The Holistic Nature of Education Developing Holistic Educational Policies

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The Holistic Nature of Education Developing
Holistic Educational Policies

• Dr. Narciso Matos, Executive Director, Foundation
  for Community Development, Mozambique
• Keynote address at the Plenary on Synergies and
  Connections during the Commonwealth Peoples
  Forum, Kampala, Uganda, November 19, 2007

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Outline

• The Millennium Development Goals
• Literacy, Education and MDGs
• Education, Knowledge and the MDGs
• The Role of Higher Education Institutions
• A Comprehensive and Harmonized System of
  Education
• The State as Regulator, Promoter and Funder of
  Education

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Millennium Development GoalsBy 2015

• Goal 1 Eradicate poverty hunger - halve
  proportion of people living on lt 1 a day
• Goal 2 Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3 Promote gender equity eliminate gender
  disparity in ...all levels of education

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Millennium Development GoalsBy 2015

• Goal 4 Reduce child mortality - reduce by 2/3
  under-five mortality rate.
• Goal 5 Improve maternal health - reduce by ¾
  maternal mortality ratio.
• Goal 6 Combat disease halt and begin to
  reverse spread of HIV/AIDS.

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Millennium Development GoalsBy 2015

• Goal 7 Ensure environmental sustainability
  halve proportion of people without access to
  safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
• Goal 8 Develop global partnership . make debt
  sustainable in the long term.
• http//devdata.worldbank.org/atlas-mdg/

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Literacy, Education and MDGs

• 2 of the 8 MDGs deal explicitly with issues of
  education
• Only increased literacy and educational levels
  may lead to achieving the MDGs
• Womens level of education correlate generally
  to
• Improved family income e.g. agriculture
  productivity and food security
• Higher enrolment rates and success of children in
  school
• Reduced child mortality
• Improved maternal health
• Better use of environmental resources

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Education, Knowledge and the MDGs

• Education and knowledge are key to improving
  community life
• An educated community will better define its
  priorities
• Is it expanding access to water?
• Is it the availability of gainful employment?
• Is it building more schools for the children?
• Is it building new health centers?

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Education, Knowledge and the MDGs

• To address e.g. a rural community priorities
  requires people with different sets and levels of
  knowledge and skills
• Nurses and doctors
• School teachers and principals
• Agricultural engineers, vet doctors, extensionist
  experts, truck drivers, bankers, market-people
• Geographers, physical planners, civil engineers,
  masons, painters, etc.

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Education, Knowledge and the MDGs

• Role of science is to research, value and promote
  the use of effective indigenous knowledge,
  beliefs and practices to produce and store food,
  understand and treat disease, etc.
• Role of science is to bridge the divide between
  western-centric knowledge and indigenous-African
  knowledge

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Education, Knowledge and the MDGs

• A different community e.g. a urban community, and
  the nation will require other and more
  comprehensive sets of skills
• To satisfy the demand for skills, all forms,
  levels and types of education are called for to
  play complementary roles

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The Role of Higher Education Institutions

• Universities and other HEIs are best placed to
• Undertake research on societies aspirations and
  propose alternative solutions
• Create space for free and unhindered debate about
  societys issues, problems and solutions
• Train professionals with high civic
  consciousness, engaged and promoters of values
  of equity, tolerance and compassion

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The Role of Higher Education Institutions

• Universities and other HEIs are best placed to
  work with other levels and forms of education to
  achieve
• a system of education multi-layered, diversified
  in its goals, of high quality, and responsive to
  societys needs
• Contribute to develop curricula and study
  materials adjusted and responsive to communities
  aspirations and sensitive to the cultural
  paradigm of students and community
• Participate in training of teachers and
  principals, produce and disseminate studies and
  research on educational performance

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Comprehensive and Harmonized System of Education

• A quality higher education responsive to
  societys needs depends on comprehensive and
  harmonized system of education that is
• diversified to offer students the freedom of
  choice and respond to varied society needs
• harmonized to offer students the option to move
  and progress
• regulated to ensure its quality and fitness to
  goals
• state funded to ensure equitable access and
  success of students regardless of gender, origin
  or other characteristics

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The State as Regulator, Promoter and Funder of
Education

• Some of state and government roles towards a
  harmonized system of education
• plan the size and shape and fund the public
  educational system
• create fiscal and other incentives for private
  sponsorship and support to education
• regulate the establishment and functioning of
  public as well as private educational
  institutions

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Closing Thoughts

• The achievement of the MDGs and sustainable
  social and economic development depends on the
  form, content, and quality of education
• Only an educational system harmonized,
  diversified and of quality is able to respond to
  societys needs
• All levels and forms of education are important
  and interdependent
• Both public and private sectors of educations
  have a role to play
• It is the states role and responsibility to
  plan, fund, regulate and create incentives for a
  well-functioning holistic educational system