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By Keshav R Jha The organisation now has 188 Member States and 76 field offices including Nepal, which was established in February 1998. Nepal joined UNESCO on May 1, 1953 (UNESCO Headquarters is in Paris.) UNESCO has been assigned the positive function of constructing peace in the minds of the people through science, education and culture. In this context, the maintenance of peace is not only the fulfilment of human rights but it is also the prerequisite to all forms of creative work and progress, upon which overall development can be engineered. The culture of peace is vast, dynamic and multidimensional in that it provides basis for human centred development and poverty alleviation. UNESCO’s work in this regard has been exemplary and instructive. As we set foot on the threshold of the next century, old and new problems such as poverty, implementation of human rights and the challenges of modern science and education, as they have an impact on the people’s life, has taken a central stage. The standard setting instruments promoted and adopted by UNESCO and its various sister agencies have significantly contributed to a set of values which respect human dignity, equality and mutual respect as fundamental principles of a new world order. The rapidly changing world presents new challenges to UNESCO, which require more forward-looking and pragmatic responses. The deepening of inequalities between the North and the South, pose a serious threat to UNESCO’s mission to broaden education opportunities and to promote the preservation of cultural heritage. In this respect, UNESCO is at the turning point of its history. The member states must come forward to join this world body to implement the principles of its charter, which ensures opportunities for everyone, regardless of caste, creed and social status, to education, cultural rights and promotion of science for the benefit of humankind. Addressing the closing of the 30th session of the General Conference the supreme ruling body of UNESCO, the newly elected Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, summed up its challenges for the new millennium and insisted on the twin spirit of consolidation and renewal; “Consolidation of accomplishments before considering new dynamics, notably due to the constraints of a tighter budget; renewal of (working) methods of organisation, and of certain watersheds, that clearly need to take budgetary limits into account, but also to bring innovative changes to the organisation. He welcomed the fact that the General Conference re-affirmed UNESCO’s vocation; (to serve as) a forum of intellectual cooperation with an ethical mission, mobilising partnerships, favouring interdisciplinary, anticipating developments and defining priorities”. In the coming years, UNESCO as an organisation will have to brace many old and new challenges that have merged during the post cold war period. As an organisation, it is presently distraught with a serious financial crunch, which stemmed from the lack of support from some of its members. At present, UNESCO’s membership is sharply divided by political divisions. It will soon have to regain the confidence of its members, in order to invite the major donor countries that have left the organisation back to its membership. The means to rebuild the confidence primarily rest on good governance and a sound programme of action that addresses the need of the countries, particularly those in the South. Under the present charter of this world body, it solely depends on the assessment principles that are imposed on its members. It maybe timely to review the present assessment principles in the light of the changing situation. Moreover, UNESCO may also have to look for an alternative strategy for raising funds like its other sister agencies. Conversely, UNESCO will have to remain at the mercy of the present system of assessment funding, which is not only inadequate but highly uncertain. Confusion about coordination There is a number of other UN agencies including Bretton Woods Institution (IBRD, IDA, IFC and IMF) and other Regional Banks such as Asian Development Bank that also invest in areas where UNESCO is mandated to cooperate with developing countries. Seemingly, there is an overlap of interests and priorities, which confuses the host government. Obviously, there is a lack of an effective mechanism in the UN system, which coordinates such efforts although the office of the Resident Coordinator established in each country is supposed to do just that. The country strategy note that is prepared by all UN agencies under the leadership of the UN resident coordinator with the recipient government is supposed to reflect UN’s common position on the country’s changing situation and the strategy to address them. It is a mutually engaging exercise. This efforts has not successfully helped coordination at policy levels, which takes place at the different levels of UN bureaucracy. In this context, at the country level, UNESCO certainly has an edge over other UN agencies as it also operates through a system of national commission and the federation of UNESCO clubs. They consist of highly knowledgeable and experienced citizens, who could provide innate support to the functioning of the organisation. It is, however, incumbent on all UN agencies and the Bretton Woods Institutions and the Regional Banks to coordinate their activities so that the impact of the programme they assist should not turn out to be disparate and thus less effective. The role of the government in coordinating such policy dialogues between the donors cannot be ruled out. As an organisation UNESCO is 54 years old. As an ideal, it is as old as organised society. A vision of peace, justice and freedom is deeply enshrined in its mission statement and the charter. As it now stands on the threshold of the next millennium, we the member states have to see not just how the charter reads, but how well it works particularly in the context of the highly changing world order. The principles of promotion of the fundamental rights and freedom, which all human beings should enjoy, underpin UNESCO’s mission in the profound sense. In this respect, it will be important to see whether the cause of human rights is advancing or receding. Keeping the peace, necessary for the promotion of human rights, particularly in a world divide by conflicts, has never been easy. Mainly, this been due to the new doctrine of security; partly, the forces of nationalism and the sectarian views, far from abating after the cold war, have actually been on the increase. UNESCO will have tread gently as it embarks on its mission to bring peace and security in order to advance the salient principles of human rights in the coming years. It has, despite all the obstacles, been a rallying point to the world public opinion in general and to human rights activities in particularly through its programme of actions in areas of education, science, culture, communication and environment. UNESCO leads the way to the formulation of coordinated world policies on education particularly for the poor, as fulfilment of the promises made at the landmark Jomtien, Conference (World Conference on Education for All), held in Jomtien, Thailand, in March, 1990. Similarly UNESCO’s unwavering call for preservation of cultural heritage lends support to a global understanding of human civilisations which bind us together through ages of history. UNESCO should continue to maintain its social purpose to work for the people, particularly for those who fall outside the mainstream of development. It must be able to handle the world divided by deep political divisions and beliefs by fostering creative dialogue about increasingly common problems in search for solutions. In order to undertake this enormous task, not foreseen 54 years ago, the capacity of the organisation and the support it receives for such mission must be reviewed. Whatever may be the world’s verdict on the effectiveness of this august body it is probably the only mechanism left to us for evolving a common understanding for world peace through education, culture, science, communication and environment. (The author is an ex-ambassador and permanent delegate to UNESCO) Teaching social studies at SLC level By Narayan Uprety Social studies as a subject was introduced in our country for first time at the school level when the curriculum was revised in 1981 for classes 1 to 8. It was treated like a combination of history and geography. In classes 9 and 10, history and geography were taught separately as optional subjects. The revised curriculum of 1993 introduced a drastic change in the social studies syllabus. Subjects like environment, population, economics, history, geography, civics, religions, social and economic life of the people, international understanding, etc have been included in it. At the same time, it is made a compulsory subject at the SLC level, to be taught in class 9 from 1999 and class 10 in 2000 so that the SLC exam to be conducted in early 2001. In addition, a further step has been taken, ie, a new approach to social studies. Away from the traditional approach of giving information and devising exercises based on the same information, the new approach emphasises on the creative works of the students. Giving very little information, exploring students’ potentialities and producing materials by students themselves working on their own, these have been the objectives of this new approach. Thus, all of a sudden, three things were introduced at a time - making social studies as a compulsory subject, incorporating a wide variety of subjects in it, and introducing a completely new approach of teaching and testing. At the fag end of the 20th century, many changes have been taking place in the country. With a change in the system of the government, the life style of the people, their way of thinking and the system of education, etc has also changed drastically. With the advent of modern media including computer network, e-mail, fax and telephone, the old system of the wireless, postal services and telegraph system have been declining day by day. The state controlled system of education no longer exists. Individuals at private levels came up with some excellent programmes to give quality education to the children in order to prepare them for the challenges they are going to face in the fast changing and competitive new millennium. As a result, a lot of private institutions, including schools, colleges and universities have sprung up. A number of technical institutes have also been established which attract students from other countries as well. To be able to cope with the latest advancement in education, our students need a suitable situation, appropriate syllabi of courses to be studied and an environment to explore their potentialities. Keeping such things in mind, courses of study, syllabi, choice of subjects, methods of teaching and testing, etc are to be revised from time to time. Compared to the advanced countries of the West we are rather slow in this respect. Along with the schools and colleges, a number of publishers at private level have come up. Today, we do not have dearth of books, we don’t have to import books from the neighbouring country at least for school level education. There was a time when our students had to study the social studies books containing information about India. The only book on social studies was the government prescribed book in Nepali published by JEMC. I remember the days of hardship how I developed a set of books in English for lower secondary level in the early eighties. In the mean time, I met a publisher who had just started publishing books for school level students. He took a risk of publishing my books. There were a lot of mistakes in the books and we had to face a lot of criticisms. I went on revising them and the publishers printed new editions every year. When the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) revised the curriculum in 2050 B S we revised our books accordingly, to suit the curriculum. This time, we incorporated a new approach to social studies teaching. We included classroom activities, follow-up activities and project works at the end of each reading texts. These activities are meant for inculcating creativeness in the students. At the same time, comprehension questions based on the information given in the texts have been given as usual. Thus, a step-by-step process of adopting the new approach has been followed in our books published by EKTA. From our long experience of studying, teaching and writing, we have realised that changes are to be introduced in small doses one after another over a period of at least a decade. Then only our students will be able to cope with the new things and adjust themselves accordingly. Our country itself is in a continuum from the old and traditional system to a modern one. If so, how can we expect a drastic change all of a sudden in the system of teaching/learning and testing? Looking at the new syllabus social studies for the school level, our course designers and textbook writers seem to be too ambitious. Instead of incorporating a step-by-step change there seems to be a sudden jump from one system to another. A time has come for us to bring a change no doubt, but the change should be brought for a constructive change, it should not be for the sake of change only. The social studies book published at the government level does not contain much information about a particular topic. Certain hints are given in the form of pictures, diagrams, graphs, etc and students are asked to work on their own, exploring their potentialities. Such activities will rouse creative thinking and free interpretation among the students. This approach is appreciated in the modern context of a student-centred education and students will find interests in involving themselves in such activities. However, without giving information if only activities are designed, they would not be able to achieve anything. On the other hand, the CDC Sanothimi published a specification grid and model questions on the subject. Looking at the model questions, the question designers seem to be from another world and do not have any knowledge of the ability of our students. Students are asked to compose a poem, draw a picture, write a dialogue, etc in the examination hall for a 1 mark and 3 marks question. Questions from the books are asked only in the long answer type questions. In the name of ‘practical ability’ a question on map work is given. At the same time, questions are not of the same difficulty level but equal marks are allocated for each of them. If the same system is adopted in the SLC exam, we cannot expect a good performance from our students and the number of failure in the subject will definitely be high. This might instigate the CDC to change the approach drastically or drop down the subject from the ‘compulsory’ category. Before it is too late, we need to re-think it. The new approach needs some more home-work, some sort of training to our teachers and an appropriate environment for our students. Let this approach be part of the project works. Let students prepare such works in and out of the classroom activities and show their works to the subject teachers. Practical works or internal assessment can cover this aspect of students’ work and about 25% of the marks of the final examination can be allotted to such works. Whatever we write in the papers, whatever we say in the conferences, we cannot deny that our teaching system has been and will be ‘exam-oriented’. If our students will not be able to achieve good marks in the exam the subject will fail to gain popularity no matter what creative activities does it rouse in students and what its values are in their practical life. ‘The communicative approach to language teaching’ has been adopted in the western world for the last two decades. This approach has been much talked about in our country, mainly in seminars, conferences and training programmes. We have not been able to apply it completely in teaching a foreign language ‘English’ as yet. We have our own constraints of large classrooms, inadequate teaching materials, non-availability of trained teachers, etc. In analogous to the communicative method, the creative approach to social studies teaching has been adopted. In my experience, what we need is to give priority to teach English in a communicative way. When our students will be familiar with this method, when our teachers will be successful in adopting this approach and when we have sufficient materials to implement this method then we can sublimate it to other subjects including social studies. Then only we can apply the new approach to social studies teaching successfully. In fact, social studies as a subject cannot be limited to a classroom teaching and learning information from books. It is a subject of experiencing oneself in the society. For that, the students need a guidance, an appropriate situation and instructions how to learn from the surroundings. The course books as well as the subject teachers should provide them with such information. The existing system of education is not sufficient to assess students’ works and their abilities. A 3 hour SLC level exam cannot measure their understanding thoroughly. When we adopt the new approach in books and teaching, why can’t we adopt the same in the system of testing? Why not to introduce internal assessment, project works and follow up activities, etc? Mere change in the pattern of questions at SLC levels may not serve the purpose. We need to think more deeply over the practicality and usefulness of any approach before introducing it. At the same time, the role of subject teachers is of vital importance. A thorough training, orientation, interaction, etc from time to time is a must. Teachers’ organisations like PABSON, NPABSAN, HISSAN, NELTA etc have a great role to play to acquaint teachers with the latest development in teaching/ learning methods and approaches. The central committee of PABSON, in particular, has been giving a commendable service in the field of teachers’ training in this regard. At the same time, NELTA also gives orientation programmes to English teachers from time to time and during its annual conference, invites experts from foreign countries to train Nepali teachers of English with the latest development in English language teaching. The examples shown by NELTA, PABSON etc, if followed by others, without any prejudice and selflessness, that would be a great contribution to raise the standard of education in the country. Then only our teachers would be able to cope with any new approaches or methods of teaching learning or testing. Thus, not only social studies but all subjects of study need a change in the approaches and methods of teaching and testing. Students’ education, as a whole, should be aimed for not the harmonious development of our future citizens. After all, they are our future, as such we must put our efforts together to mould them and lead them to the right path. Then only, we can be assured of our bright future. Design management for eco-products By Arun Prakash
Shrestha Ecological activities of Bene Buromobel Gmbh, an Austrian office furniture manufacturer, was observed in ORGATEC ’98 in Cologne/Germany. A particular feature of Bene’s products is found long lasting and its simple design contributes to the preservation of the rain forests by using 77 percent materials of timber. An ecological lacquering system is introduced for the reduction in use of organic solvents. No heavy metal pigments is used in the paint. The lacquering booths have been designed as closed circuits for minimising water loss. Most of the components of the products are disposable and recyclable. The furnace system is filled with smoke cleansing systems and waste heat is used in the lacquering department. In this way Bene’s products are contributing to reduce the environmental load substantially. So a technical eco-efficiency revolution is required for a sustainable design, which ‘involves recognising the sources of environment contamination, advancing improved or alternative technologies and sources of raw materials and inducing industries and people to adopt them either voluntarily or legally.” The entire life cycle of a product has to be critically evaluated before being an environmentally relevant property of goods. Ecological parameters should consider, seven rules as suggested by Germany’s Wuppertal Institute for the Climate, Environment, and Energy. - the assessment of
environmental impacts of goods has to integrate the whole life cycle (from
cradle to grave).} Working together with those responsibilities for the environment should create an integrated control plan that determines: - what kind of product
and services to be offered as consumers’ demand? These are the questions that must be answered to find the best solution in terms of both the ecology and economy. These basic strategic decisions influence the whole productions, distribution and consumption system. Eco-design is not the only ultimate solution of environmental problem. Eco-design is an evolutionary process towards sustainable industrial development where designers, managers, marketers, purchasing agent, sales personnel are involved in designing products in order to reduce the impact on the environment. Besides the aesthetic value of eco-design, a compromise is also necessary between the producers and the consumers as a part of the solution. If producers motivated to produce environmentally conscious goods, they can introduce equivalent or even better products and services with low cost price and/or high profit-margin. Consumers also necessitate to contribute in their pattern of use with a concept that the goods being owned should have long life, should be recyclable, and should be able to be repaired and sold when no longer needed. Nepal is endowed with vast cultural and natural diversities. It was more so in the past than now, it is said. While Nepal braces to welcome third millennium, concerns are being raised about the environmental challenges facing the country. Depletion of forest cover, threats to wildlife and ecology, desertification, population boom, haphazard urbanization; and threat ultimately to humankind, are some of the challenges facing Nepal. But these challenges can be confronted with and can very well be conquered. Provided care, love and support from all quarters in the direction towards environmental improvement and biodiversity conservation in the new millennium. Carefully detailing all the facts, figures and status of Nepal’s biological diversity, IUCN has come up with hopes. The Nepal Country Report on Biological diversity, is a complete book that tells you about Nepal’s biological diversity and environmental concerns, besides providing you with the most up-to-date facts, figures and informations regarding Nepal’s topography, climatic conditions and variations, biogeography, flora and fauna. Some of the important highlights of the report - divided in six chapters - includes, government policies and institutional performance, it’s response towards the Convention on Biological Diversity, status of flora, fauna and protected areas, legal instruments, policy measures, and in situ and ex situ conservation efforts. While the country description (Chapter 2) part encloses, Nepal’s socio-economic considerations, demographic characteristics, biogeography and ecosystems, Chapter 4 specifies the International conservation tools and conventions, to which Nepal is a signatory, among others. Likewise, it encompasses constitutional measures, and such programmes as buffer zone management. The report regards the process of integrating Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) into the national development process as a fairly new one in Nepal, while discussing EIA’s guidelines and objectives. In view of nature, size and criteria of development projects, it is important to broaden the scope of EIA beyond projects and to include programmes and policies which are likely to have a significant adverse impact on biodiversity, the report suggests. Poet laureate Laxmi Prasad Devkota was inspired by a Nepal that is “sundar, shanta and vishal”; The Late King Prithvi Narayan Shah saw Nepal “a common garden where people belonging to four castes and thirty-six sub-castes co-exist”; and Rudyard Kipling’s lines “the dreams of Kew are the facts of Kathmandu”. While Kipling’s lines allude to the extraordinary variety of plants to be found in the Valley, the other remarks point at the beauty and glory of Nepal’s biodiversity. In its Vision for Nepal, the concluding chapter, the report states that biological diversity and the laws of nature governing them do not respect any political boundaries, and adds, the approach of nations towards safeguarding biological resources for the future of humankind must take into account of this truth. Exchange of information, technical and scientific cooperation, and provisions for access to and transfer of technology within the broad framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity are emerging as key issues which must be addressed very soon for the future of the region, it concludes. The report is a must-collect stuff for academicians, policy makers, planners, politicians, environmentalists, conservationists, students and journalists closely following Nepal’s bio-diversity conservation issues. Reviewed by |
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