaningful cooperation that can contribute to the implementation of education goals within Sustainable Development Goals. 

URL:
http://www.unescoapceiu.org/post/4591