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Role of Universities in EFA : Asia and the Pacific Region

MOLLY N.N. LEE, UNESCO BANGKOK, email: m.lee@unescobkk.org

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Universities’ Contribution in 4 Main Areas

I. Education and TrainingII. Research and DevelopmentIII.UNITWIN/UNESCO ChairsIV. University student body

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I. Teacher Education: Early Childhood Education

•Training of kindergarten teachers

•Examples: University of Science Malaysia and Australian universities

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I. Teacher Education: Primary Schools

•Bachelor of Education Programmes: Pre-service, in-service, on-campus and distance learning

•Examples: All the public universities in Malaysia, and Open University Malaysia

•Short-term in-service programmes

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I. Professional Training of Educational Personnel

•For school heads •For teacher educators,

curriculum developers, school counselors, and education administrators through post-graduate programmes by Faculty of Education in most universities.

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II. Research on EFA

• Policy and Planning• Teaching and Learning• Curriculum Development• Teacher Education• Educational Administration and

Management• Assessment and Evaluation

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II. Policy and Planning: Examples

• Educational Planning: demand and supply of teachers, school mapping, staffing ratio

• Educational Expenditure: unit cost at various educational level, public subsidies, cost of different types of schools, private provision

• Decentralization strategies• Language policies

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II. Teaching and Learning: Examples

• Class sizes and Classroom processes• Monitoring student learning• Pedagogical studies: How to teach a particular

subject better?• The use of educational technology in teaching-

learning• Process of learning• Cognitive development• Motivation and school learning

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II. Curriculum Development: Examples• Civics and Citizenship Education• Values Education• Education for Sustainable Development• Life skills• Literacy and reading• Mathematics curricula• Science curricula• Language teaching

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II. Teacher Education: Examples

• Desired characteristics of a good teacher• Teacher competencies, values and beliefs• Teacher as reflective practitioner• Teacher as action researcher• Assessment of teaching• When and where in pre-service teacher

education

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II. Education Administration and Management: Examples

•Decentralization•Effective schools •School-based management•School supervision and

monitoring•School leadership and

management•Family and community

participation in schools

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II. Assessment and Evaluation: Examples

• Review of system of examination and assessment

• Learning achievement studies• Measurement of educational

performances• Evaluation of educational programmes

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II. Development of Materials in support for EFA

• Teaching materials for primary school teachers

• Curriculum materials for rural schools and multigrade classrooms

• Teaching modules for children with special needs

• Educational softwares and coursewares for teaching

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III. UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs

• China: UNESCO Chair on Literacy and Adult Education for Training of Personnel in Rural Areas (The Agriculture University of Hebei)

• India: UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education Through Distance Mode (Indira Gandhi National Open University)

• Kazakhstan: UNESCO Chair on Science Education and Teacher Training (Almaty Abai State University)

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IV. University Students

• Community development• Extra tuition• School co-curricular activities