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Lucia A Keegan  01/23/2007 08:43:40 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

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UNCLAS        PARIS 00254

SIPDIS
cxparis:
    ACTION: UNESCO
    INFO:   ECON AMBU AMB AMBO DCM SCI POL

DISSEMINATION: UNESCOX
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: AMB: LVOLIVER
DRAFTED: EDU: SLOVEJOY
CLEARED: DCM: AKOSS

VZCZCFRI635
RR RUEHC RUCNSCO
DE RUEHFR #0254/01 0221630
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221630Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4365
INFO RUCNSCO/UNESCO COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000254 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS 
FOR USAID - JOE CARNEY AND ROBIN BRINKLEY 
For ECA - TOM FARRELL AND MARIANNE CRAVEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: UNESCO SCUL KPAO
SUBJECT: UNESCO - FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH'S UNESCO ROUNDTABLE ON 
TEACHER TRAINING AND LITERACY 
 
 
¶1. Summary.  On January 15, 2007, Ambassador Oliver moderated a 
Roundtable at UNESCO hosted by First Lady Laura Bush and Director 
General Matsuura on the topic, "Teacher Training and Literacy".  The 
purpose of this roundtable was to highlight the First Lady's role as 
Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade for which UNESCO is 
the lead agency, by emphasizing her concern for literacy and the 
related need for an adequate number of qualified teachers in 
developing countries.  UNESCO Ambassadors from Afghanistan, Egypt, 
and Madagascar, as well as ADG Peter Smith and two practitioners, 
Mrs. Marie Cecile Traore, Director of Basic Education in Burkina 
Faso and Dr. Edward Kame'enui, Director of Special Education 
Research at the U.S. Department of Education participated in this 
roundtable.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. The roundtable focused on training of teachers who teach literacy 
outside the formal school setting.  This roundtable builds on the 
momentum of the first ever White House Conference on Global Literacy 
hosted by Mrs. Bush in New York in September 2006. That conference 
included presenters from nine countries representing all regions of 
the world and highlighted successful literacy programs in the areas 
of intergenerational literacy, health literacy and literacy for 
economic self-sufficiency. 
 
¶3. As a follow-up to the First Lady's initiative, UNESCO will hold 
five regional conferences on literacy.  The first of these will be 
held in Qatar in March.  That meeting will be followed by the Africa 
regional conference in Mali in September. Three other conferences 
are planned for Latin America (Costa Rica), Europe and Central Asia 
(Azerbaijan) and Asia (location to be determined). 
 
¶4. The UNESCO roundtable focused on the need for a greater supply of 
trained teachers where an acute shortage is affecting efforts to 
promote literacy and meet the goals of Education for All.  The event 
also served as a bridge between the September White House Conference 
on Global Literacy and the follow-up UNESCO literacy conference in 
Qatar in March. 
 
¶5. The three Ambassadors spoke about the challenges each of their 
countries face in the area of illiteracy and the need for qualified 
teachers.  Ambassador Aziz of Afghanistan spoke about how, until 
2001, the Afghan educational system was in ruins because the Taliban 
denied educational services, particularly to girls.  He said there 
are a huge number of children and adults that need to be educated 
and 6 million Afghan children are now attending school.  However, 
there is a 60% illiteracy rate and 80% of them are women and girls. 
 
¶6. Ambassador Oliver asked Ambassador Aziz how his country was 
meeting the challenge of reaching people in rural areas of 
Afghanistan.  Ambassador Aziz said the best way to reach rural areas 
is through radio.  Director General Matsuura interjected that UNESCO 
has developed more than 20 community media centers in rural areas 
all over the world, but particularly in developing countries in Asia 
and Africa, which have been successful in reaching people in remote 
areas and informing them of programs available to them. 
 
¶7. Ambassador Kenawy of Egypt talked about what Egypt is doing 
through the Caritas program to provide families of young children 
basic literacy skills.  The Caritas program was one of the 
presenters at the White Conference on Global Literacy.  Ambassador 
Kenawy spoke about how once family members, particularly mothers, 
are literate, they can teach their children.  Statistics in Egypt 
have shown that children of literate mothers showed progress in 
reading and math. 
 
¶8. Ambassador Ranjeva of Madagascar emphasized how important 
language skills are for people to be literate.  In Madagascar, the 
official language is French, however, most people in Madagascar 
speak their mother tongue, Malagasy, and even then they are not 
literate in that language.  This becomes a big challenge to achieve 
literacy.  Currently there is a 48% literacy rate in Madagascar. 
Madagascar is one of seventeen targeted countries for UNESCO's 
Teacher Training Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa.  Ambassador 
Ranjeva also noted that Madagascar has made tremendous progress in 
basic education and now the government is turning its attention and 
resources on the literacy needs in the country. 
 
¶9. The two practitioners, Ms. Traore and Dr. Kame'enui brought a 
real-life perspective to the roundtable.  Dr. Kame'enui spoke about 
the importance of speech and the alphabetical writing systems in 
every country. He emphasized that reading does not come naturally 
and that teachers have to teach the alphabetical written language in 
the country in order for children and adults to be able to read. Dr. 
Traore spoke about the need for Burkina Faso to find qualified 
teachers and the need for ongoing teacher training.  She said 
Burkina Faso is training groups of teachers at the local level based 
on what teachers' needs are.  This allows more experienced teachers 
to "mentor" new teachers and puts teachers at the heart of the 
training system in Burkina Faso. 
 
¶10.  Finally, Mrs. Bush spoke about how challenging it is for every 
country to end illiteracy.  She emphasized the need for governments 
to invest in education that will improve opportunities for children 
and families, strengthen economies, and keep citizens in good 
health.  She mentioned two programs that the Administration is 
funding.  First, the African Education Initiative which, among other 
things, has committed to providing $600 million to help train more 
than 900,000 teachers in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010.  She also spoke 
about the Teacher Training Institute in Afghanistan that she visited 
where women from the Afghan provinces can come and be trained as 
teachers.  This is a partnership between the Afghan government and 
USAID.  She ended her remarks by discussing the White House 
Conference on Global Literacy and the UNESCO regional literacy 
conferences and how important these initiatives will be to help 
countries find out about quality literacy programs. 
 
¶11. Comment.  Reaction from the UNESCO secretariat and other 
delegations has been overwhelmingly positive.  Having the First Lady 
as a guest at a UNESCO event like this shows the U.S.' seriousness 
of intent in tackling global challenges such as literacy.  The 
excellent press coverage of the event will also go a long way toward 
countering negative images of the United States so prevalent in 
foreign media. 
Oliver