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Science Education and Sustainable Development

by Federico Mayor
***Federico Mayor who is currently serving his second six-year mandate as UNESCO's Director-General is on a three-day visit to Bangladesh, starting today. The Organisation's General Conference first elected him in November 1987, and again in November 1993.
Born in Barcelona. Spain on 27 January 1934, Mr Mayor was educated at the University of Madrid where he obtained a doctorate in pharmacology In 1958. He devoted the first part of his career to teaching and re^ search, with special emphasis on prenatal biochemistry and the detection and treatment of children suffering from congenital defects.
In 1967, Mr Mayor launched the "National Plan for the Prevention of Mental Retardation ", aimed at reducing mental handicaps In Spanish children. A year later, he was named Rector of the University of Grenada.
Mr Mayor's career in politics dates back to 1974 when he was named Undersecretary in Spain's Ministry of Education and Science. With the advent of democracy in Spain, Mr Mayor was later elected to the Spanish Parliament in 1977 and appointed Minister for Education and Science In 1981. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1987.
Strengthening international cooperation has always been one of Mr Mayor's principal objectives. His association with UNESCO dates back to 1975 when he became president of the European Consultative Committee for Higher Education, a UNESCO institution based in Bucharest. From 1978 to 1981, he served as UNESCO's Deputy Director-General.***
11 HE eve of a new millennium is an appropriate moment for UNESCO and other international organisations to reflect on their missions and the challenges that he ahead.
Education for all remains the foundation for the achievement of sustainable human development. Basic education will continue to be an absolute priority, as it forms the essential first step towards further learning and plays a critical role in the shaping of values and the development of other necessary life skills. For this reason we must ensure that we enter the next millennium equipped and determined to -reach the unreached" — the world's 850 million adult illiterates and the over 200 million children still deprived of the right to education.
Education means mastering one's own destiny-, it means personal sovereignty. It is the key to a genuine participatory democracy, which is closely related to development and peace. It is not just about knowledge; it is alsd about learning to do. learning to be and. above all. learning to live together. Education and teachers have an ethical function that must never be forgotten. In this connection. I should like to insist that while a market economy may be acceptable. a market society most certainly is not. What matters is not whether the market is free, but whether people are free.
A Continuing Process
Education can no longer be regarded as a one-chance affair. It must be seen as a continuing process whereby people are ottered learning opportunities at a number of times throughout their lives. This "lifelong and "life-wide” education for all demands the diversification and expansion of structures.
and a better linkage between general and vocational education. It also implies the development of alternative educational opportunities and deliv-S systems, both formal and armal.
The role and functions of higher education systems and institutions need to be re-examined in the light of the profound transformations occurring in society today. Too often, the model of higher education we see in both the developing and Industrialised countries Involves an acceptance of old. inappropriate models that have remained largely Impermeable to economic, cultural and social needs. We need also to reflect on Article 26.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that "higher eauca-
tlon shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit". Yes. merit and merit alone must be the criterion; and once this criterion is satisfied, there should be no limits — of means, age or sex — to access. Higher education must be universally available throughout life to all those who can benefit from it.
Secondary education must be treated as a level in its own right, not simply a means to placing students at the door of the university. Some of the most crucial needs in the educational system-as a whole involve summoning individuals of all ages to such modestly paid but highly important work as primary and secondary school teaching. Secondary education must be recognised as pivotal to any education system.
A New Strategy for Science Education
Science education is a key component of all education systems. The unprecedented growth in scientific knowledge and the dramatically increased complexity of this knowledge, together with an ever-increasing demand for high quality, constitute a challenge for science educators at all levels. How to introduce science and its breathtaking advances into limited curricula frame works, what should be the correct balance between education in the basic sciences and the environment, and the Interconnection of science education with education in technology —- these are just some of the questions for which answers need to be
found. Science education can, of course, only be satisfactory if account is taken of the cultural background and ethical implications of scientific progress.
The universities bear the great intellectual responsibility of identifying new strategies to promote science education and science teacher training, as well as setting and maintaining a’h professional standards in ucation for scientific research. Introducing new information technologies in science education, updating basic and specialised university courses, as well as modernising university laboratories remain a pressing need and a challenge for inter-university co-operation at the national, regional and international levels.
Action needs to be taken to build university science education in the developing and least developed countries. 1 am confident that the world scientific community would gladly commit itself to such action. UNESCO will spare no efforts In developing North-South co-operation via inter-university networks — as in the UNITWIN and UNESCO Chairs programme. I believe that UNESCO and the Third World Academy of Sciences are natural partners In such an endeavour.
Science today is at a turning point. All countries are having to face important decisions in this field. The richer nations are being required to rethink their science and technology priorities in the face of eco-. . oomic constraints and new po-
litical and ethical challenges, whilst developing countries are striving to build up the critical capacity necessary for effective science teaching and research leading to sustainable development.
If science alone is not capable of responding to people's aspirations for a better life, it has shown itself to be one of the major driving forces behind development. And yet this fact and its implications are still underestimated by decisionmakers and politicians seeking short-term success and benefits. Short-termism in policy-making naturally involves dangers for the basic sciences. I believe that a healthy, productive scientific community is dependent upon the pursuit of basic research. We must ensure that the basic sciences are pursued by all nations, and that the common stock of fundamental knowledge is shared by all.
Haves and Have-nots
The developing countries are responsible for a mere 10 per cent of research and development. whilst the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) can claim 85 per cent. Ilie world is still divided between the haves and the have-nots.
Each country's capacity to move towards sustainable human development depends on the existence of a critical mass of skilled human resources in the many scientific, technical .and prolessiooal fields needed fdr addressing complex' ehvf-
ronment, resources and development issues. Training of the right kind and number of scientists, experts, technicians and educational personnel are urgently needed. UNESCO has highlighted a number of key problems within the context of the vicious circle of low human and capital investment/low productive returns in which so many developing countries are locked.
The first of these problems concerns the lack of "critical mass" at national level. Despite considerable efforts, many developing countries do not yet have sufficient trained personnel for sustainable development of their natural resources and suffer from a shortage of training facilities, especially for preparing teams of specialists to conduct studies and research useful for decision-making. The second problem is that, established institutions and programmes may be of limited relevance to local conditions, with the result that many trainees in the developing world receive an education that has little bearing on their countries’ .social and economic needs. A third problem is lack of continuity. Students who return home with skills inappropriate to their countries' needs often end up abandoning their professional fields for other pursuits, such as business or government.
Another challenge for developing and industrialised countries alike is that nature does not SWect the frpnUcrs of scientific disciplines. Interdisci-
plinarity is required to study natural phenomena in all their complexity. And yet most current training programmes are sectoral or disciplinary and do not address the complex interactions between people, resources. environment and development.
All UNESCO’s intergovernmental scientific programmes dealing with freshwater, oceanography, coastal and marine sciences, the earth sciences, and particularly land resources Include a major component on training precisely oriented in this direction. The goal of the recently launched UNESCO-Cousteau ecotechnol-ogy programme is to Identify, promote, and multiply trans-disclpllnary university efforts through financial assistance and networking and through the establishment of UNESCO-Cousteau Ecotechnology Chairs. Here, one of the basic tasks is to ensure that in villages and municipalities there are people with the knowledge and motivation to prescribe and perform all the 'ecojobs" that are vital to the safeguarding of our environment.
Water and Food Security
Clearly, fresh water Is — although renewable — a very limited and vulnerable resource. In my view water is going to be one of the major issues of the twenty-first century. We need to practise greater sharing of knowledge and resources in this field. My dream is to see the channelling of water from places where it is plentiful to others where it is scarce, together with the promotion through education of new attitudes to water, awareness of how precious a shared commodity it is.
The issue of food security will be ever-present in the first decades of the new century. The application of sound scientific knowledge will be an impo. Luk factor in attaining sustainable food production, based on enhanced agricultural productivity, the conservation and management of natural resources, the protection of the environment. and the stabilisation of world population. But once again the solution will be ethical — the greater sharing of knowledge and resources.
We must work together at the international and national levels to achieve a consensus among governments, the scientific community and the public at large on the importance and the role of science for the development of societies and the well-being of humankind. Only in this way can a solid foundation be laid for sustainable and equitable human development.